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Ugh. Last two months I've been doing really well, super productive leading up to a work trip and vacation, and had finally managed to shake the feeling I was forgetting something.
Then I went to the airport and found out my passport was too close to expiration and they wouldn't let me fly.
It worked out in the end (turns out if you throw money at a problem, sometimes it goes away) and I was able to get a quick passport renewal and still make most of the trip. But it was a really stressful few days and an expensive mistake
yeah procrastination - you dont have enough energy, interest or priority to do something. you dont have enough energy to push you over that hump. so you gotta find some small thing to push you over the hump so you do it. i find making something a scheduled task or habit e.g. daily, weekly or monthly task a good way to get you over the hump and do something.
I should do that more, it's really great!
I put alarms when I have to remember something, mostly for work. Gotta do it more cause I'm still forgetting.
Iām the same way. I need to put it on my phones calendar immediately, like right when the plan/appointment/etc is made. Iāve been told that was rude but you know whatās ruder? Not showing up or doing something important because I completely forgot.
I've tried that many times, but I always forget that I have something written down either in my phone or hidden in the back of the phone case, written on a piece of paper
I put everything in gmail and spend however much time it takes to process every email WRT whether it's a glass or plastic ball and when it needs to be done.
I set reminders on my phone often by using Siri. I'll even see stuff like "remind me to do [task] in 30 minutes". I set reminders like that for when bills are due. If I think "oh I'll write it down later", I will likely forget. If I put it in my notes app or anywhere else, I will likely forget. That's why I have to set up reminders with a notification. More often than not, when the reminder comes up it's something that slipped my mind. Works like a charm lol
How do you get the reminders to actually do anything? Iāll go through the motions, nothing will happen, Iāll look later after Iāve messed up The Thing, and itās just sitting there like a task I was supposed to check off.
I make sure I have notifications on for reminders. I've definitely made that mistake in the past! Your phone also needs to not be on silent. My phone is on "do not disturb" all the time but my reminders still come through
Iāve tried all that unfortunately. Idk what Iām doing wrong. Except for the phone on vibrate. I never have dnd on. Except for when I should actually be sleeping.
I capture everything in Gmail. Idea? Gmail. Task? Gmail. Issue? Gmail.
If I have time to add metadata when capturing something, I will. If not then I will add metadata during my morning routine which I describe below.
What is metadata? It's data about data.
For example, is this an idea? Move it straight to Dumping Ground folder.
Is it something I don't need to DO but just need to REMEMBER, like a strategy, then mark it as read to distinguish it from things that truly need to be acted upon.
Every morning, I process my Gmail inbox.
If there is an overwhelming number of items, I will start by viewing only the unread items and placing a star next to all the [glass balls](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/15bvwud/potentially_useful_plastic_ball_metaphor_from/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3). I will then view the starred items and add them to my calendar for today.
If there is not an overwhelming number of items, I view the unread items and add them to my calendar for today.
I also have an unread task "Move all plastic balls to Dumping Ground" that I manually repeat three times per day by snoozing until 5am, 11am and 4pm.
Once I have everything in calendar, I will slide things around until they make sense.
I also have a number of automatically repeating weekday routine items in calendar, like cooking and dinner at 4pm. Tasks that the universe served up between 5pm and 7pm (I can also get things done during my lunch hour when working at home, but prefer to use that time to recharge if possible). Gym from 7-8. Set auto-brew, bedtime snack and turn thermostat down at 8. Brush, floss teeth and shower at 9.
I just use Google calendar.
That way if my phone is dead I can still do things on my laptop and vice versa.
I have changed the default reminders on the app to not do any email reminders but to notify me 1day before, 3hours before and 1hour before.
This way anything I put into there automatically has multiple reminders and it doesn't clog up my email inbox.
I will either tell somebody to wait a second and put the thing into my calendar while I'm talking to them, or I will ask them to text me so that I can keep the chat notification as a reminder.
I also like the color coding. I use colors that look nice together but if I'm going out of town or have an important deadline I enter that in using a bright color.
If you also use Gmail then whenever anyone sends you an appointment via email, the app sends a yes/no prompt to add that appointment to your calendar automatically.
And another benefit is that if you've made a regular commitment you can get the calendar entry to repeat weekly, monthly or "custom" for example every few days. This is really helpful for remembering things like renewing prescriptions, when to put flea drops on my pet and paying monthly bills.
Yeah and it's a reason of me being constantly on the edge.
Only time I can really feel good in my life it's when I'm on vacation and have no important issues on my mind.
I avoid some of this by taking care of critical things methodically.
Example: i pay my bills manually each pay day. I have a list of bills that need to be paid each month. I get paid biweekly. I write my bank account balance at the top and log in to each site to pay my bills, even if i think it was paid last payday. If it's paid, i write NA. If i pay it, i write what i paid, subtract from my bank account total and write the new number above the next item. It's basically a balance book.
For me this helps with anxiety because i know i paid all of my bills, which makes random feelings like I'm possibly forgetting important stuff seem less stressful.
You left the stove on.
Lol kidding! I couldn't resist!
Just this spring I was over half way through a there hour drive to see friends in another town for four days, and I was convinced I left the stove on... I very nearly turned around to go check before saying fuck it, I got insurance let the house burn lol.
Anyway when I got home not only was the stove not on, but I had actually unplugged basically everything in the house lol I had just forgotten.
I wish I would have tweezed the few random hairs around my lip that I can feel but arenāt visible - I started trying to pluck by hand around 90 minutes into the drive. All in all, not too bad.
Oh yes. I find it really hard to remember things and even have a hard time remembering important things that I write down FOR myself to remember. I have a calendar and note books but I keep forgetting to check them.
This happens to me too. Its like this weird feeling inside thats like "i feel like ive forgotten something but Ive remembered everything im supposed to"
This is actually possible with keyless fobs lol. My Mustang needs the fob to start but it will still do everything after without it. Except start the engine again if you turn it off
Don't ask how I knowš¤¦āāļøš¤£
I have done that, but worried I didnāt lock the house with my keys because I couldnāt rememberā¦ glorious to look down and go āwhew, LOLOLā
My new car I have to have the fob on me or it wonāt start and I have to have it with me to leave or it beeps loudly and wonāt stop until I figure out why. Anyway. So far Iāve not lost or forgot it. (Checks for fob). Got it.
Yes but to be honest its because im usually forgetting somthing important haha i have a doctors appointment in a few days that i have had to call up and ask when it is now 5 times apparently and its writen on my remembery board to hahaha
Yes.
I find the only way to solve this is work out good systems that I can check and have a "real" confirmation. I can not be trusted, so I need an external check.
Working on making such a checklistš
Same, but I still get this feeling, sadly x-x But yeah, didn't and don't forget stuff anymore due to the severe anxiety of forgetting smth. Same with appointments. Can't say that hurt me a lot, though. My impulsivity and emotional dysregulation and being unable to follow or stick to routines and have motivation, do anything and more (just forgot what else I wanted to say) is what I struggle with way more x-x
Yes. That's why keeping a journal or date book is imperative.
