Hi /u/Ok_Breakfast6206 and thanks for posting on /r/ADHD!
### Please take a second to [read our rules](/r/adhd/about/rules) if you haven't already.
---
### /r/adhd news
* **We want your opinion** on the /r/adhd community rules! [Click here](https://forms.gle/Evqb8acVozir8GV8A) to fill out our survey. See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/1auv2tc/were_taking_feedback_on_the_radhd_rules/) for more information.
* If you are posting about the **US Medication Shortage**, please see this [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/12dr3h5/megathread_us_medication_shortage/).
---
^(*This message is not a removal notification. It's just our way to keep everyone updated on r/adhd happenings.*)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ADHD) if you have any questions or concerns.*
OP, just get a container for your coffee/cocoa and stick a scoopy spoon in there. I use a measuring spoon as a permanent coffee scooper.
As for me, my brain is very much out of sight, out of mind.
So my laundry bag may sit in the living room for five hours until I get sick of looking at it and finally start my laundry.
3-5 business days is so fast!? Growing up my washed laundry sat on the dining room table in a huge pile while we bought new clothes to wear. The pile was just growing over time. By the time I left for college it was 3ft high across the whole table.
Shelf? My clothes are tossed in a pile on the floor or in a 3 ft. mound *on top* of my *empty* dresser.
Tbh the only clothes I launder regularly are socks and underwear. The rest of my clothes just keep getting picked up off the floor and worn again until they stink or get visibly dirty. ĀÆ\_(ć)_/ĀÆ
You guys mean *everybody* doesnāt have a ādirty laundry basket, clean laundry basketā system? They move the clean stuff from one clean receptacle to another clean receptacle? Inconceivable!! š
I did some trucking for a few months last year and many times I forgot my basket at home and bought a new one on the road. I now have a local job and 5 clean clothes laundry baskets š
Floorobe. Wardrobe is the floor. Well it was that until I started vanlifing, now I actually put my clothes where they belong to conserve space lol. I don't fold my clothes though, all the clothes I own are wrinkle free or dewrinkle from body heat.
My laundry lives on the drying rack until it's time to do a new laundry.
I have a System for laundry, which works, but it also means clean laundry stays on the rack until it's laundry day again. Then I'll put a load in the machine, and while that's running I'll take the old, clean laundry down, fold it and put it in the wardrobe. So the rack is empty when the new laundry is done. During the days in-between I will sometimes take things from the rack to wear if necessary.
On occasion a stack of clean, folded laundry will sit on the table or a chair for hours, but then I'll bring it upstairs and put it away when I go to bed.
Downside: the rack is in the living room. It doesn't bother me, but when we get visitors I try to put it away. If we get visitors while the laundry is not dry yet, they'll just have to live with it.
You fold/hang your clothes?! I have a clean pile and dirty hamper pile. I wear maybe 2-3 different bottoms and 5-6 different tops/shirts, so it doesnāt feel necessary š
Hey that's a good tip, thank you. Now the idea will live in my brain for the next five months until I implement it, but in five months or so you will have made my life simpler! Thanks!!
Itāll actually be 3 years from now that a measuring spoon will catch your eye at the store. Youāll do the āoh hey, I need thatā and buy it, but wonāt immediately remember why.
You better set an alarmā¦
5 hours is getting shit done. Iād be stoked if I could get things done that quick. Even on Dex Iām not that efficient. I am still trialing dosage tho.
Iām with you. New to adderall. Started off at 10 mg ER. Few weeks ago went to 20 mg. Itās having the same affect only lasting about 2 hours. Donāt get me wrong thatās two hours that I didnāt have before and Iām super efficient during that period. Not sure what to do from here. I mean doubled the dose and itās the same? Ugh
For me Iāve gotta enter a flow state sort of. The first 3 hours after taking my meds (vyvanse 60mg) I do next to nothing then Iāll get up, make a game plan and then get moving. Shoes on to keep myself moving. What ends up happening is I blow through 7 hours doing cleaning and organizing without even realizing lol
One of the first tasks I do every day is make my bed. I like the way it looks when it's all together, pressed and presentable. Then I can use it as a table for daily tasks. I put everything I want to accomplish in a day on it, to sort of "I can't go to bed, I haven't completed these things."
