I read a cute little comic about leaving your keys in the refrigerator in order to remember that you packed a lunch, and how incredibly bonkers that looks to people who can just… remember things. It made me laugh, because since getting my ADHD diagnosis I have realized just how often I do thing like this myself! Using visual reminders is really helpful for me, and I often wonder if other people do it to?
In hindsight I have built myself a lot of what I call “scaffolding” to compensate for my difficulties with memory and executive functioning. Some of is is more traditional, like calendars and alarms on my phone. Some of it has come with learning to work with how I am, not how I think that I should be.
If I discuss plans for a certain day I will write it down immediately, or ask that the person text me the info so that I have a copy of it somewhere other than my brain. (Remembering numbers is extra challenging for me, so while I might remember the event, the date will be impossible for me to hold.)
If I want to remember to add something to my morning/bedtime routine I will put it on the shelf right in front on my bathroom mirror. If I tuck it into a cupboard before it is an ingrained, automatic routine, I will never think of it again. When I started a medication that needed to be taken at breakfast I stored it at eye level above the breakfast food. If I need to remember to take something with me when I go out the door I put it on top of my purse or shoes.
The comic authors method of putting the keys in the fridge is much more likely to end with me frantically looking for my keys and being late. Things are very much invisible to me if they are behind closed doors, to the point that all of my closet doors are open or removed!
I also have a few that are a bit more like the old “tie a string around your finger” method. Or laundry is downstairs and we can’t hear the beeping from our floor. Laundry is a task that is perfect to forget about because you start it (check off start laundry box in brain), wait long enough to be entirely off topic before it needs attention again, and not be able to see or hear when it is done. My solution is to turn on the light nearest the basement door. It is in the far end of the kitchen and I don’t use it unless I am working in that area, so my brain flags it as unusual and remembers the laundry.
This is also one of the reasons there are so many baskets in my house. Especially for the children, baskets work as both an incredibly easy storage solution and a visual reminder to complete the task. We have a big basket in our entryway with all of their hats, mitts, whatever is in season right now. It is on the floor and is right where they take off their outside gear. They can’t avoid seeing it and it is just as easy to drop their things there as on the floor.
Do you have any quirks that help you remember things? I’d love to hear them, I can always use more! Do you do any of these ones? Would they drive you insane? (I know my closet one drives people nuts, even when they aren’t the ones living in my house haha!)
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