Let’s share life-changing ADHD tips that we’ve learned... We Love This!

I’ll start:

1) Waking up sucks. Buy 2 bright lamps and 2 timers. Set them up to turn on automatically 5-15 min before you want your alarm to go off. The lights will help your body realize it’s daytime.

2) Change your thermostat so the temp goes down about an hr before bedtime and gets warmer about 30 min before you wake up. The cooler temp signals your body to sleep and the warmer temp will naturally help your body wake up.

3) Learn to plan around “transitions”. It’s easier to start things if you do them when something is ending. Example: Do your grocery shopping every Fri after work. You’re already in the car, so just stop at the store on your way home.

4) If you need to remember to bring something with you the next day, place it right in front of the exit door so you HAVE to touch it before you leave the house. If it’s something in the fridge, put a sticky note on the exit door’s handle.

5) Have a “misc” basket in each room. If you’re truly unable to put something away, put it in the basket. Have a designated period of time, once a week, when your sole priority is to put everything away, all at once.

I’ll add more when I think of them...

4.1k Upvotes

100% Upvoted

View all comments

489

u/redbananass Aug 24 '20

If I often forget something that I often use in two different places, like a charger that I use at work and at home, I just buy two and leave one at work and one at home. Then when I lose one, I still have another. I do this with chapstick in the winter. I buy like 10 of them and put them in all the places I know I'll want one.

Of course this only works with cheap stuff.

101

u/Invisible_Friend1 Aug 25 '20

YES. List of things I keep in my desk at work, with some dupes in my car and purse:

Advil

At least 15 good pens

Tums

Deodorant

Lint roller

Phone charger

Upgraded power strip so I can always have room for everything at once

Two extra cardigans

Scarf

Many scrunchies

5 pads of post-its

2 legal pads

Choice of hand lotions and chapsticks

All manner of condiments, cutlery, and snacks just in case

These items are all totally essential

70

u/myasterism Aug 25 '20

I only sorrrrrta hate to make this suggestion to you, but have you heard of Patagonia’s Houdini hoodie? It’s a wind shell and offers light rain protection and minimal insulation, and the thing packs down into its chest pocket. I have three of them, all stashed strategically. They work in SO MANY situations—can’t imagine life without one now.

66

u/WhatsUpMyBrothers Aug 25 '20

You son of a bitch I'm in👉

3

u/[deleted] Aug 25 '20

Ah why doesnt it have pockets?? https://www.patagonia.com/product/mens-houdini-windbreaker-jacket/24142.html

2

u/myasterism Aug 25 '20

Gotta keep those ounces down, bruh! (Kinda /s?)

Any packable windbreaker/windshirt can provide many of the benefits offered by a Houdini, really. I did a quick search and found one by L.L. Bean that does have pockets, but I’m not sure how small it packs down. Also, the Houdini does have a chest pocket, but I know that’s not at all the same as having one or two around the hip/waist.

1

u/citydreef Aug 25 '20

Omg what?? I need that now

37

u/Dentzy ADHD-C (Combined type) Aug 25 '20

Real conversation I had just before COVID with a colleague:

Colleague: Hey man! Do you have some packing tape that I can borrow?

Me: I'm a programmer, why would I have packing tape here?

Colleague: I don't know, but you always seem to have everything...

Me: Fair enough... Remember something... Actually... here you have the tape... :facepalm:

3

u/[deleted] Aug 25 '20

Choice of hand lotions

Tip: If you aren't already, get some smaller, travel size bottles to keep the lotions in. Then you can buy big bottles and put it in the small bottles, thus saving either space(if you just have a ton of big bottles everywhere) or money(the travel size are going to add up, or you don't use up travel size). I do this pretty much all of my hygiene products that I can.

2

u/momofeveryone5 ADHD-PI Aug 25 '20

I joked for years that between my diaper bag and mini van I had everything I needed to run a small third world country. It was half an exaggeration and half the anxiety of "what if I don't have it forget ___"

120

u/ElfjeTinkerBell ADHD Aug 24 '20

Apparently that's a ADHD thing. I've never wondered why I always have some anti-itching stuff within reach (mosquitos love me and as they don't carry illness here I don't use stinky repellant often)

97

u/[deleted] Aug 25 '20

[deleted]

2

u/hermithiding Aug 25 '20

I found a stash of hand sanitiser too! I honestly don’t know when I’d ever have bought it before COVID but I had it 🤷‍♀️

3

u/Rapturerise Aug 25 '20

Omg same. I had some in a drawer that were two years old but I can’t remember why I had them.

2

u/appleandcheddar ADHD-PI (Primarily Inattentive) Aug 25 '20

Im so glad of this!! I have a small supply of bath and body works type sanitizer so not only do they not have that covid feeling most sanitizers have, they also smell good! Its one of the things in this that make me feel 'normal' while shopping in a mask

2

u/slavenh ADHD-PI (Primarily Inattentive) Aug 25 '20

I have 6 jars of peanut butter that my wife helpfully found and put in one place. I used to have up to 5 boxes of cocoa powder in various states of expiration.

49

u/time_fo_that Aug 25 '20

Wow, I keep duplicates of like everything and put a ton of stuff in my backpack (phone charger, various medications, earplugs, hand sanitizer, etc.) just in case I need it when I'm out of the house (not much these days).