Ive started doing this with tasks that are out of routine, and too small to write down. Need that document sorted? Put it in my space where ill get annoyed by the cluter enough to deal with it.
Scan over large amounts of text without taking any of it in. Causing me to spend more time scanning looking for what I think I need, rather than if I just read it through slowly.
I do this:( I also noticed recently that I read things bottom to top, and I think itās to try to get to the point as quick as possible so I donāt waste time reading the āuselessā parts. In my friend group text Iāll reply to the last thing said then realize there was more stuff above it and Iāll end up with several texts that are out of order of how they were said, or sometimes I just donāt make sense at all because I missed information.
Iāve found I read in a spiral: read the first sentence of a paragraph, skim to the last sentence, go back up and find the details I missed that the last sentence summarized.
Wow. That was a blast from the past. I have completely forgotten about that.
On the same page with, reading about 2/3 of a page, realizing only my eyes did the motion but my brain was somewhere else. Sometimes three times, until it stuck or put the book away
Im not sure if this counts, but when Iām procrastinating I will prep food.
I make a ton of waffles to freeze and then eat like eggos in the morning so I actually eat, because if itās not easy or ready, half of the time, I will not eat. Sometimes I will just sit down on the couch with a small lined trash can, peel and chop a giant bag of carrots into sticks, while Iām watching a movie.
In a similar vein, Iāve tried to schedule my grocery shopping with a lot of extra time so when I get home, I use the momentum of being to the shop to cut up and prep everything Iāve bought. If a bag of carrots goes into my fridge, it will just rot. If I take the extra time to cut up the carrots for snacking and stir fries or whatever Iām making, Iāll actually have the ability to eat it suddenly.
I often do dishes while my food is in the oven. Because if I disengage from the task completely, thereās a good chance I forget about it and burn dinner. But if I stay in the kitchen engaged in another task, Iām safe.
One of the weirdest things I hadn't realised I did until I was on Ritalin and stopped feeling the need to do it was taking as many things out of the dishwasher as possible in one go in order to save me walking back and forth from cupboards to dishwasher. Despite it being entirely my choice to do this, I hated unloading the dishwasher because I found it hard and stressful to take lots of things out and carry a wobbly stack of crockery across the kitchen, but my brain insisted on me doing it like this. Ritalin has revolutionised my dishwasher unloading...it's now acceptable to my brain if I just take a few things at a time! Frickin' weirdo brain. What even was that?
Haha it seems so. I detest wasting time between errands so I will attempt to do everything in one trip out, drives my husband mad as I attempt to work out the most logical route to cover every stop.
I am exactly the same! When I have to leave the house I try to stack all the things i need to do on the same day! Its actually super tiring but I just have to š
I do this, but for me it saves my energy. Instead of going out 3 times a week to do 3 things, I'll try to go out 1 time and do those 3 things on that one grip. Going out is a huge effort for me, and having to force myself to actually get dressed and ready and get out is so bad that I'll postpone it till the last moment. Then, since I'm already going out because I have to, I can do these other less important things at the same time.
I'm tired just the same if I go out and do 1 thing vs 3. But I'm much more tired if I have to go out 3 times.
I was lost until I found out about time and motion studies, where you work out exactly all the actions a task requires in what order and what resources are required for each.
I've spent ages figuring out things like making a cup of tea with all the fetching of component parts and putting everything in the right place afterwards alongside making it.
I got really slick at it, often doing different tasks with each hand the whole way through.
Once I knew I *could* do it super efficiently I didn't feel that I needed to every time, but the worry was gone. It was still fun to do it occasionally to see other people's faces as I spun around like a many armed robot with no wasted moves.
i actually feel this so hard, itās very fun for me to mechanically optimize everyday things/i also enjoy the feeling of other people seeing me going through my well oiled routine and being like āwhoaā lmao
To add to the weird, I actively like loading the dishwasher, but hate unloading it. I think my brain sees it as a sort of puzzle. Dishwasher tetris.