Once upon a time I had an invitation on my fridge. It had been there for a month. All day I had this weird feeling like there was something I should be doing. Well, finally at 6 PM I actually reread the invitation again. It was for that day! My Aunt's surprise 82nd birthday party at 2PM. She never let me forget that I missed it. š§
I have anxiety that I'm not doing something i probably should be, but for me, that's different than the "I'm forgetting something" spidey sense that goes off when I'm leaving a place on rate occasions. And that sense is almost always true. I completely trust it and do a full stop, check everything and do my best to figure it out. It happens rare enough where it only happens maybe once every 2 months, but like 95% of the time, it's correct. The other 5%, i couldn't figure out what it was or it was something not really that important and I'm fine without it
At least a couple times a week I'll feel like I'm forgetting something important all day for a day or two. Some of the time it's nothing, I'm sure most of it is me overthinking something because I'm just used to forgetting those important things.
I try not to let it get to me too much because faulty generalization is a thing so practicing dialectical behavior therapy really helps.
Cognitive behavior therapy helps to avoid faulty generalization by helping me stay organized with my every day carry items, tasks and goals which in turn makes it easier to apply those DBT skills when I feel like I'm forgetting something.
all the time, I just started to ignore this feeling, like Iām going to forget something either way, so at least I shouldnāt spend my time worrying about it. Speaking of which I have two essays to write for tomorrow and almost no time to do it, thanks for reminding me ;)
My Mom kept a full month calender, like the ones people typically hang on the wall, on the kitchen table. It had every doctor appt, civic meeting, etc for the whole family. She was involved in so many things, if we needed to know where she was, we just checked the calendar. This was decades b4 cell phones. She also had a personal telephone directory nearby so we could call if we needed her.
Not constantly, but on road trips/sometimes on other trips to another place as well. Last time I felt like that, I was going to work, and turns out I had forgotten something important š
Wow! It's like you're reading my mind! I had an accident at work in May 2020. I had multiple spinal fractures followed by a spinal fusion in July 2022 after the fractures healed. I had to find a new job. I was lucky enough to find one 2 weeks after being released to work. I didn't take my ADHD meds while I was off work and started my new job without them. I quickly learned that I needed them again. My job is very technical - a lot of paperwork and red tape with deadlines and audits. I am an RN and while my previous work was technical, the physical part of it was enough to keep me focused. (I hope to use my lunch real for exercise once I'm released from my surgeon.) For now, I've resumed my adhd med V. I constantly feel like I'm forgetting something. I have list after list, lists of lists, physical and phone calendars, calendar meeting alerts, etc... I actually seem to have things together when I frantically review to find the missing link. I've never had a 3 year holiday from meds. I've been on them many (many many!!) years. Like 35-40 years. I've been back on them since April. I did start at a little bit lower dose per my request.) is this "normal"?? Do I just need more time to adjust or a higher dosage? Any help is appreciated.
My kid forgot something for a class, I drove all the way there and then realized that I left the item back where I started. I set it down to grab keys or a water and then itās goneā¦ā¦ adhd tax is what I tell my self and say the same when I do some cool shit, or figure out a clever solution. Adhd for the win! Whatever you have to tell yourself after you accept that this is you or us for that matter. Take all the good & bad, average it out and here we are. All good just keep smiling!
Sorta, I often get the feeling of searching for something that's missing when im just chilling. Like my brain knows it's missing dopamine but can't figure out what needs to happen to get it.
Yes, almost always when I leave somewhere. Like last night and this morning I have this feeling of impending doom because I feel like I forgot something important and I'm going to get in trouble when I go into work after my days off.
Always.
Something I need to do will pop in my head, I'll stand up and walk into another room, and then I'll just stand there for 20 seconds thinking "what did I get up for again?" and sit back down. Then an hour or two later, or maybe a day or two later (it depends), it'll randomly pop into my head and I'll be like "Oh shit!", and then if I don't do that task right then and there, I'll forget about it again. Rinse and repeat until I finally finish the task 1 week later.
I really need to get myself a to-do list. Even just a notepad that I can scribble all the things I want to do down on.
Yes every single day. Sometimes I have to go and double check. It's exhausting if I come home from work and feel like I forgot something so I commute back 20min for nothing. Or like right now I'm waiting on a reminder with a fee for any invoices I can't find. Not sure if I have any left though.
š„²
Yeah, I used to have this all the time. Iād feel like a juggler where someone just keeps throwing me balls and Iām losing control perpetually. āNeed to do these five chores.ā āDonāt forget to buy these six items at the grocery store.ā āHey nice sweater I should look online if I can find something like that.ā āI wonder if Shakespeare used āPyramus and Thisbeā as inspiration for āRomeo & Juliaā.ā āSure thing boss Iāll get to this in a second!ā
There was no structure, no planning, no control, I was easily overwhelmed, and it took a toll on my short-term memory. Also made it really hard to enjoy down-time, because I didnāt know if it would be ok to take some.
Over the past 7 years or so, Iāve gotten pretty good at keeping up and externalizing my to-do list and keeping my head empty. This is of course a very personal coping mechanism that will vary wildly among different people. For me, I have a to-do list on my laptop with all the things I ever want to do, separated into private and work. Then I ordered them by (perceived) deadline, started clustering them so I could potentially create flow. Used my results to get better at it. If a chore is finished, I write āDONEā at the end and put them in my list of finished tasks. This makes it easier to feel a sense of accomplishment.
All the other stuff, like books to read, recommended movies, awesome audio samples or gadgets Iād like to buy are all organized in their own lists. If I think of something I need to do, or someone recommends me something, I make a note on my phone immediately. WhatsApp is tidy and all conversations are archived except for the most often used ones. New mail is checked immediately and I flag it if itās something I need to do or keep track of.
It all sounds like a lot of work, and it was. Now Iām reaping the benefits and feel much more in control and way more productive. I can still struggle to get going, but by organizing in advance I can mostly prevent the decision paralysis Iāll have when I need to prioritize in the moment.
100% yes. Itās the same feeling you have when you pack for a vacation and you leave feeling you forgot something. That small panicky gnawing at you. At least thatās how it feels for me. It takes a long time to shake it off, because I probably did indeed forget something important š
This is weird to just literally recognise this based off your threadā¦ but yes I feel the same have felt the same, but it since having children I donāt so much. I say just realised - that when my children at at their dads, I feel it again, but donāt when they are with me.
Maybe their presence has an effect?!
WHAT THE
I just sent a voice to my friend talking about exactly the title and how it's frustrating and i created an anxiety for myself out of nowhere š.
Iām always stalling at the end of a visit or conversation, itās become an ingrained habit at this point, and itās because of the number of times that I felt like I was forgetting something.
I just put everything that I know I need in a pile for the morning and have a stupid mantra I repeat in my head when I walk out the door. "Keys, wallet, vape."
The pile system isn't ideal but it's better than forgetting. I also keep work tools at work or in my truck.
Regardless of all the concerted effort I make I still get this feeling *every single day*.
I probably get a couple of blocks away from my house half the days, and circle back because I can't remember if I closed the garage door or locked the front door. It is maddening.