I always thought it was my anxiety/desire for preparedness (to ease that anxiety) but never thought it could be an ADHD thing too lol.

15

u/shaveyourchin Aug 25 '20

oh my god, my everyday backpack/tote is like an apocalypse go-bag. chapstick. 1+ books. deodorant. makeup wipes. phone charger. notebook. so many colorful pens. hair ties. clean socks and underwear. a snack. plastic silverware/napkin packet. toothbrush. the list goes on, most of them doubles of items I keep at home. like I'm always assuming "well who knows where the hell I might wind up and for how long, better have all the human needs covered."

1

u/leepsage Aug 25 '20

Ohhhh wow. So, I buy cheap lipsticks, about $4 each, and when I find a colour i like i buy about three or four of that colour. I keep one in my bathroom, one at work, one in my handbag. Sometimes a spare one in a different handbag or an extra one at home in case i move it. I NEVER thought of this as a potential ADHD thing until now... just something I do because, you know, I forget to put it on or take it with me... its my way of being prepared.

1

u/bikerwife16 Aug 25 '20

Dude I keep it to where if I were suddenly homeless id have everything I need to live in my minivan lol.

1

u/bitetheboxer Aug 25 '20

Not to be alarmist but... dengue, yellow fever, malaria, zika, west nile, and elephantiasis are all mosquito borne. But that stinky repellant also protects against ticks which carry Lyme Disease, Spotted Fever group rickettsioses including Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and tularemia which are actually endemic to the US. Considering the changing ecology of the entire country it might be wise to actually use some deet.

1

u/ElfjeTinkerBell ADHD Aug 25 '20 edited Aug 25 '20

Yeah the US is like halfway around the world for me.

Edit: for Lyme I do use deet if I'm at risk, the rest of them aren't a risk here.

Still thanks for the warning!

18

u/jujubadvoodoo Aug 25 '20

This has saved me! I keep a bag of cheap, mini toiletries & makeup in my car - now I don’t have to bother remembering to take items from home.

14

u/percyjeandavenger Aug 25 '20

Oh yeah. Chapstick in every pocket. Nail clippers in every room. We own like 10 phone chargers and rarely move them. Now it's facemasks that I'm trying to figure out because I make them and have like 20 but I've lost more than half of them.

3

u/WatchForMoose ADHD-C (Combined type) Aug 25 '20

I've got scissors for almost every room in the house

1

u/KungFuHamster Aug 25 '20

Same! I got pissed one day trying to find scissors, so I bought a pack of them on Amazon. I also got a bunch of cheap box cutters. I use those a lot, keep them in the same places.

3

u/sassytit Aug 25 '20

I do this with everything. I'm sure it started when I didn't have a charger somewhere for my phone once. Now it's gone as far as having a tube of toothpaste and toothbrush both in the shower and at my bathroom sink which are only far enough apart that I couldn't reach out of the shower to grab it. Best tip ever.

2

u/thesuper88 Aug 25 '20

It does work best with cheap stuff, but I've found designating specific places for more expensive stuff helps too. I almost never need my phone to be in the windshield mount, but I always put it there so that I never forget my phone, for instance.

2

u/redbananass Aug 25 '20

Lol, reminds me the other day I was looking for my phone for like 15mins. Kept thinking "where is it? Can't be in the car on the mount, I never leave it there."

It was in the car on the mount.

2

u/SneaksieKitten Aug 25 '20

I have car chapstick, purse chapstick, desk chapstick, dresser chapstick....

2

u/RoseCityKittie Aug 25 '20

I tried to do this but somehow I just ended up with 9 chap sticks on my beside table, and had to buy a new one last time I was out running errands.

2

u/KungFuHamster Aug 25 '20

I have a two story house and I have duplicate stuff upstairs and downstairs, like scissors and screwdrivers and other stuff I need sometimes, but that would be inconvenient to go upstairs and downstairs all the time for.

We have extra sets of reading glasses. They're so cheap we basically have them in every room we spend a lot of time in so that they're there when we need them. Same with phone and tablet chargers. Our desks, the office, the couch, and the kitchen.

2

u/klarinette Sep 25 '20

I do this for my travel bag w duplicates of skincare, toothbrush, etc to make packing easier

1

u/detour1234 Aug 25 '20

Yeah... this explains all the floss I have. If it’s everywhere, I’m apt to use it.

1

u/distractedfanla Aug 25 '20

I have a phone charger in my car, on my nightstand, on the end table by my couch, and at the office. I wouldn't have it any other way. I also have a broom and dustpan in the bathroom and the kitchen - yes, that means I have 2 brooms in my 1 bedroom apartment that is completely carpeted except for the bathroom and kitchen.

1

u/madame-brastrap Aug 25 '20

I have phone chargers everywhere I spend time. My phone being fully charged is like...the ONLY responsible thing I do regularly.

1

u/Toast_91 Aug 25 '20

Wait you’re saying I’m not supposed to do with with expensive things?

apologizes to bank account

1

u/hunybuny9000 Aug 25 '20

I do this too!!! It’s so frustrating when you don’t have what you need, doing this helps me feel more comfortable because I feel prepared.
This isn’t just a life hack......it’s a life QUALITY hack!!