How to Help Avoid ADHD Forgetfulness
It may seem impossible, but there are many ways to help avoid forgetfulness for ADHD adults. Forgetfulness is very common with those who have ADHD. This is usually noticeable when confronted with a new task while in the middle of another one, having several tasks to do but losing track of what’s completed, or because people become so engrossed with what is currently in front of them that what was supposed to be remembered gets left behind.
Forgetfulness with ADHD extends beyond tasks and disrupts conversations and thought processes. The way I usually described it is that ADHD is like predictive text in an email or text message. As someone talks, their brain is feeding the next sentence before they’ve completed the one they’re on. The result is the brain moves faster than the can, resulting in disorganized thinking. This is why it is so easy to forget words in a conversation or lose their train of thought.
Knowing that ADHD can be manageable if we can manage what it becomes aware of, I usually highlight four tips and tricks to help avoid forgetfulness.
Avoid Doorways
Doorways are good to avoid, and it’s well known that doorways are most associated with forgetfulness. This rings especially true for the ADHD adult because the new environment can flood the mind with stimuli, and wipe your memory clear out. In reality, bring a clue to the task at hand with you into the new environment, to help guide your journey. Having some sort of tangible object or reminder of the task at hand will help you continue on in your day.
Leave cues in your environment
One of the things with ADHD is that it acts on impulses and environmental cues. These are most often visual, but can also take the form of alarm clocks or other alerts. Need to take the trash out? Place it in front of the doorway. Need to do your homework? Place on top of your computer so you don’t end up playing video games instead. Nothing helps avoid forgetfulness then physical cues and barriers for the ADHD adult. Allow your environment to guide your progress throughout your chores. Helpful hint: combine this with the first suggestion on carrying clues to remain on task until it’s completed.
Writing Lists AND Having a Routine
To-Do Lists are great but fail to account for ADHD forgetfulness and often results in poor self-esteem and increased depression or anxiety. Building routine and structure in daily life because it makes menial and tedious tasks automatic, free brain space, and helps people work through difficult emotional blocks. To help avoid forgetfulness, shame, and guilt, try combining the two. This allows a healthy mixture of predictability and variability, which the ADHD brain thrives in. Journals are used for more than lists and to-do’s anyway, so if you have an existing one simply try to combine this into your already existing journal habits. Then you start carrying around your to-do list as you go from room to room to stay on task. As an ADHD person and therapist, I recommend using some time of dot journal or Bullet Journaling.
Do It For Your Future Self
Thinking about what you need right now can be tough because there are so many things that need to be done. This decision paralysis is common with ADHD adults. Since the wandering brain tends to adventure to future scenarios anyway, I recommended thought patterns like this. Think about the you that wakes up tomorrow. What will he/she/they be so thankful to you for completing today? What do you think they could manage tomorrow? Sorting through these will help you prioritize what needs to be done right now, and what can be done later, and help avoid forgetting tasks when they actually need to be completed. No guarantee of eliminating the mild panic when you forget you did something, however.