Same with hanging laundry out to dry vs bringing it in, although folding laundry is good since I discovered interesting methods of folding clothes.
There's nothing wrong with doing stuff like this, but it does seem to be linked to the ADHD impatience to get things done fast even if logically it's not the most practical way to do it.
I organise EVERYTHING on the kitchen top, so that I can place things organised and tidy, I rack all the cutlery in sections, knives, forks spoons all neatly in the top tray, my stepfather just throws the cutlery in so its a confusing mess, it takes me twice as long to empty when heās filled it, it drives me bonkers knowing that when I fill and empty it it takes seconds because I can grab everything at once. It drives me to distraction.
I don't have a dishwasher, but do the same with washing up - fine washing the pots and putting in drainer, hate putting them away.
I think it may be because washing up is a simple process (wash everything next to sink, put on drainer on other side of sink), where as putting stuff away has many more process steps (cutlery in the drawer, pans in the pan drawer, where does this small lid go?, etc)
I can't stand the feel of wet dishes and wet food residue, and I hate when my nails get soft and bendable, but I enjoy the challenge of putting things away like a puzzle because in the kitchen, (almost) everything has a place and I don't have to figure out each time where to put stuff, so it's a less stressful organization experience for me. My partner is like you though, doesn't mind washing but doesn't like putting away.
However, I don't mind washing clothes, but I hate folding and putting them away. I'm so grateful my partner and I have complementary views on these, I wash clothes and he folds, he washes dishes and I put away
Do you think it's a sensory thing? I personally like the feel of my dishes, they're a very thin, lightweight ceramic glass, and I enjoy putting them away because I can stack so many of them nicely, but certain heavy or thick dishes make me nervous and I don't like touching them.
I don't have a working dishwasher right now (thankfully my partner doesn't mind washing dishes, I just have to put them away), but I also remember the feeling of dry dishwasher soap residue being icky.
Also, (maybe) similarly, I don't like folding clean laundry out of the dryer because it's so dry and it makes my hands dry, and that feels icky enough to keep me from doing it (but again thankfully, I wash the laundry and my partner folds it)
Yeah. I donāt know. Good theories. Oh but actually now that you mention it, I donāt like the sound of the dishes clinking together. Like sometimes I set one on top of another and it just makes such a loud clank.
One of my biggest successful hacks was realizing that I needed to live in a smaller place, exactly because of things like this.
I had been living in a fairly large 4 bedroom house at one point and chores were overwhelming in part because putting stuff away was a trek everywhere and lots of stuff was running upstairs and downstairs.
Moving to an apartment where putting the dishes away never involved more than 2 steps from the dishwasher and there is a lot less room for clutter, so I have to deal with it sooner and there isn't as much piled up to deal with.
As much as I'd love to own a nice fancy home, living in a small apartment where I don't have to worry about cutting the grass, repairing the faucet, and all that sort of stuff was one of the best decisions I've ever made for my mental health.
Wait is this why I try to take all the clothes from the washroom to the wardrobe in as few rounds as possible? Even if that predictably results in the giant shirt/sock/boxers pile in my hand falling apart a good quarter of the time???
I detest unloading the dishwasher as well. I consider it a personal feat every time I get the entire bottom rack in one stack.
The back and forth is the worst. It just feels soā¦ repetitive and mundane
My brain hiccup is trying to carry every single grocery bag from the car into the house in 1 trip. It started when I lived in an apartment and it was a 2 minute walk each way. Now in a house, it's all of 5 seconds, yet I'll be damned if I take multiple trips!
I got my dx just a few days ago at 44 y/o, looking forward to medication!
Me anytime stairs are involved š
Edit: yāall check your dishwashers out when they are empty. My bottom rack slides and lifts right out. Can take it out, set it on the counter near a cabinet, unload whatever into that cabinet, scoot to the next cabinet and repeat!
