How to Maximize Your Journal Efforts if you Have ADHD
It’s tough to successfully journal if you have ADHD. Journals are exciting and fun to start. Shortly after they lose their dopamine rush and they get forgotten. A few months later you want to reorganize your life and try again. The cycle goes on and on until you have 7 or 8 journals started. Sound familiar?
Journals can be a fantastic place for insight and organization if they have the right environment to be used in. A tool is only as useful as the user knows how and when to use it. Take the time to fully flesh out your creative and organizational energy can go far in the long run.
Routine Helps You Journal Successfully
One of the first things that I think needs to happen is setting a routine around looking at your journal. Our brains love to be on autopilot. This rings true for ADHD adults where more brainpower is needed for decisions. Taking the decision-making out of using and looking at your journal will help you successfully journal.
Keep It Visible, Always
Object permanence is the type of thinking where if you don’t see something, it doesn’t exist. For some reason or another, this is very common with ADHD Adults. So not only do you need to keep it visible, the tasks on the inside need to be visible as well. This could very well mean carrying it around with your open. Everywhere. My bullet journal sits open next to my computer and goes everywhere with me.
Immediate Use Means Immediate Rewards
If your journal is visible and you have a routine then you will be able to use it immediately. At the end of the day, you’ll see the different tasks you thought of throughout the day. Seeing all of these will release some reward brain chemicals and reinforce the behavior. The continued use and success keep this going for a long time.
An ADHD Journal is Creative
Most ADHD adults trying to successfully journal are also creative. Journaling is far more useful than just keeping up with tasks. It’s a space to be creative and build insight into who you are. You use it to help understand your anxiety too. Not only the creativity build something enjoyable (which will help you stay focused on it more) but it’ll build an overall picture of your life. Reviewing your creativity and tasks together can build a picture that you can bring to others, including your therapist.
Follow The Dopamine
You will likely lose interest in your journal at some point. That’s Okay. A journal is a tool that is meant to be helpful and useful to you. If you are finding it to be more of a hassle or disruptive then maybe it needs to be something a little different. Journaling is fun, creative, and helpful. If it stops being one of those things, find a different way to turn it back into a helpful tool.
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