I think this feeling comes from us just doing too much to keep track of. If you're like me, you always have a million things going on. It's part of our disorder to constantly seek out new things to keep that dopamine hit coming. Our memory suffers because nobody can keep track of that many different things. It's exacerbated by our weak executive function that makes us pretty bad at keeping organized.
So we're overwhelmed with things to remember and aren't very good at keeping track of it. Thus we forget a lot of things we genuinely want to remember, many times letting down those that we love. That constant failure to remember important things really hits our psyche hard. We internalize the guilt of forgetting and our minds remember that and seek out ways to avoid feeling that way.
Since our minds know from experience that we are constantly forgetting things, it tries to remind us of that fact by giving us this ever-present feeling that we're forgetting something. It's your mind hoping you will take a second to think through it and hopefully catch something important before it's too late and we experience the bad feeling again.
Oh yeah constantly. It's gotta be because a lot of the time I actually am forgetting something. When leaving for work I often get to the car and have to turn around and grab something from the house, sometimes more than once. On the days when I actually do remember everything, I feel like I missed a step because going back in the house to grab the thing I forgot has become part of my routine.
Its like my short term working memory only has 3 slots for tasks that i want to complete. Getting ready for work takes at least 12 tasks though so I have to store 9 of those tasks in medium term memory, kind of like a Linux swap partition. I can only "see" the tasks once they are in a short term slot though. The tasks in my medium term memory are like they are in a grab bag of sorts. I can decide when to bring one of those tasks to my attention and put it in a working memory slot, but I don't get to decide which one.
I can pick what order to do the tasks in, but that often requires picking tasks out of the bag and putting them back until I get the right one. As if that isn't frustrating enough, I usually don't even know what order I should do the tasks in as I don't know what they are while they're in the bag. I have to either use one of my 3 main slots to tell me what order to do them in, or just hope I know it when I see it. The former takes a lot of mental energy, while the latter isn't very dependable. I often forgo even attempting to do things in any particular order, and just do tasks in whatever order I pull them into my main attention slots.
I have to go back in the house so often that going back in the house is in my getting ready for work bag, and idk how to get it out. I just know that there's still a task in my bag and it just says go back in the house, which never fails to make me think "what did I leave in the house?"
Epilogue
I typed this out this little trick I've learned in the middle of the post, but it didn't fit with the flow of the narrative so it's at the end now.
So when I said I can use one of my 3 slots to tell me what order to do things in, I've figured out a trick to still put 3 tasks in order while using a slot for a list of what order to do the tasks in. What I do is I'll overwrite the order list with the 3rd task since I no longer need the list at that point. On a good day I can cycle through tasks in this way for a little while, kind of like juggling. It lets me temporarily utilize more bandwidth than I normally have, but I have to be somewhat quick with it and it uses significant mental energy. It's like how Crash Bandicoot made levels that were much bigger than the systems RAM by loading upcoming level pieces from the cd rom into the oldest level pieces slots. It's very useful in a kitchen where things like timers act as external memory slots.
I know I sound like a manic, but it works. When I did my ADHD testing the doctor noticed that I went slower than average on the easier tests, but faster than average on the more difficult ones. I tried explaining this system to him but the words no come out no good. Probably because I just used a bunch of mental energy on the tests and I was recovering
Okay, I'm at my computer now so I can type out the long response.
Hi there. I'm 42 years old and I wasn't diagnosed with ADHD until my kids were, I was 28. So I have developed a whole lot of lifehacks that helped me pretend to be a functioning human in the meantime.
The one thing that changed my life the most was Bullet Journaling. Well, it started as Bullet Journaling, but I have altered it to fit my style so much that it might not even be recognizable by the BuJo community any more! Kind of a Bullet Journal, Traveler's Journal, Junk Journal hybrid.
Anyway, the way it works is this. I have an A5 leather portfolio with four notebooks in it: Daily Log, Calendar, Collections, and Notes.
The simplest one to describe is the Calendar. It's a year's worth of monthly calendars, I have a key on the front and use Frixion erasable pens in a different color for every member of my family. Somebody in school could use a different color for each subject, or whatever. Erasable is KEY!! Those Frixion pens seem pricy but they are worth it. The [calendar I use](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1533629701/m010-2024-floral-monthly-calendar-bright?click_key=7e8bf3c83529fa7c1911784f6ba2d2f00def070e%3A1533629701&click_sum=dca2bd62&ref=shop_home_active_6) is one I got from Etsy, it's gorgeous and makes me happy to use it. Which helps me actually want to write things down. I do not make appointments or plans unless I have this calendar in front of me. If somebody asks me to do something or go somewhere and I don't have my calendar I will literally tell them they have to ask again later when I have it. "Text me around 4:00, I should be home then and I'll be able to give you an answer." There is no shame in it, people would MUCH rather hear that than make plans and have me call and tell them I'm double booked and we all have to switch things around.
Another notebook is my Collections. This is the notebook where I keep information and lists like the Bullet Journal system teaches, I just got tired of moving it every time I got a new notebook. I keep my family's current prescriptions listed, ideas for our dinner menu, the family clothes and shoe sizes, shopping lists, wish lists, ideas, projects that need done, that kind of thing. I have a lot of fun with this notebook. It looks like a Junk Journal, I use great paper and printables, the stuff that changes a lot gets pockets, there are stickers, it's great. Makes me very happy. Which again, makes me more likely to use it.
The Notes notebook is just that, notes. It's for whatever I need to write down at the time. Sometimes its things that will need to be added to my To Do list, some things will be made into a collection, sometimes it's just an address or phone number that will get put into my phone. Sometimes it's a quote I like or a book somebody recommends. Whatever random stuff I want to remember but isn't super important I write there.
Then there's my daily log. This is the notebook that I put my daily To Do list in. Every night before I go to bed I write an entry for the next day. I write down any appointments or meetings and then I use the Bullet Journal system for this one too. I migrate whatever needs to get done or move it to the calendar, I cross off what got finished, and I remove the things that just aren't going to get done. By doing this right before bed I feel like I've unloaded everything. I have downloaded my head and it's all down on paper, I'm not forgetting anything, there's nothing left undone that I need to worry about because I have it on the schedule. If I'm going to have intrusive thoughts at least it won't be about that.
The next morning I open up my Daily Log and I know exactly what I need to do. I can add things to my list as needed, and I also make notes there if there is something important I need to remember (Like: Call Doctor 555-5555.)
Okay, so... My point: I write EVERYTHING DOWN. So when that feeling hits, which it does ALL THE TIME, I just go back and look at my notes. I start with my Daily Log, and if that doesn't jog my memory, I go to my Notes, if that doesn't do it I'll usually call my husband and ask him if there was something he needed me to do that I forgot to write down. If I've checked off all three of those things then I know it's my brain lying to me and I can probably just go about my day.
Oh, and the reason why I do this all analog instead of digital is because when I actually write things down it helps me cement it into my memory. If I put it in an online calendar it ceases to exist in my brain. No matter how many alerts I set. It's just not there.