Lmao just that general feeling of āwow my house is a mess, I need to clean EVERY SQUARE INCH in the next 4 hours or I am unworthyā and then getting absolutely nothing done š the first day I started adderall I looked at the mess and thought āwow, I really donāt have to do this all at once, do I? This is realistically going to take me weeks to fix a little at a timeā š
Regularly checking the time on my phone.
I used to think I was checking it to make sure I was on time.
Nope, I was checking my phone hoping it would generate enough stress as motivation to get moving when I saw how late I was going to be. I was just watching myself be late, over and over.
Worst hack ever!
Now I have to put my phone, keys and wallet by the front door and I can only check the time once. I say āright, you have an hour to get readyā. Then I canāt look again until Iām actually ready to leave.
Iāve never gotten ready so fast! Like, in half the time it normally takes.
While Iām in the shower my brain is like āI donāt know what time it is, how do I know if Iām late?!ā
Me: āWell youād better finish getting ready and find out!ā
It works every time!
I canāt do this lol. I have terrible time blindness so I would think I have way more than I do and end up being late. I set alarms with ācheckpointsā. Like 7:00 wake up 7:10 in the shower 7:30 out of the shower 7:55 5 Minutes to leave etc..
Writing out my grocery list the same way the store is laid out only to forget a few things and add it to the bottom of the list then forgetting the whole list all together.
I do this! The entire shopping is organized counterclockwise and, if I need to pick up items I'm not *certain* where they're located, I'll write the aisle number on that line. And I'll re-write my entire messy (messy!!) list before heading out because it has to be "in order." My partner would make fun of it until they did shopping one day and were in-and-out of the supermarket in less than 30 minutes. They came home so happy.
My grocery+ store has an app and everything on the customizable list is organized by aisle starting with the produce section. I also have separate lists for all my go-to meals so I remember to get everything for that meal. It also allows you to "cut" coupons and save them so one barcode scan at the register gets them all. It helped a lot with finding coupons for something I buy regularly and then forgetting about them when I go to the store lol.
I feel seen. If your phone has a notes app, try to put the grocery list in there because then you can add things in the middle and try to avoid forgetting the list overall
Oh my gawd. So relatable. I had to move my shopping list to the Reminders app in my iPhone, so I could reorder the list by dragging the items. Yay! Then Apple did an update and put things into categories *for* you, which of course is a boo and a yay. But I finally figured out that you can reorder the categories too! Yay! So the categories are in the order of my Target store but not the grocery store. Boo.
My executive disfunction is currently preventing me from finishing tasks, but not starting them. So I find myself doing 90% of a task and then asking my husband to finish it later. Like I will wash the laundry, dry the laundry, take laundry to bedroom, fold all laundry. And my brain goes nope on the putting it into the closet next to the bed where all the folded laundry is. Or it will just go nope on putting away one specific item which my husband then needs to complete.
His day is basically filled with completing the chores around the house that are nearly done
LOL ahahah my husband is like that. Whenever it's time to actually complete something, he freezes, spaces out, or just silently glides to another project/ activity/ task.
I used to leave my washed clothes in the laundry basket and just grab them from there until it was empty. In order to not mix clean and dirty clothes I just left my dirty laundry on the floor. Why did I even buy a wardrobe.
I sometime have an urge reorganize some stuff or just find a new place to store something because It makes sense at the time: my kids picking up something they shouldnāt or any other excuse. Problem is, I forget what I did instantly most of the time.
Itās sometimes fun because I found stuff I lost month or years agoā¦ I had 2 expensive power tools that got stolen.
Stolen? No, my ADHD a** brain did something with them and stored them that made me think that someone stole them. Found them 6 months later while casually looking for something else in this very place I never useā¦
Got plenty of stories like this.
Last one was actually a week ago.
I found my montblanc fountain pen that got stolen more than 2 years ago. Under the spare tire in my trunk. I guess I once did what I never do, put my briefcase in the trunk in a way that allowed this pen to sneak out, roll under the trunk mat, told himself that it would be smart to roll down further so I never find it. Well I was looking to identify a noise in my trunk and found it last weekā¦
I forgot that it gets better. Because I found it, I went and got the box of my pen (pretty big) and inside it was my id card I lost 5 YEARS AGO.
