“You forget things.”
I used to hear this all the time. Not big things, not long term things, but the immediate things. The things I’m doing or the things I thought of in that moment. One second they’re there and the next second, gone. I still catch myself having this happen on a daily basis.
Want to know what it’s like? Here’s an demonstration for you.
Get a paper towel tube. This is your brain. (Gen X will appreciate the reference.)
Now get a dozen raw eggs.
Slide one egg in the tube. That’s an idea or something you need to remember.
Slide another “idea” in the tube.
Keep going.
At some point you’ll see your first “idea” poking out the other end of the tube. Now common sense says you should stop adding eggs because you’re going to lose the first one.
Ah, but this is ADHD…common sense isn’t part of the bargain.
Add the rest of the eggs.
Now go get the paper towels because you have a mess to clean up.
For many with ADHD, we can’t keep the thoughts in check. They just keep coming. There’s no time to move ideas from short-term memory to long-term memory. We need help. We need…external storage.
Paper
Invented thousands of years ago, the capture of ideas and thoughts on a physcial medium that is light, portable, and easily accessed, paper has served as the defacto method of documentation for centuries. Even today in our tech-obsessed world, a pencil and paper (or pen if you prefer) can capture without concern for start-up speed, accuracy, retention, and battery life.
A pocket notebook, small and unassuming, and some sort of writing utensil of your choice is the perfect fall back when technology fails you, but now in many cases it can be the perfect technology companion as well.
Distraction free and lacking the fear of loss or breakage that smart devices can bring, a pocket notebook is the true “blank slate” for all things you need to note, be they events, reminders, observations, or ideas. Combine this with OCR (optical character recognition) and handwriting recognition for images and your notes, while starting on paper, can move into the digital realm when it’s convenient.
The Being Productive way
One of my favorite methods of paper based note taking when I’m working at a desk or around the house is I will take a small stack of about 20 index cards, clip a binder clip onto the top, and then clip a cheap pen on to them as well. I’ve created my own notebook on demand, the cards can be captured as images into my PKM (personal knowledge management) tool, or simply disposed of when not needed.
The benefit of this I found right away was the elimination of the “pretty notebook” syndrome where you want to make sure the content of the notebooks reflect the cost spent on the notebook themselves. For example, Field Notes, one of the most popular pocket notebooks out there costs approximately a quarter a page. This shows what happens when “a penny for your thoughts” runs into inflation.
If there is a clear price per thought, do you try to cram as much as possible onto a page? Looking for the greatest return on your investment? A pack of 500 index cards will run you less than two cents per card…taking us back into a much more practical space. Personally, I’ll lean into the flexibility the cards provide. If you want to see this idea at it’s height, check out the hipster PDA (a concept I think we should be actively rediscovering.)
There is a side benefit from this arrangement. I’ve found that I’m more engaged with a thing when I can change the thing. Something static in design causes me to lose interest quickly; the dopamine is no longer served. Using a stack of cards like this, the order can be changed, cards removed, and things added on a whim with no loss of functionality. Dopamine is back on the menu.
Mobile device
The pocket supercomputer we all carry now (compared to what computers were just 10 years ago) is a logical place to capture on the go. Hundreds of applications, voice, typed, photo, even handwriting with a stylus (oh the irony of the infinite index card stack) all come into the conversation as to what is the best way to capture on the go.
Over the years I have found three immutable facts when it comes to capturing information with a smartphone:
- Use the tool you use the most. Yes I know, that seems obvious, but if you are spending time looking for alternate ways to capture information into a tool you use all the time because that tool doesn’t have an efficient way to capture, then I suggest looking for a new tool.
- Images are faster than writing. Take that picture. Grab that screenshot. The power of applications today to process text in images make those images 10x more valuable than the typed text you’re trying to cram into a digital note while in the middle of things.
- Voice isn’t there yet. For the most part, you spend as much time correcting what your voice to text application misheard as you would capturing directly by image or keyboard. The only exception to this I’ve found is Wispr Flow which has consistently been solid in capturing my spoken word.