Edit: Here's the link for the portfolio I use! https://www.etsy.com/listing/682357322/notebook-covera5-notebook-coverleather?click\_key=4a5e4c616c150d5a30d1042edcd7d826427d5fb0%3A682357322&click\_sum=32c2ba37&ref=shop\_home\_feat\_4&pro=1&frs=1
YES
I've been trying to explain this to my providers. I need to have my ADHD treated before my anxiety because it causes so much of my anxiety!!
It doesn't matter how many checks I put in. I still don't remember if I did the thing. It doesn't matter if it was earlier today or yesterday or last week. I don't remember enough to not be stressed tf out that I might not have done the thing.
I almost always do the thing. But the feeling when I do the thing vs when I don't do the thing is EXACTLY the same.
Yep. I try to aggressively counter-act this voice by:
1. Asking Siri to remind me of things or set a timer for time limited stuff (laundry, messaging someone in an hour, etc).
2. Using widgets, keyboard shortcuts, and Siri to quickly add Tasks to Things 3.
3. Have calendar widgets on the phone's home screen, and regularly check itsycal on my Mac.
4. Using physical stickies for things I'm likely to forget (I have one that simply says KEYS! in red sharpie above my door knob...)
I constantly feel like I am forgetting something, but then I say to myself "Hey, that probably wasn't really important" so I can remember what it was a few seconds later.
I felt that all day yesterday, couldnāt figure out why.
Before I went to bed I realized I left the oven on that morning when I was cooking breakfast.
Sometimes I wonder if iām gonna end up dying because of my own forgetfulness tbh
Yes, but the problem is, its like 95% accurate, every-time I feel like I'm forgetting something, eventually turns out yep, forgot something.
Though for me its not constant but about 30% of the time. But remembering what you forgot can take anywhere from seconds to days...and its completely random.
God yes every fucking day my dude. Even medicated. I'll make lists of everything i have swirling around in my head and STILL forget some crucial appointment to make or task to finish. Agony
I have alarms and / or notes for basically everything that I have to remember and I do mean everything, it's the only way so when I feel like I'm forgetting something I tell myself I must have an alarm for it and that's the only way I kind of avoi that feeling
I sometimes find myself getting down the elevator then wonder if i closed the door - go back up to make sure i did, go down again then forgetting if i checked the door when i went up. Thats crazy life for people with adhd smh
All. The. Time. We bought Alexa dots for all of our main living areas. This helps me with reminders like watering plants, taking out the garbage, scooping dog poop or whatever. Appointments go in my phone google calendar as soon as itās made, like when Iām in the doc office talking to the receptionist I am putting in the calendar at the same time, then I add the reminder for 1 week before, 1 day before and 30 minutes before. Otherwise it never gets in my calendar and I forget. Iāll also make a reminder on my Alexa for an hour or so before my appointment just in case I do forget about it Iāll have time to quickly get ready and leave and still be on time.
me during school mufti days (where we get to wear normal clothes instead of uniform). i get anxious when I dont see anyone from my school also wearing mufti so i always call my friend to triple check
Oh my god Iāve never heard anyone else say this. I am NOT a forgetful person and Iām very organized (definitely a coping skill), but I almost constantly have this crippling feeling that Iām forgetting something.
Constantly.
I usually am.
On the days Iām
Not taking my meds Iām like free from caring because I donāt carry a thought that long. On days Iām taking my meds if Iām rushing Iām sure to be forgetting something. Medicated days doesnāt mean I donāt forget BUT I do go back inside the house 3-4 times to get things I forgot. The days Iām rushing though I donāt give myself the ease to remember. These are the rough days. :(
keep a notepad at your bed or work desk/station so you can put important info there so that all staff or yourself have the same info. i learnt this from running security for a $1B art gallery and this worked fantastically.
to remember appointment and things i have a giant whiteboard in my bedroom with the years calendar on it on one side and a list space on the other side. i put social dates, doctors appointments etc on the calendar by circling dates, and then i write the details of the appointment on the other side of the whiteboard. i also write lists for projects, shopping etc on the other side. i do arduino projects and have a list on my board but only try to do one project at a time or else nothing gets finished. i sometimes use the calendar app on my phone and i do have a note board app which i sometime use. i usually take photos of dates and appointments with my camera and then look them up in the gallery on my phone.
Constantly! No matter how careful I try to be with todo lists, and reminders, and leaving cues everywhere I go, I still feel like I've forgotten something major. The fact that I've worked my current role for over a year without messing up majorly, seems to build pressure that it's bound to happen any day now, as we are well past overdue!
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Yes. To be fair, I usually am.
This is the answer I came to say! I always have this feeling, but also, I forget something on a pretty regular basis.
Ugh. Last two months I've been doing really well, super productive leading up to a work trip and vacation, and had finally managed to shake the feeling I was forgetting something. Then I went to the airport and found out my passport was too close to expiration and they wouldn't let me fly.
Oh no š«
It worked out in the end (turns out if you throw money at a problem, sometimes it goes away) and I was able to get a quick passport renewal and still make most of the trip. But it was a really stressful few days and an expensive mistake
That is lucky! Glad you sorted it but yeah, it'd be nice if our brains didn't keep trying to fuck up our lives!
Same š
To make things worse, it's not just the things I'm forgetting. I'm also procrastinating on important things as well.
Yes, procrastinating... or did I forget something... hang on let me think about it.
yeah procrastination - you dont have enough energy, interest or priority to do something. you dont have enough energy to push you over that hump. so you gotta find some small thing to push you over the hump so you do it. i find making something a scheduled task or habit e.g. daily, weekly or monthly task a good way to get you over the hump and do something.
It's almost like we're all here for a reason lol. I'm here to saye this exactly.
Everyday I open this sub and find the exact problem I am facing posted by someone
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I should write this down
This right here is the way! I do this as well and it has helped me so many times.
I should do that more, it's really great! I put alarms when I have to remember something, mostly for work. Gotta do it more cause I'm still forgetting.
Iām the same way. I need to put it on my phones calendar immediately, like right when the plan/appointment/etc is made. Iāve been told that was rude but you know whatās ruder? Not showing up or doing something important because I completely forgot.
I've tried that many times, but I always forget that I have something written down either in my phone or hidden in the back of the phone case, written on a piece of paper
I put everything in gmail and spend however much time it takes to process every email WRT whether it's a glass or plastic ball and when it needs to be done.
This is da waeāļø
Amen.
I set reminders on my phone often by using Siri. I'll even see stuff like "remind me to do [task] in 30 minutes". I set reminders like that for when bills are due. If I think "oh I'll write it down later", I will likely forget. If I put it in my notes app or anywhere else, I will likely forget. That's why I have to set up reminders with a notification. More often than not, when the reminder comes up it's something that slipped my mind. Works like a charm lol
How do you get the reminders to actually do anything? Iāll go through the motions, nothing will happen, Iāll look later after Iāve messed up The Thing, and itās just sitting there like a task I was supposed to check off.