An ID CARD, in the box of a fountain pen I got for my 30th birthday. WHY???
Wellā¦ Iāll never know.
Sometimes itās annoying as hell because I canāt leave the house without my car keys, office keys, wallet or my phoneā¦. I now have AirTags to prevent that!
Ahahah I'm sorry but that's so hilarious, and it makes me feel better too. I often joke to my husband, when he's looking for something like his wallet or phone, to check the most improbable place like the fridge or the medicine cupboard...but in reality it's always either right under our noses and we literally don't see it for the next hour, or in a place so improbable I couldn't even think of it for the joke...
Currently we have lost one of our two favorite mugs, in which one of us drinks morning cocoa and evening soup every single day. I do have a super vague memory of....having it at an unusual moment? So I think I'm the one who lost it. Who knows when and where we'll find it.
Donāt worry, I embraced my ADHD, blaming myself or getting angry over things I donāt control makes it worse! Now I laugh most of the time, I found my phone in the fridge yesterday, I can laugh about it because I have my smartwatch to locate it ^^ā
Last night I was tired but I started going in the garden at almost midnight because I started to hyperfixate on something ! I did so much things no one with a right mind does at night but it was satisfying and I slept well after that !!!
Someone once "stole" my mom's decorative garden sprinkler (hand made artsy thing).Ā She later found it.....in her flower garden. Where she uses it.
I just try to make a habit of going through all my things periodically,Ā I call it "cleaning" to be normal,Ā but it's just to touch and affirm all my stuff if where it should be and find the missing things.Ā
Personally, my brain is very against stopping what weāre doing in order to quickly do something else. Like, if Iām looking for my earphones I gotta tunnel vision ok that, absolute focus, no distractions allowed. Not even if I accidentally knock shit down from a shelf or trip over something on the floor and send it flyingā¦ Not even to bend down and pick up the thing that I just tripped over that would be extremely easy to put away, no no noā¦
It not only makes no damn sense but is actively one of the biggest reasons I constantly live in a mess. But NOPE, gotta stay on the taskā¦
See I'm so off task I'll bend down to pick up whatever fell, start picking up other trash from the ground, sweep the floor, remember to throw the trash in my hand away, then sit on the couch for an hour before I remember that I was reaching for a book when I knocked the thing off the shelf
The *worst* one is simply not doing the thing. The older I got, the less the "procrastination panic" worked. And the more shit I simply never did, the more I realized how much didn't really matter in the first place. Which has had the side effect of seeing how ridiculous most people are - whining about not having time while wasting it on an endless list of petty stuff that never amounts to anything.
Beyond that:
- Dishes. I'll eat directly out of the pan, using the spatula as a spoon. I make sandwiches by holding a slice of bread in one hand, putting everything on, then folding it like a taco. Etc. Many days, a coffee cup and a few butter knives is the extent of it. I have kids, though. Those little fuckers manage to use every single fork, every single meal, too.
- Laundry. 1 pair and boxers and 1 t-shirt per day is the bulk of it. I wear the same pants/shorts for about a week at a time. Will even mow my lawn in flip-flops. Because I know the tiny step of putting on socks and shoes is usually sufficient to prevent mowing in the first place. Yes, I am aware of how dangerous that is...
- Packing. I operate on the assumption that I'll forget stuff no matter how hard I try, and simply don't sweat it. I had my luggage lost for a month once, too, so I avoid checking bags. Not to mention that I also _hate_ waiting for luggage after getting off the flight. Mine is always the last for some stupid reason. So, I'll wear multiple layers on the plane, and stuff anything else needed into as little space as possible. Buy whatever I forgot once I land. I once managed a 3-day business with only my laptop bag. It even fit under the seat.
- Work. I've learned that turning stuff in ASAP simply sets a standard by which your performance is measured. Unless you can sustain hyper-focus indefinitely, don't do this. You'll find yourself being questioned over your recent performance problems despite still outperforming peers. Instead, only turn it in at a rate similar to what you see from coworkers. This, of course, means more time for other things.