The Being Productive way
My phone is in my pocket almost all the time, whether I’m home or out. If there is something I need to capture quickly, so quickly I don’t have time to open my PKM of choice, it goes right into the camera roll. If I do have a moment, I’ll open the daily note in Capacities, add an image from the camera, and then type in any annotations I need for reference. Done and done.
One thing I learned early is to capture using a high resolution image. On my Samsung S26 Ultra I capture at a minimum 50 megapixels. Why? Because the clarity is higher and I can zoom in on details that I would struggle with when trying to use the features on the lenses. Remember, this isn’t artwork…this is a snapshot.
Computer
A tool made for highspeed processing of mass volumes of information, it can still struggle with being the quick capture device we need at a moment’s notice. Where it does excel is in the “brain dump” setting; allowing our minds to explore and run through ideas, requirements, and notes in a bulk mode.
Unfortunately, we often distract into arranging the notes, visual design and layout, and ultimately wondering what we were doing in the first place. Notion is a tool that, while exceptionally powerful and flexible, is notorious for this. Database designs, page structures, and pretty headers become the tangents taking us away from the original reason we launched the application.
Whatever application you use for your PKM, make sure you have a clear and simple way to capture when you need to and organize when you have time.
The Being Productive way
Having used so many different applications over the years, finding ones that give you a quick capture option that you process later is the one key I’ve found unfailingly on the computer. For example, OneNote on Windows gives you a shortcut key to capture a “quick note” at any time regardless of what you’re doing. These are dropped into your primary notebook and can be processed and organized later.
I combine that key combination (Win+Alt+N if you’re interested), add the date in YYYYMMDD format in the title as well as a short description of the note I’m capturing. Additionally, if the capture is something I need to do, I’ll press Ctrl+1 to add a To Do tag to the note so I know it is an action item.
Smart home
It’s estimated there are 70 million Alexa devices in homes today. Combine that with the number of Google Nest devices and you have a massive footprint of smart home assistants just waiting to be your friendly helpers. Beyond turning on the lights, playing music, or adjusting the thermostat you can use them to capture things on the fly by just calling out “Hey (insert device name here).”
Where these solutions struggle is not on the convenience of capture, but in to main areas. First for the vast majority of users the capture is limited to within “earshot” of a device. This limits their usefulness when out and about in the world. The second, and what I consider the more serious issue, is the poor integration with PKM solutions. You may be able to capture something, but it winds up stuck in the device ecosystem rather than your tool of choice.
The Being Productive way
My preferred way to use my smart home as a capture device is to leverage the reminders feature for future captures. I’ll say something along the lines of “Hey Alexa, remind me to add buy coffee to my shopping list in 20 minutes” when I know in 20 minutes I’ll be in a place where I can actually capture that note.
Unfortunately there are far too many limitations to the features offered by the smart home tools when it comes to capture for me to recommend spending a lot of time getting them to work.
Smartwatch
I’ve been a smartwatch wearer ever since they became a thing, going back to the days of the Timex Datalink and earlier. The convenience of having a digital capture device literally at your fingertips is just to enticing to not find ways to put it to use. While I’m not an Apple Watch person, my Samsung Watch 8 does a respectable job now that it’s been upgraded with Gemini.
The simple statement of “make a note…” creates an entry in Google Keep that I can reference later. It’s quick, it’s easy, and it works. But that’s where we run into the same limitations as the smart home solutions.
Because the main PKM applications aren’t available on the smartwatch platforms, the capture to processing becomes a multi-step process. Not unmanageable, but certainly not optimal.
What is the right way?
The thing to remember with capture is the act is far more important than the method. Whether you use paper or processor, speech or stylus, the mere act of getting it out of your head and into something referenceable is the right first step. To quote David Allen of Getting Things Done fame:
“Your mind is for having ideas, not storing them.”
Nothing could be closer to the truth when it comes to ADHD. It’s not limited to ADHD though and these methods can be useful for anyone. Which would you rather spend your mental energy on, remembering things, or thinking of new things?
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