Ewen Bell 📸Mar 22
Realised today that "calendars/to-do-lists" used to be a really good thing in my life but that is no longer that case and I wonder if other ADHD brains have experienced this?

Pre-digital I always had lists of things that I needed to get done, and of course a fraction of things ever made it off the list BUT some things did and that was a win.

I feel now my to-do-list via calendar gets list inside tiny little boxes on a tiny little screen and I don't look at my calendar anyway it's rubbish. Thanks Google. I tried using a to-do-list in my note-taking system (UpNote) but again that is a deluge of information and I can barely focus attention on the most urgent note I'm working on and the to-do-list gets looked once every three months instead.

I am not doing any of this well, and that's making me unhappy.

Not saying it will cure my procrastination or lack of focus, but maybe someone else is doing this better and can share.

#ADHD
Show threadPetra

@ewen

I have gone back to writing things down in a physical diary. I am convinced that the act of writing things down actively helps me remember what I am doing.

Mar 22 at 8:15amWeb
Show threadEveryday AuDHDMar 22
@PetraPhoenix @ewen I use paper for certain things, with the Bullet Journal method. Digital is useful but easily distracting. On paper I put only key taks of the day. Not perfect but helps, and I get to choose what task to do next.
Show threadEwen Bell 📸Mar 22
@everydayadhd @PetraPhoenix

I'll definitely end up back on paper. Need to work out how to keep some focus on long term tasks versus daily details.
Show threadPetraMar 22

@ewen

To add: I cam only run one diary at a time, so all my tasks and appointments for everything go in the same diary, but colour coded so I know what I am doing. If I try and run more than one it all falls apart

Show threadIanMar 22
@PetraPhoenix @[email protected] I still have a Filofax (well, two), but I haven’t put diary pages in for several years, using them mainly for notebooks for secret ideas. ( haven’t had any ideas for years though.
Show threadEwen Bell 📸Mar 22
@u0421793 @PetraPhoenix

I like the idea of a Filofax. Very hands on.

Until covid I used to drag out a nice big A3 drawing pad and scribble out a "mind map" of all the high level things that I want to focus on for the year to come. Was very useful to get my head above the noise and look at bigger pictures. For a little while it can help me drill into those lists and sub-lists. But the mind-map disappears from my focus again soon enough.

I haven't got a big open space with clean walls to pin my notes etc. Kind of work in a shoe-box when I'm home :)
Show threadIanMar 22
@[email protected] @PetraPhoenix I’ve got Filofaxes because I was a bit ‘into’ them a several decades ago (but unfashionably after they were popular). There was a time a few years ago I wanted to discuss something with a friend without it being picked up by anything electronic so we met out in the open and we turned our phones off and I used the Filofax to do the explanations (wasn’t a good idea in the end btw but I wanted to keep it top secret at the time).

However, these days I’m more interested in what alternatives there are that aren’t tied to one specific company. WHSmith I mean TJHooker or whatever they changed their name to in recent months has their own compatible range of Filofax-like stuff, which might not be as luxurious but is functionally the same, so I wonder if the ring binder count and spacing might form a sort of ‘standard’ that any other maker could also adopt and sell products adhering to.

I’m not sure the three plus three ring arrangement is actually the best way though. It’s good, but is there a better way? Funnily I spent time last week trying to imagine what a similar type of paper document management binder/folder/wallet arrangement might look like if the Filofax were never invented, but for example an alternative were arrived at, and became a ‘standard’ before one company could get hold of it and monopolise it. What would the functionally equivalent thing be like if Filofax and their publicised origin story had never happened, but the need were felt and something else materialised instead, and it were ‘an open standard’ instead.

In reality it’s no use doing that now, it’s easier to buy pages that already exist with the already existing punched hole spacing of a Filofax personal, but this was a ‘what if’ for a storyline.
Show threadEwen Bell 📸Mar 22
@u0421793 @PetraPhoenix

That's lovely!

I do feel that some kind of physical list on paper is what my brain requires. Cumbersome perhaps, but once something leaves my field of vision it is hard to bring out my awareness again.
Show threadEwen Bell 📸Mar 22
@PetraPhoenix

I feel this too.