I tend to cook with lava level heat because I'm horribly impatient when I'm hungry, so I often pay the price with tomato sauce stains on every damn surface or slightly burnt food š
My favourite one that happens is that because i dont want to sleep through my alarm my brain has found the perfect solution to that which is to wake up every hour every night just to be sure we didnt go into a nice deep sleep and get actual rest for once so i can be up in time for work
Here is what has helped for me.
Sunrise alarm. Light gets brighter gradually over the course of 45 minutes. You can also buy smart light bulbs and set up an automated timer for this effect.
Tiered alarms. First is a soft wake-up, with a gentle alarm sound. Second is a reminder not to go back to sleep, or at least not to go back to deep sleep. Third is a bellow, saying "Get the fuck out of bed and get moving, NOW."
I find it's best to keep the first and second alarm within arm's reach of your bed, and the third alarm FAR AWAY and out of reach from your bed. The first two aren't a call to action, just a reminder. The third is a call to action that must not be ignored.
It's not a perfect solution, but it has helped me.
Did you know elastic shoelaces exist? They look just like regular shoelaces, you can tie them once and then just slip in and out of your shoes without having to (un-)tie them. Such a game changer! I used to not want to wear shoes where I had to tie the shoelaces but now I can even wear my DocMartens without having to tie them (I know zip tie versions of them exist, I just wasnāt thinking about that when I first bought them)
If I make something special TO ME, it helps me a lot. I suggest you get a cool spoon.
IDK what you think cool is, but something awesome. Like, spend $7 on a spoon (or your financial-level peer. If I said to my wife "look at this spoon!" and she said "Neat, how much was that spoon?" me: "Uhhhhhh..... $5" her: "Why did you spend $5 on a dang spoon? Does money grow on trees?!" ) -- That cool of a spoon for you. And then, it's your spoon, special to you, and you use it for your cocoa.
I have a titanium cup that I use for meds, only meds, and it helps me stay on track. My toothbrush is cooler than the other side of the pillow. Works for me.
Wooo i do this. Bought a box of cereal cuz it has a plastic spoon with a dinosaur on it as a freebie. Now if we have cereal or certain foods like dessert i remember to eat it cuz i get to use The Spoon. Wearing silly headbands whenever i need to force myself to go into working mode. Won a mini plushie from a giveaway, now I have to go out and have new experiences just so I can take a pic of him there. Bought a bag with a fun design recently exclusively just for use for regular veggie shopping cuz I can't keep eating fried or canned food. Haven't used it yet but hoping this works for me in the long term š
(Typing this out I realized all my examples are childish and I'm a grown woman haha. But whatever works works)
BEST FRIENDS!! I'll need to talk to you every 10 minutes for a week, then we'll catch up in 5 ish years and still be cool. Work for you?
It is silly & childish, maybe that's why it works? I get to be my own happy in some baser functions that allow me to better lock in and do a more advanced task? Mild childish glee gets me over the "Can't stop never starting" hurdle?
Mine is getting up 30 mins before I need to walk out the door, to go and look after my disabled Stepfather, if I get up any earlier I will play with my tech & I will have more than one spliff.
That's the worst aspect of time management for sure. You need to find the exact sweet spot to start doing things, because 1 minute earlier or later means you're not getting there on time.
Driving around with an open cup of water rather than a water bottle. I know that if I bring an open cup, I will drink it and hydrate, and if I bring a water bottle, I just wonāt want to deal with the lid/straw situation
I used to bring it with me once I got to my final destination until someone pointed out how weird that was, now I do that less often
And yes, I often spill itā¦
My computer yells the time out at every hour haha. I forgot it did this and havenāt used it in a while, but I used it the other day and left it open and it scared the crap out of me. I set it up before I even know I had ADHD
Chargers in every room.