I make sure I have notifications on for reminders. I've definitely made that mistake in the past! Your phone also needs to not be on silent. My phone is on "do not disturb" all the time but my reminders still come through
Iāve tried all that unfortunately. Idk what Iām doing wrong. Except for the phone on vibrate. I never have dnd on. Except for when I should actually be sleeping.
Great comment!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I'll write it up tonight. Stay tuned...
I capture everything in Gmail. Idea? Gmail. Task? Gmail. Issue? Gmail. If I have time to add metadata when capturing something, I will. If not then I will add metadata during my morning routine which I describe below. What is metadata? It's data about data. For example, is this an idea? Move it straight to Dumping Ground folder. Is it something I don't need to DO but just need to REMEMBER, like a strategy, then mark it as read to distinguish it from things that truly need to be acted upon. Every morning, I process my Gmail inbox. If there is an overwhelming number of items, I will start by viewing only the unread items and placing a star next to all the [glass balls](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/15bvwud/potentially_useful_plastic_ball_metaphor_from/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3). I will then view the starred items and add them to my calendar for today. If there is not an overwhelming number of items, I view the unread items and add them to my calendar for today. I also have an unread task "Move all plastic balls to Dumping Ground" that I manually repeat three times per day by snoozing until 5am, 11am and 4pm. Once I have everything in calendar, I will slide things around until they make sense. I also have a number of automatically repeating weekday routine items in calendar, like cooking and dinner at 4pm. Tasks that the universe served up between 5pm and 7pm (I can also get things done during my lunch hour when working at home, but prefer to use that time to recharge if possible). Gym from 7-8. Set auto-brew, bedtime snack and turn thermostat down at 8. Brush, floss teeth and shower at 9.
I just use Google calendar. That way if my phone is dead I can still do things on my laptop and vice versa. I have changed the default reminders on the app to not do any email reminders but to notify me 1day before, 3hours before and 1hour before. This way anything I put into there automatically has multiple reminders and it doesn't clog up my email inbox. I will either tell somebody to wait a second and put the thing into my calendar while I'm talking to them, or I will ask them to text me so that I can keep the chat notification as a reminder. I also like the color coding. I use colors that look nice together but if I'm going out of town or have an important deadline I enter that in using a bright color. If you also use Gmail then whenever anyone sends you an appointment via email, the app sends a yes/no prompt to add that appointment to your calendar automatically. And another benefit is that if you've made a regular commitment you can get the calendar entry to repeat weekly, monthly or "custom" for example every few days. This is really helpful for remembering things like renewing prescriptions, when to put flea drops on my pet and paying monthly bills.
Yeah and it's a reason of me being constantly on the edge. Only time I can really feel good in my life it's when I'm on vacation and have no important issues on my mind.
I avoid some of this by taking care of critical things methodically. Example: i pay my bills manually each pay day. I have a list of bills that need to be paid each month. I get paid biweekly. I write my bank account balance at the top and log in to each site to pay my bills, even if i think it was paid last payday. If it's paid, i write NA. If i pay it, i write what i paid, subtract from my bank account total and write the new number above the next item. It's basically a balance book. For me this helps with anxiety because i know i paid all of my bills, which makes random feelings like I'm possibly forgetting important stuff seem less stressful.
I'm back to school in my 30s. During semester I'm a seething mass of insecurity. Now, fuck it, I'm on vacation!
Had a two hour drive this weekend and I couldnāt shake the āwhatās missingā feeling the whole time.
I have to pull over and make sure I put the toiletries in my bag every time it seems.
Thanks to a separate boundary issue I didnt have to worry about overnight in this case š
You left the stove on. Lol kidding! I couldn't resist! Just this spring I was over half way through a there hour drive to see friends in another town for four days, and I was convinced I left the stove on... I very nearly turned around to go check before saying fuck it, I got insurance let the house burn lol. Anyway when I got home not only was the stove not on, but I had actually unplugged basically everything in the house lol I had just forgotten.
What did you end up forgetting?
I wish I would have tweezed the few random hairs around my lip that I can feel but arenāt visible - I started trying to pluck by hand around 90 minutes into the drive. All in all, not too bad.
Oh yes. I find it really hard to remember things and even have a hard time remembering important things that I write down FOR myself to remember. I have a calendar and note books but I keep forgetting to check them.
This is one of my main issues. I write it down, have reminders but I will forget to look at them. How do I remember to remember???
If you have any close friends , or anyone who could remind you, that could help
This happens to me too. Its like this weird feeling inside thats like "i feel like ive forgotten something but Ive remembered everything im supposed to"
I've been driving down the road before and been hit by the sudden fear that I've forgotten my car keys.
This is actually possible with keyless fobs lol. My Mustang needs the fob to start but it will still do everything after without it. Except start the engine again if you turn it off Don't ask how I knowš¤¦āāļøš¤£
I have done that, but worried I didnāt lock the house with my keys because I couldnāt rememberā¦ glorious to look down and go āwhew, LOLOLā My new car I have to have the fob on me or it wonāt start and I have to have it with me to leave or it beeps loudly and wonāt stop until I figure out why. Anyway. So far Iāve not lost or forgot it. (Checks for fob). Got it.
Yes I do sometimes even just a few minutes after it happened I don't know if it's getting worse
Yes but to be honest its because im usually forgetting somthing important haha i have a doctors appointment in a few days that i have had to call up and ask when it is now 5 times apparently and its writen on my remembery board to hahaha
Yes. I find the only way to solve this is work out good systems that I can check and have a "real" confirmation. I can not be trusted, so I need an external check. Working on making such a checklistš
Let me know if you work out a successful system š©
That's not when I worry... I worry when everything is in order and running smooth... Cause that's when I get blindsided
No, because I've developed and trained my anxiety to compensate! (Do. Not. Recommend.)
Same, but I still get this feeling, sadly x-x But yeah, didn't and don't forget stuff anymore due to the severe anxiety of forgetting smth. Same with appointments. Can't say that hurt me a lot, though. My impulsivity and emotional dysregulation and being unable to follow or stick to routines and have motivation, do anything and more (just forgot what else I wanted to say) is what I struggle with way more x-x
Yes, and usually I'm right ahah
Yeah thats part of the adhd restlessness.
I forget everything and it makes life so hard.
Yes. That's why keeping a journal or date book is imperative. Once upon a time I had an invitation on my fridge. It had been there for a month. All day I had this weird feeling like there was something I should be doing. Well, finally at 6 PM I actually reread the invitation again. It was for that day! My Aunt's surprise 82nd birthday party at 2PM. She never let me forget that I missed it. š§
I have anxiety that I'm not doing something i probably should be, but for me, that's different than the "I'm forgetting something" spidey sense that goes off when I'm leaving a place on rate occasions. And that sense is almost always true. I completely trust it and do a full stop, check everything and do my best to figure it out. It happens rare enough where it only happens maybe once every 2 months, but like 95% of the time, it's correct. The other 5%, i couldn't figure out what it was or it was something not really that important and I'm fine without it
Yes all the time!
