Adults with ADHD have a specific need to manage what needs to be remembered. It is not an issue that one forgets, but that you cannot remember. There is a difference!
To assist adults with ADHD at the office the following ten techniques can be applied and modified to assist you in being the star that always remembers:
Personal Organisers and Mobile Phones/ Smart Phones
To utilise your mobile phone by setting up reminders is one way of doing it. Recently Smart phones and other mobile devices have applications one can use to remind you of important events or tasks. As with anything you use and employ, you also have to consider doing back ups and build redundancy. You will come to rely on using the reminders, and if you lose your mobile device it can be very disabling for you. Utilise a synchronisation feature with your PC or personal laptop as a second level of support.
Watches and Clocks
Depending on your personal circumstances and the severity of ADHD, you may benefit from placing clocks in obvious places where you will notice it and act on it. The idea is that it should be a trigger that you can rely on to mobilise you to do what needs to be done or stop doing what you are doing to start another activity, such as fetching the kids from school at a regular time or submitting a status report at a predetermined interval.
Diary
Your diary is a great tool for supporting your short term planning needs. Whether it is a page a day in a hard copy format or electronic versions, you must be disciplined in maintaining it. Allow yourself time at the end or start of a day to browse and prioritise what needs to be done, what is important and what can be struck off the list- and stick to it. Avoid being overcome with the busyness of the day and return to the diary when you can, always review what happened, even if you only get to it the next morning.
Alarms and/or Computerised Reminders
Alarms and other computerised reminders to alert you to take medication or annual reminders like your wedding anniversary can save you from many awkward moments. If you need to purchase a gift for a birthday as well, set the alarm for the purchase of the gift as well as the actual birthday. This will go a long way to plan your day and not to do last minute buying or worse- having to apologise that you forgot!
Help Cards
If you are faced with an important task that falls outside of your normal routine, a well placed post-it note or card will remind you. Place it where you will find it easily and will be prompted to do something about it. If you need to take the car to the shop for a service-place it next to you car keys to help you in not driving to the office on auto pilot to only remember when you park in the basement. That is a time and money waster of note!
Lists
Keeping and maintaining lists are another way of getting things done and to remember what needs to get done. You can combine the list making activity with the diary activity first thing in the morning or the last thing you do before leaving the office. Be honest with yourself when you make these lists. There is no point in having 25 items on the list and expect to finish all of them if you spend seven hours of nine in meetings and you do not have any one to assist you. Prioritise and say no to tasks you cannot do or are will let others done if you don't get around to do it.
Weekly Calendar
Another helpful tool you can use as a team leader or project manager is to have a weekly calendar that lists the objectives for the week. It will illustrate how tasks integrate and also alert all the affected team members to keep to the schedule, including you. If you fail to adhere to the plan, there will be consequences.
Answer Phone Messages
Leave yourself a voice mail on your mobile phone, home phone or soft phone to remind you to attend to an activity or task. This is a great solution to use when you do not have a pen and paper or your PC close by to record what needs to be done.
Annual Wall Planner
This is useful for longer term planning, such as for project plans and to remind you of recurring tasks such as monthly reports you need to submit for a manager or executive. Plot your creation and review cycles in the same planner to allow yourself opportunity to compile the documents as well.
Portable Dictaphone/Recorder
Most mobile and smart phones are equipped with voice recording and even message recording software that you can use to record what you need to do if you do not have access to pen and paper or you prefer to utilise only electronic media. There are even solutions that combine the pen and paper with voice recording. For a few dollars you will be able to have the best of both worlds!
All the techniques above will fail you if you do not act on it and employ them to work for you. It may sound obvious, but if you have ADHD you can easily fall into the busyness of your day and spend eleven hours at the office and a growling boss next door because you never delivered on what you were supposed to do. Focus on what it is that you as a team member and employee need to deliver on, then you will excel at your career and the growling boss will be transformed into your praise singer!
More useful information from http://www.adhdguidance.com/
Kobus Dippenaar
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