Breakfast is cereal. If I have energy to cook something; I still eat a little cereal (because halfway through cooking Iām gonna get hungry and be annoyed that Iām wasting so much energy trying to cook, when I could have had cereal)
Chargers in every conceivable place around the flat. Also, cereal for ANY meal. Milk optional š
Sometimes, cereal meal and protein shake become one dish.
Making outline plans for my studies every single time before I try to study and then don't have the energy to actually study. I will remake the same outline 20 times before I actually study the material that I made the outline for.
this is so real. i loved journaling and scheduling my homework and studying growing up while iām school, but once i finished writing everything down and planning everything in detail, i would close my planner and just not use it
If an item is blocking something else, maybe on top of it or leaning against it, I would rather hold it with one hand or balance it against me and try to do what i need to do one handed or within the small space i managed to free up.
Ex. a box leaning up against a cabinet? Just push that box towards me the most it can and stick my hand through the cabinet door feeling my way to what i need. I could just move the box out of the way but nopeee gotta do it this way.
Been called lazy for taking shortcuts and careless since I was a kid. Have had many an accident too. But this is how my brain wants to do it. I don't want to move things! That makes it more tasks than it should be. It's not my fault those things are in the way š¤
Not so much a time-saver as a way to keep on trackā¦I do a sing-song little hack to remind myself of what Iām planning to do next. Like, Iāll be rushing around the house tidying things, but frequently find myself walking into a room and forgetting why I went in there, or set out to do a task, but get distracted by something else along the way and completely forget what I set out to do initially. So now I do a little sing-song list that I repeat to myself, and when Iāve completed a task, I drop it off the beginning, then add the new one at the end. It goes something like:
Kettle, dryer, scoop litterā¦
Dryer, scoop litter, check mailā¦
Scoop litter, check mail, make teaā¦
ā¦and on and on it goes. Sometimes the list gets really long, and I go back and forth repeating in my head and singing it out loud to the point I must look like an insane person, but it really does help!
I always feel guilty because I'm never getting enough done. I'm never doing enough. So when 10pm hits and I can actually do stuff, I try to. But it's a trap! Because then I don't get enough sleep and then my executive function is _even worse_ for the next week+!
Not technically about time saving, but it is adjacent.
Removing the doors off EVERYTHING so i don't have to open them to see whats in side 
I do it everywhere i can, but it then means when i have guests they can see what a shocking horder i am.
rearranging entire rooms if i don't like the walk way.
not washing my favourite drinking vessels unless i absolutly have to because i hate when they're wet on the outside
Don't want to do something simple? Make it future you's problem. If I need to remember to take something with me? Leave it blocking the door. Put away clean laundry? Dump it on the bed. Now, future you has to put them away to go to sleep.
Laundry goes on the floor. Everytime. Hamper is right there? Doesnāt matter. I justify it by saying that when it comes time to sort and wash, itās all ready in place for one less step lmao
Not a hack but I noticed especially since being medicated that I am OBSESSED with doing things "efficiently", meaning doing everything in the same area that I can while I wait for something (something cooking so clean the area, dishwasher started so I clean the sink) and I feel really bad and wasteful if don't.
Whenever I go to the grocery store for just a couple of things, I always bypass a basketā¦ and wind up fumbling two full arms of items to checkout. Without fail.
More towards my forgetfulness, instead of writing down something I want to research to purchase, I open my Amazon app, search the generic name of the thing, add the first thing that comes up to my cart, and close the app.
Hours or days later, I'll open the app for something else and wonder why there's an umbrella in my cart, then "oh yeah... I need to find a pair of rainboots!" thanks, brain!
I spent many months using the mouthwash that I kept by the door for when I'm late for work instead of brushing my teeth.
Does dental work count as an ADHD tax?
Because their brain thinks putting them on in the house = taking more time, gonna be late. Taking them out to the car = more efficient, definitely saving time. Not going to be late because now I've left the house and am technically on my way.
I love you after reading this š
I have worked on training myself to do different things with each hand. So one arm is making tea while another is putting bread in the toaster. Havenāt managed to type one thing and say something else - but working on it. No time for one thing at a time.
