My ADHD Brain - An Overview of the Apps and Systems


Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and today I'm going to share an overview of the organizational tech systems I use to compensate for my ADHD forgetfulness and distraction. 
I come from a long line of folks afflicted (and blessed) with ADHD Inattentive type. Everyone in my family of origin has some degree of ADHD and I've passed it down to both of my kids. They are, as you can imagine, eternally grateful. I've never been diagnosed and I don't take medicine for it, but I definitely have many of the symptoms: distractibility, organization problems, forgetfulness, and tragically bad working memory (or the ability to keep more than 2 things in your head at one time).
Even though I didn't have a label for what I was dealing with early on, I knew I needed to compensate for my clear deficits in these areas, just to get stuff done and not be constantly apologizing for not responding, missing appointments, and forgetting things.  The way I think of it is that some people have internally well-organized heads. They remember their schedules, what tasks they want to accomplish for the day, and where they left their keys. I, on the other hand, have a brain that looks like this most of the time, so I rely on external systems to keep my brain organized.  Whereas most people have a regular internal skeleton -- I have an exoskeleton. Like an Iron Man suit. And you know what?  It's actually pretty effective. Would you believe that most of my friends consider me "extremely organized and responsive"?  Looks like my systems at least have THEM fooled. 
It's been an interesting mental exercise to reverse engineer my organizational processes.  At it's most basic, information comes into my life in 2 ways: electronically or by paper.  This video is going to cover how I deal with electronic info -- which is by far the biggest stream.  I attempt to get all electronic information to enter my life through a single stream.  Then I determine whether to delete it, file it, or act on it. If it falls into the "Act on it" category, there is another decision point: read/respond, create an appointment, make a task, or add to a shopping list.  Outside of this stream of info, I have tools for reminders and note taking. Some of these functions are pretty straight forward, but others I use multiple tech tools to help me out.
I rely heavily on three tools: Gmail (single stream email), Google Calendar (scheduling), and Toodledo (task management).  I commit to checking these 3 apps daily and keeping up with my commitments for each.  Any additional tools have to funnel back into these 3 main apps or the whole system would become too complicated and ultimately fail. I will walk you through the process in overview and do more detailed explainer videos for each functional area.
Single stream info collection: Gmail - Electronic information enters my life in a variety of ways: voice mail from my land line, voice mail from my cell phone, texts, emails, face to face conversations, and mental notes.  As much as is human possible, I try to single stream all of this information into Gmail so that it is all coming into one funnel and I don't have to remember to check multiple sources.  All voicemails come in as emails.  I email texts, conversations or thoughts to myself that require action. I use a gmail account for this and commit to getting my inbox to zero several times per week.
Delete, File, Act - Okay -- now I have everything in one place.  Since I commit to getting my inbox to zero every few days, I have to make decisions for each email: delete, file, or act.
  • Delete - simple!  One key stroke and it's gone. 
  • File - this is for stuff I might need to refer to later on. I put them in one of three places:
    • Gmail folders - email correspondence, online receipts, confirmations, etc. 
    • Evernote - notes, websites, pieces of info that I will need to refer to more frequently
    • Google Drive - spreadsheets, PDFs, presentations
  • Act on it - for information that I need to act on, there is another decision point. Can I deal with it in 5m or less?  If yes, I do it right then or keep it in my inbox until it gets done. This includes responding back to emails or reading articles. If not, I have to move it to my task list. Sometimes I'm also required to create an appointment or add something to a shopping list. I'll quickly share the tools I use for each function.
    • Task List - I use Toodledo, which is a dumb name -- but it is a robust app. I needed a task app that could book tasks in the future, show me only tasks due today, create recurring tasks, and set categories per task.  I also use Notability, which is a handwriting app, to help me organize my Toodledo tasks for the day. 
    • Schedule an appointment - Again, I use Google Calendar in a fairly typical way, but I do have a system specific to using and sharing it with a family.  Watch my video on that if you are interested. 
    • Add to a shopping list - AnyList is my list app for shopping and listing things to bring.  I love this app and can't wait to do a video on it.  I also use Evernote, a notetaking app, to paste things in bulk into AnyList. 
    • More immediate reminders - I use both Bigdates.com and Memotome.com to help remember birthdays and other events or tasks. Both services send emails to me which are sometimes more immediate than what appears on my task list for the day.  I have also been known use Google Calendar and it's email reminder function for one time reminders.
    • Note taking and paperless - Everything we've talked about so far has been pretty transactional. For less transactional activities -- like note-taking, brainstorming, organizing, and writing, I use Evernote. My brain also thinks a lot in spreadsheet form and since Evernote doesn't have a great table function, I use Google Sheets for that. In addition, when I want to free form draw or write freehand, I use Notability and export the results to Google Drive. 
That was a list of the tools I use, but I'll do explainer videos on the following:
  • Using Gmail for Single Stream Information Funneling
  • Using Toodledo and Notability for Tasks
  • Using AnyList for shopping and errands
  • More immediate reminders
  • Apps for Note-taking
  • Single stream paper processing system
  • Paperless Filing
  • Using Google Voice to get cellphone voicemail in your email inbox
Leave your thoughts and experiences in the comments section.  And thanks for watching!

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