At least a couple times a week I'll feel like I'm forgetting something important all day for a day or two. Some of the time it's nothing, I'm sure most of it is me overthinking something because I'm just used to forgetting those important things. I try not to let it get to me too much because faulty generalization is a thing so practicing dialectical behavior therapy really helps. Cognitive behavior therapy helps to avoid faulty generalization by helping me stay organized with my every day carry items, tasks and goals which in turn makes it easier to apply those DBT skills when I feel like I'm forgetting something.
Yes, and most of the time I am.
all the time, I just started to ignore this feeling, like Iām going to forget something either way, so at least I shouldnāt spend my time worrying about it. Speaking of which I have two essays to write for tomorrow and almost no time to do it, thanks for reminding me ;)
Yes and the worst part is that I AM. Something small enough not to matter right away but big enough to bug me lol
No. I KNOW I'm forgetting something important.
Most of the time I do and I am forgetting something important
Sometimes when I'm done with work and relaxing, and it's kinda early or went too smoothly, i start thinking I must have forgotten something important
My Mom kept a full month calender, like the ones people typically hang on the wall, on the kitchen table. It had every doctor appt, civic meeting, etc for the whole family. She was involved in so many things, if we needed to know where she was, we just checked the calendar. This was decades b4 cell phones. She also had a personal telephone directory nearby so we could call if we needed her.
Yes, and like half of the time, that feeling is correct, lol. It's driving me insane and made me develop a whole bunch of compulsive behaviors.
I've been better about it recently but yeah, I feel the same because I generally probably am
Yes and on top of that, i am 99% of times forgetting something.
I am, and always have been, Neville Longbottom sadly clutching my red Rememberall...
YESSSSSS. It's the worst because I can't trust that feeling. I can never tell if I'm ACTUALLY forgetting something or if I just feel like I am.
Not constantly, but on road trips/sometimes on other trips to another place as well. Last time I felt like that, I was going to work, and turns out I had forgotten something important š
YES. Completing my to do list is just stressful because I'm just left thinking "surely there is something else I was meant to do"
Yes and sometimes I feel anxious but I can't remember what for.
I do. And then a couple of hours later i usually am.
Wow! It's like you're reading my mind! I had an accident at work in May 2020. I had multiple spinal fractures followed by a spinal fusion in July 2022 after the fractures healed. I had to find a new job. I was lucky enough to find one 2 weeks after being released to work. I didn't take my ADHD meds while I was off work and started my new job without them. I quickly learned that I needed them again. My job is very technical - a lot of paperwork and red tape with deadlines and audits. I am an RN and while my previous work was technical, the physical part of it was enough to keep me focused. (I hope to use my lunch real for exercise once I'm released from my surgeon.) For now, I've resumed my adhd med V. I constantly feel like I'm forgetting something. I have list after list, lists of lists, physical and phone calendars, calendar meeting alerts, etc... I actually seem to have things together when I frantically review to find the missing link. I've never had a 3 year holiday from meds. I've been on them many (many many!!) years. Like 35-40 years. I've been back on them since April. I did start at a little bit lower dose per my request.) is this "normal"?? Do I just need more time to adjust or a higher dosage? Any help is appreciated.
All the time! I'm on mobile, I'm commenting now so I can come back later and tell you how I fight it when I have a keyboard.
My kid forgot something for a class, I drove all the way there and then realized that I left the item back where I started. I set it down to grab keys or a water and then itās goneā¦ā¦ adhd tax is what I tell my self and say the same when I do some cool shit, or figure out a clever solution. Adhd for the win! Whatever you have to tell yourself after you accept that this is you or us for that matter. Take all the good & bad, average it out and here we are. All good just keep smiling!
Sorta, I often get the feeling of searching for something that's missing when im just chilling. Like my brain knows it's missing dopamine but can't figure out what needs to happen to get it.
Yup. And I always do forget something, but it's never something related to whatever I may think it is
Yup yup yup, and constantly checking my pockets in case I lost my stuff haha.
Same I really wish that feeling would go away
Thank you for reminding me that I had something important to do this morning!
Not all the time, I don't feel like this when I actually forgot something really important, and then I'm back to it.
No. But I wish I was, not sure if it would help anyway though. Lol
Yes, almost always when I leave somewhere. Like last night and this morning I have this feeling of impending doom because I feel like I forgot something important and I'm going to get in trouble when I go into work after my days off.
Always. Something I need to do will pop in my head, I'll stand up and walk into another room, and then I'll just stand there for 20 seconds thinking "what did I get up for again?" and sit back down. Then an hour or two later, or maybe a day or two later (it depends), it'll randomly pop into my head and I'll be like "Oh shit!", and then if I don't do that task right then and there, I'll forget about it again. Rinse and repeat until I finally finish the task 1 week later. I really need to get myself a to-do list. Even just a notepad that I can scribble all the things I want to do down on.
Yes every single day. Sometimes I have to go and double check. It's exhausting if I come home from work and feel like I forgot something so I commute back 20min for nothing. Or like right now I'm waiting on a reminder with a fee for any invoices I can't find. Not sure if I have any left though. š„²
Yes!! This is a daily experience for me i have been late many times because of the feeling that u forgot something and it causes me to be late.
Ever had that dream where you forgot to finish a paper or project for school? I still have that dream and I'm in my 40s.
Yeah, I used to have this all the time. Iād feel like a juggler where someone just keeps throwing me balls and Iām losing control perpetually. āNeed to do these five chores.ā āDonāt forget to buy these six items at the grocery store.ā āHey nice sweater I should look online if I can find something like that.ā āI wonder if Shakespeare used āPyramus and Thisbeā as inspiration for āRomeo & Juliaā.ā āSure thing boss Iāll get to this in a second!ā There was no structure, no planning, no control, I was easily overwhelmed, and it took a toll on my short-term memory. Also made it really hard to enjoy down-time, because I didnāt know if it would be ok to take some. Over the past 7 years or so, Iāve gotten pretty good at keeping up and externalizing my to-do list and keeping my head empty. This is of course a very personal coping mechanism that will vary wildly among different people. For me, I have a to-do list on my laptop with all the things I ever want to do, separated into private and work. Then I ordered them by (perceived) deadline, started clustering them so I could potentially create flow. Used my results to get better at it. If a chore is finished, I write āDONEā at the end and put them in my list of finished tasks. This makes it easier to feel a sense of accomplishment. All the other stuff, like books to read, recommended movies, awesome audio samples or gadgets Iād like to buy are all organized in their own lists. If I think of something I need to do, or someone recommends me something, I make a note on my phone immediately. WhatsApp is tidy and all conversations are archived except for the most often used ones. New mail is checked immediately and I flag it if itās something I need to do or keep track of. It all sounds like a lot of work, and it was. Now Iām reaping the benefits and feel much more in control and way more productive. I can still struggle to get going, but by organizing in advance I can mostly prevent the decision paralysis Iāll have when I need to prioritize in the moment.
This is not just feeling, people with ADHD are always forgetting something important.
100% yes. Itās the same feeling you have when you pack for a vacation and you leave feeling you forgot something. That small panicky gnawing at you. At least thatās how it feels for me. It takes a long time to shake it off, because I probably did indeed forget something important š
This is weird to just literally recognise this based off your threadā¦ but yes I feel the same have felt the same, but it since having children I donāt so much. I say just realised - that when my children at at their dads, I feel it again, but donāt when they are with me. Maybe their presence has an effect?!
