When the ADHD System Fails

The system worked! And now it doesn't! WTF?!

On Episode 163 of the ADHD Big Brother podcast, I talked about when a system fails.

This system I referenced in the podcast was my bullet journal. I’ve been using a bullet journal for easily 5 years. I have been coaching people on how I use it, and many of my clients have adopted a form of bullet journaling in their lives.

A bullet journal is amazing. And having one notebook to rule them all is mission critical for me and has saved me a ton on less anxiety searching for a thing “I wrote down somewhere…”

But I noticed recently that I wasn’t referencing it as often as I used to. And I started catching myself referencing it, but not being able to read my handwriting, getting frustrated by that, and moving on without truly referencing it. That’s not very effective!

One of the ADHD Big Brother community members, who is also a marketing genius and has been helping me with that effort, was asking me why I kept forgetting certain elements of my marketing plan. The answer…I wasn’t referencing it.

The coaching question to ask myself here was “What can I do so that I am more likely to reference it?”

When we ask ourselves curious, nonjudgmental questions, our brain will often give us the answer.

In this case, I needed to make it easy to reference. The first answer is bullet journal! But that’s not working. What else. I need the handwriting to be simply and quick to read. If I have to look at it for more than a few seconds, I will have tension and move on. The answer: type it up. Printed out would look clean and easy.

And finally, where could I put this so that I reference it?

The answer: I have a magnetic white board on the wall to the left of my desk. I printed out my checklist and placed it at eye level on the whiteboard. All I have to do is turn my head slightly to the right and I see, very clearly, the items on my list.

I now reference this list multiple times a day, and I’m happy to report that I got everything done on that list!

I now print out my daily to do that I created in the x tiles app and am finding that it is working amazingly at keeping the day properly externalized and in front of me!

How do you externalize your day? Do you have a unique way of managing your to dos? I’m interested!

ADHD Coaching By Community

This is how adults with ADHD make progress on managing our symptoms, managing our lives, and not feeling alone: through community.

I would not have received this brilliant idea had I not been a part of a community. Not only was the idea a collaborative gift, but I received accountability to put that idea into practice and give it a try. I can’t recommend enough being a part of an engaged, supportive, shame-free community.

If you would like to learn more about our “ADHD Coaching by Community” setup that what we are doing inside the ADHD Big Brother Community, you can visit us here: