My ADHD Brain: Use Anylist for Shopping lists and Errands


Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll discuss how I use the AnyList app for shopping lists and errands.  This is part of a series on my ADHD brain and all of the systems I use to compensate for a lack of internal structure and organization.
I'm the head procurement officer in my house.  One of my many quirks is that I absolutely HATE grocery shopping. I'd rather clean bathrooms than grocery shop -- really. Because of this, I only do it once a week. I will go to extreme lengths to avoid going more often than that. 
I also have issues with running out to do a single errand. It feels like a giant waste of time. This must come from my childhood when we carefully budgeted gasoline and did our errands all at once and infrequently.  Because of these quirks, I require a good list system to remember the things we are running out of and errands that I need to run, so that I can do them all efficiently in one run. 
Enter the AnyList app. I love this app and don't even use all of its many features. First let's talk about how things get on my list. 

List Triggers

For things that we use frequently, I usually have one backup item in the house. Sometimes several backup items -- depending on how quickly we use that item. For example -- we have a laundry detergent in use and one back up. When I open the backup laundry detergent, that is the trigger to put that item on my shopping list. For things like macaroni and cheese, where many boxes could be consumed in a single week, I keep a pack of 6 in our cabinet. When the last one is opened, that is the trigger to put it on the shopping list. I have a pack of 6 rolls of toilet paper in each bathroom and one extra in the house at all times. If I open the back up pack of toilet paper, that is the trigger to put it on the shopping list. 

Family Triggers

Okay -- so, it's tricky to get the kids and my husband to follow any system. In order for this to work, they have to let me know when it's time to put something on the list -- either face to face, by email or text.  But, in this case, there are natural consequences to their actions. I go grocery shopping once a week.  If it's not on my shopping list, I don't buy it. Because I don't typically run out and make a special trip for things my kids forgot to tell me about, they have to wait a full week or longer for that item. Want is definitely a powerful incentive for them to follow my system. 
Now let's walk through some of the great things about AnyList:

Lists

I have the AnyList app set up with 5 lists, but you could make as many as you want. Let's take a look at the iPhone version of the app:
  • **Today's List - this is generic list to remember things I might need for that day. 
  • Shopping list - this is for weekly grocery shopping
  • Target - anything I need from Target. I go there as needed, but probably once a month or a little more frequently. 
  • Super H and Costco - our local Asian grocery store and big box store. I go to these places very infrequently -- maybe once a quarter or so.
  • Errands - this is the catch-all category for everything else: anything from all other stores, returns, stamps from the post office, taking bikes to get repaired, etc. 

Store labels

Just for mental clarity, I like having a small number of lists, so that means that some lists govern items from multiple stores.  For those 2 lists (Super H & Costco and Errands), I use the "Store" label. These labels are list-specific -- meaning that I can have 20 stores labels in my Errands list, but only 2 in my Super H and Costco list.  You can see the store labels for the items that I have in my Errands list. You just have to put these in one time and AnyList remembers them for future entries. Let's put in something new. Let's say I need an umbrella from JC Penney. First I type in umbrella into the quick add field.  Once it is in the list, I edit, choose Assign Stores and create a new store called JC Penney. I like to use the Store label since once I'm at the store, I can filter for all of the items from that store and use it as a shopping list without the other clutter.  Hit the funnel for filter, choose the store (in this case, Home Depot) and it only shows the Home Depot items. 

Cross Platform

AnyList works across all of my platforms, so I can enter items from my computer (using a browser interface), from my iPad, and from my iPhone. The syncing works flawlessly -- which is more than I can say for most apps.  This is great since I need to be able to put things on my list while I'm out, working on my computer or just around the house. 

Siri & Reminders

The other thing I make heavy use of is AnyList's integration with Siri and Reminders on the iOS app. If you turn this on in the app by going to Settings, Reminders & Siri and then turn on Import Reminders.  By turning this on, AnyList will interface directly with the Reminders function on your iPhone or iPad.  It will automatically create all of the lists that you have in AnyList in your Reminders app. Here you can see my 5 lists in Reminders as well as the one native Reminders list.  Then it imports items from Reminders directly into AnyList. Okay -- so the reason this is so great is that it lets you use Siri to add things to your shopping list. Watch this, "Add bananas to my shopping list."  Then the next time I go into AnyList -- it's there!  I use this ALL THE TIME. Even better, if you turn on Hey Siri, you can wake your iPhone or iPad up without having to touch it -- which is particularly useful if you are cooking and your hands are not clean.  Like this, "Hey, Siri. Add paper towels to my Target list."  Again, the next time I go in to AnyList, there it is in my Target list.  To turn on "Hey, Siri" functionality, go into Settings, Siri, and then turn on Allow "Hey Siri".  Then any time you want to use Siri, instead of having to press the home button, you can just say Hey, Siri.

Only for Non-pressing Errands

If I have a pressing errand, like I need to get two dozen donuts for the tennis team by Wednesday, then I put that in as a task in Toodledo on the appropriate day. I may even schedule the time into my Google Calendar, so that I can be sure that it happens by the due date. This Errands list is for non-pressing errands like getting more stamps or returning items to stores.  That way, when I've blocked off some time to run a bunch of errands, I have them all listed and ready to go. 

One click to cross off

I use one click to cross items off of my list, but it's easy to cross something off without meaning to. AnyList uses the shake to undo function.  So I can shake my phone and get my item back. If this is a problem, you can change this setting to double tap to cross off items. 

Bulk paste

AnyList has a robust recipe functionality.  If you put all of your recipes in AnyList, you can send ingredients for recipes directly to your shopping list.  I don't happen to use this functionality since I have a different system for recipes, but because I have a different system, I really like their bulk paste function to get my list of ingredients into AnyList. If I have a list of items, as long as they are separated by paragraph returns, I can bulk paste them into AnyList. Here's my list. I'm going to copy it. Then go into my shopping list in AnyList, go into the quick add field, and select bulk paste. You can see the Paste option immediately comes up. I choose that, hit done and each becomes an item in AnyList. 

Sharing lists (nice to have)

You can share lists with members of your family so they can update the list from their phones.  I've done this with my husband, but most of the time he just tells me what to add to the list. Easier for him, I guess. 
I really love AnyList.  I plan to do another video for my other unorthodox use of this app. Let me know what you think!  Thanks so much for watching and I really appreciate any comments you leave below!

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