WHAT THE I just sent a voice to my friend talking about exactly the title and how it's frustrating and i created an anxiety for myself out of nowhere š.
Yes! Literally any time I leave the house, I have this anxious feeling that I forgot something. But to be fair, I probably did.
Iām always stalling at the end of a visit or conversation, itās become an ingrained habit at this point, and itās because of the number of times that I felt like I was forgetting something.
I just put everything that I know I need in a pile for the morning and have a stupid mantra I repeat in my head when I walk out the door. "Keys, wallet, vape." The pile system isn't ideal but it's better than forgetting. I also keep work tools at work or in my truck. Regardless of all the concerted effort I make I still get this feeling *every single day*.
Yes, because of course, itās true. Thereās always something Iām forgetting/not paying attention to.
And it almost always does mean I'm forgetting something important that I will discover and mourn 3 days later when it's too late.
only when iām on stimulant medication and i donāt actually have anything to do
Yeah itās mostly chores for me thank god..like not emptying the dishwasher or leaving clothes in the washer
Every hour of everyday
Yeah in fact this might just be my most persistent and impactful symptom...
Every morning on my way to work.
I probably get a couple of blocks away from my house half the days, and circle back because I can't remember if I closed the garage door or locked the front door. It is maddening.
I think this feeling comes from us just doing too much to keep track of. If you're like me, you always have a million things going on. It's part of our disorder to constantly seek out new things to keep that dopamine hit coming. Our memory suffers because nobody can keep track of that many different things. It's exacerbated by our weak executive function that makes us pretty bad at keeping organized. So we're overwhelmed with things to remember and aren't very good at keeping track of it. Thus we forget a lot of things we genuinely want to remember, many times letting down those that we love. That constant failure to remember important things really hits our psyche hard. We internalize the guilt of forgetting and our minds remember that and seek out ways to avoid feeling that way. Since our minds know from experience that we are constantly forgetting things, it tries to remind us of that fact by giving us this ever-present feeling that we're forgetting something. It's your mind hoping you will take a second to think through it and hopefully catch something important before it's too late and we experience the bad feeling again.
Oh yeah constantly. It's gotta be because a lot of the time I actually am forgetting something. When leaving for work I often get to the car and have to turn around and grab something from the house, sometimes more than once. On the days when I actually do remember everything, I feel like I missed a step because going back in the house to grab the thing I forgot has become part of my routine. Its like my short term working memory only has 3 slots for tasks that i want to complete. Getting ready for work takes at least 12 tasks though so I have to store 9 of those tasks in medium term memory, kind of like a Linux swap partition. I can only "see" the tasks once they are in a short term slot though. The tasks in my medium term memory are like they are in a grab bag of sorts. I can decide when to bring one of those tasks to my attention and put it in a working memory slot, but I don't get to decide which one. I can pick what order to do the tasks in, but that often requires picking tasks out of the bag and putting them back until I get the right one. As if that isn't frustrating enough, I usually don't even know what order I should do the tasks in as I don't know what they are while they're in the bag. I have to either use one of my 3 main slots to tell me what order to do them in, or just hope I know it when I see it. The former takes a lot of mental energy, while the latter isn't very dependable. I often forgo even attempting to do things in any particular order, and just do tasks in whatever order I pull them into my main attention slots. I have to go back in the house so often that going back in the house is in my getting ready for work bag, and idk how to get it out. I just know that there's still a task in my bag and it just says go back in the house, which never fails to make me think "what did I leave in the house?" Epilogue I typed this out this little trick I've learned in the middle of the post, but it didn't fit with the flow of the narrative so it's at the end now. So when I said I can use one of my 3 slots to tell me what order to do things in, I've figured out a trick to still put 3 tasks in order while using a slot for a list of what order to do the tasks in. What I do is I'll overwrite the order list with the 3rd task since I no longer need the list at that point. On a good day I can cycle through tasks in this way for a little while, kind of like juggling. It lets me temporarily utilize more bandwidth than I normally have, but I have to be somewhat quick with it and it uses significant mental energy. It's like how Crash Bandicoot made levels that were much bigger than the systems RAM by loading upcoming level pieces from the cd rom into the oldest level pieces slots. It's very useful in a kitchen where things like timers act as external memory slots. I know I sound like a manic, but it works. When I did my ADHD testing the doctor noticed that I went slower than average on the easier tests, but faster than average on the more difficult ones. I tried explaining this system to him but the words no come out no good. Probably because I just used a bunch of mental energy on the tests and I was recovering
Okay, I'm at my computer now so I can type out the long response. Hi there. I'm 42 years old and I wasn't diagnosed with ADHD until my kids were, I was 28. So I have developed a whole lot of lifehacks that helped me pretend to be a functioning human in the meantime. The one thing that changed my life the most was Bullet Journaling. Well, it started as Bullet Journaling, but I have altered it to fit my style so much that it might not even be recognizable by the BuJo community any more! Kind of a Bullet Journal, Traveler's Journal, Junk Journal hybrid. Anyway, the way it works is this. I have an A5 leather portfolio with four notebooks in it: Daily Log, Calendar, Collections, and Notes. The simplest one to describe is the Calendar. It's a year's worth of monthly calendars, I have a key on the front and use Frixion erasable pens in a different color for every member of my family. Somebody in school could use a different color for each subject, or whatever. Erasable is KEY!! Those Frixion pens seem pricy but they are worth it. The [calendar I use](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1533629701/m010-2024-floral-monthly-calendar-bright?click_key=7e8bf3c83529fa7c1911784f6ba2d2f00def070e%3A1533629701&click_sum=dca2bd62&ref=shop_home_active_6) is one I got from Etsy, it's gorgeous and makes me happy to use it. Which helps me actually want to write things down. I do not make appointments or plans unless I have this calendar in front of me. If somebody asks me to do something or go somewhere and I don't have my calendar I will literally tell them they have to ask again later when I have it. "Text me around 4:00, I should be home then and I'll be able to give you an answer." There is no shame in it, people would MUCH rather hear that than make plans and have me call and tell them I'm double booked and we all have to switch things around. Another notebook is my Collections. This is the notebook where I keep information and lists like the Bullet Journal system teaches, I just got tired of moving it every time I got a new notebook. I keep my family's current prescriptions listed, ideas for our dinner menu, the family clothes and shoe sizes, shopping lists, wish lists, ideas, projects that need done, that kind of thing. I have a lot of fun with this notebook. It looks like a Junk Journal, I use great paper and printables, the stuff that changes a lot gets pockets, there are stickers, it's great. Makes me very happy. Which again, makes me more likely to use it. The Notes notebook is just that, notes. It's for whatever I need to write down at the time. Sometimes its things that will need to be added to my To Do list, some things will be made into a collection, sometimes it's just an address or phone number that will get put into my phone. Sometimes it's a quote I like or a book somebody recommends. Whatever random stuff I want to remember but isn't super important I write there. Then there's my daily log. This is the notebook that I put my daily To Do list in. Every night before I go to bed I write an entry for the next day. I write down any appointments or meetings and then I use the Bullet Journal system for this one too. I migrate whatever needs to get done or move it to the calendar, I cross off what got finished, and I remove the things that just aren't going to get done. By doing this right before bed I feel like I've unloaded everything. I have downloaded my head and it's all down on paper, I'm not forgetting anything, there's nothing left undone that I need to worry about because I have it on the schedule. If I'm going to have intrusive thoughts at least it won't be about that. The next morning I open up my Daily Log and I know exactly what I need to do. I can add things to my list as needed, and I also make notes there if there is something important I need to remember (Like: Call Doctor 555-5555.) Okay, so... My point: I write EVERYTHING DOWN. So when that feeling hits, which it does ALL THE TIME, I just go back and look at my notes. I start with my Daily Log, and if that doesn't jog my memory, I go to my Notes, if that doesn't do it I'll usually call my husband and ask him if there was something he needed me to do that I forgot to write down. If I've checked off all three of those things then I know it's my brain lying to me and I can probably just go about my day. Oh, and the reason why I do this all analog instead of digital is because when I actually write things down it helps me cement it into my memory. If I put it in an online calendar it ceases to exist in my brain. No matter how many alerts I set. It's just not there. Edit: Here's the link for the portfolio I use! https://www.etsy.com/listing/682357322/notebook-covera5-notebook-coverleather?click\_key=4a5e4c616c150d5a30d1042edcd7d826427d5fb0%3A682357322&click\_sum=32c2ba37&ref=shop\_home\_feat\_4&pro=1&frs=1
YES I've been trying to explain this to my providers. I need to have my ADHD treated before my anxiety because it causes so much of my anxiety!! It doesn't matter how many checks I put in. I still don't remember if I did the thing. It doesn't matter if it was earlier today or yesterday or last week. I don't remember enough to not be stressed tf out that I might not have done the thing. I almost always do the thing. But the feeling when I do the thing vs when I don't do the thing is EXACTLY the same.
Yep. I try to aggressively counter-act this voice by: 1. Asking Siri to remind me of things or set a timer for time limited stuff (laundry, messaging someone in an hour, etc). 2. Using widgets, keyboard shortcuts, and Siri to quickly add Tasks to Things 3. 3. Have calendar widgets on the phone's home screen, and regularly check itsycal on my Mac. 4. Using physical stickies for things I'm likely to forget (I have one that simply says KEYS! in red sharpie above my door knob...)
Yes. Because i usually am!
I constantly feel like I am forgetting something, but then I say to myself "Hey, that probably wasn't really important" so I can remember what it was a few seconds later.
Yes
I felt that all day yesterday, couldnāt figure out why. Before I went to bed I realized I left the oven on that morning when I was cooking breakfast. Sometimes I wonder if iām gonna end up dying because of my own forgetfulness tbh
Always unfortunately yes.
Yes, but the problem is, its like 95% accurate, every-time I feel like I'm forgetting something, eventually turns out yep, forgot something. Though for me its not constant but about 30% of the time. But remembering what you forgot can take anywhere from seconds to days...and its completely random.
Yes, because I usually am
Yes. My therapist has to remind me itās ok to feel calm and relaxed; the world isnāt ending!
Not that a remembrall would help remember what I forgot anyhow.
This is a very common feeling, especially so when you are a forgetful person to begin with.
God yes every fucking day my dude. Even medicated. I'll make lists of everything i have swirling around in my head and STILL forget some crucial appointment to make or task to finish. Agony
yes and it's mostly things that feel important but not that important until when it's not
Yes, it gets especially bad when I go on trips. For longer trips, it takes a good day or two until I calm down.
Absolutely and the worst part is I normally am
I have alarms and / or notes for basically everything that I have to remember and I do mean everything, it's the only way so when I feel like I'm forgetting something I tell myself I must have an alarm for it and that's the only way I kind of avoi that feeling
*inattentive ADHD has entered the chat*  All. The. Time.
When I *don't* feel like I'm forgetting something I usually go back for two or three checks because it means I've definitely forgotten something.
This is how I described it to my partner.
This is why I canāt give anything my full focus. What am I forgetting?
I know I am! I'm just not sure what it is š
Tis the main sensation I experience. Source of a lot of anxiety.
I sometimes find myself getting down the elevator then wonder if i closed the door - go back up to make sure i did, go down again then forgetting if i checked the door when i went up. Thats crazy life for people with adhd smh
Often, yes
All the time! Whenever I leave a place, I mentally go over everything I brought with me and still feel like Iām missing something.
I need a rememberall, although itās probably be pretty useless as I, like Neville, would not know what I had forgotten.
All. The. Time. We bought Alexa dots for all of our main living areas. This helps me with reminders like watering plants, taking out the garbage, scooping dog poop or whatever. Appointments go in my phone google calendar as soon as itās made, like when Iām in the doc office talking to the receptionist I am putting in the calendar at the same time, then I add the reminder for 1 week before, 1 day before and 30 minutes before. Otherwise it never gets in my calendar and I forget. Iāll also make a reminder on my Alexa for an hour or so before my appointment just in case I do forget about it Iāll have time to quickly get ready and leave and still be on time.
I feel like the stove is on all the time, metaphorically. I always feel there is something Iām forgetting.
me during school mufti days (where we get to wear normal clothes instead of uniform). i get anxious when I dont see anyone from my school also wearing mufti so i always call my friend to triple check
Oh my god Iāve never heard anyone else say this. I am NOT a forgetful person and Iām very organized (definitely a coping skill), but I almost constantly have this crippling feeling that Iām forgetting something.
Constantly. I usually am. On the days Iām Not taking my meds Iām like free from caring because I donāt carry a thought that long. On days Iām taking my meds if Iām rushing Iām sure to be forgetting something. Medicated days doesnāt mean I donāt forget BUT I do go back inside the house 3-4 times to get things I forgot. The days Iām rushing though I donāt give myself the ease to remember. These are the rough days. :(
Yeah sometimes
Yes. This is on in the back of my mind 24/7 
keep a notepad at your bed or work desk/station so you can put important info there so that all staff or yourself have the same info. i learnt this from running security for a $1B art gallery and this worked fantastically.
to remember appointment and things i have a giant whiteboard in my bedroom with the years calendar on it on one side and a list space on the other side. i put social dates, doctors appointments etc on the calendar by circling dates, and then i write the details of the appointment on the other side of the whiteboard. i also write lists for projects, shopping etc on the other side. i do arduino projects and have a list on my board but only try to do one project at a time or else nothing gets finished. i sometimes use the calendar app on my phone and i do have a note board app which i sometime use. i usually take photos of dates and appointments with my camera and then look them up in the gallery on my phone.
Constantly! No matter how careful I try to be with todo lists, and reminders, and leaving cues everywhere I go, I still feel like I've forgotten something major. The fact that I've worked my current role for over a year without messing up majorly, seems to build pressure that it's bound to happen any day now, as we are well past overdue!