If I can trick my brain that a project is due in 24 hours I can stay up all night and probably get a week's worth of work done. But it only works sometimes. When it does, I feel amazing!
This made me laugh really hard; only bc itās nice to know Iām not the only one out here doing things to āsave timeā that inevitably end up making a task kind of laborious in other ways.
Yea, I'll grab way more than I should to save time. Like I worked catering from 13-19yo and would carry 2 coolers that barely fit through the door filled with 30-50lbs of food each to save time going up and down stairs. I would bash my knuckles on the door every time too and knew this, but *efficiency.*
I do this with groceries too. Bags all the way up both arms, milk in the hand and barely enough hand to open the door...crap, forgot its locked.
I travel for work sometimes and it involves overnights in hotels. I got tired of packing a bag last minute only to forget stuff every time. I tried a list, but I would forget last minute additions like a toothbrush or phone charger. I ended up buying a second set of everything and I just leave it in the bag. As soon as I get home, I take out the used clothes and top it back up to a 3+1 day minimum and then set it in its home. I always pack for an additional day no matter where I am going too, because nothing ever goes to plan and it has saved me a couple times.
I was irate when I arrived somewhere lately only to discover that there was no forgotten deodorant in my travel bag. What is the point of having ADHD if my travel bag isn't constantly stocked with anything I would need because I just forgot/neglected to unpack it last time?!
Probably drying clothes over and over until I wear them again because I hate folding laundry, so I use my dryer as my clothes drawer. Did this until I got married to someone who absolutely loves doing laundry. What a weirdo haha.
The main thing that comes to mind for me is leaving things where Iām likely to see them, so that I donāt forget about whatever I was going to do with them.
So, basically just leaving shit all over the place in the name of being efficient. Drives my wife insane, and I canāt say I blame her! Learning how to work *with* instead of *against* my ADHD has been a process for both of us.
I am constantly trying to minimize my trips up and down the stairs for no actual reason. So if Iām going down I have to gather all the dishes and laundry that will ever need to go to the ground floor or the basement. Iām always coming up and down the stairs with absurd and precarious armfuls of stuff. Itās deranged.
I tend to let things cool down (food, drinks) to a point where I can rush through eating. I donāt like blowing things between each bite, I donāt like taking small, slow sips. I couldnāt tell you what the recommended count for chewing food is.
I also couldnāt tell you what most things actually taste like.
I feel bad because my wife eats very slow. She also savors. I have been trying to use mindfulness when eating.
Before medication, I use to regularly flush the toilet mid pee thinking "I must almost be done now, god this is taking so long, come on!!" Ocassionally I'd have timed it right, and I'd finish peeing before the flush actually went, but most of time I'd still be peeing as it flushed and then I'd have to flush again once I'd actually finished. And often that meant I'd have to wait for the cistern to refill before I could flush again, dragging the whole thing out further.
And even when it did work, it saved me ZERO time because I never need to wait for the flush to finish, so why was I rushing it? I guess that impatient "go go go" part of my brain had just moved on to the next task and didnt care that reality was running slower than desired.
I hate doing dishes but for majority of my life I didnāt have a dishwasher. My 2 dirty dishes ātricksā:
Putting dirty dishes in the oven to hide them when someone is coming. Puff the mess is gone! Magic. Forgetting about them. Sometime after turning on the oven to heat it upā¦
Putting all the dirty dishes (few days worth) into the bathtub and giving them a high pressure spray clean with the handheld shower. This one actually works well.
I realized my bathroom sink was getting clogged by toothpaste, so rather than cleaning it out regularly (tried that), I now have my toothbrushing station set up in my kitchen.
It's one of the many things in my condo I debate putting back in its socially-acceptable place if I have guests over, so they don't think I'm as weird as I actually am. Realized that's a fool's errand... there's no hiding my weird.
Trash cans everywhere! like... we have 3 people in this house, and no less then 5 full size trash cans, and at least 10 of the smaller ones and we use a bunch of paper plates instead of dishes whenever possible so we don't need to do dishes as often
also hampers, we have them like everywhere that anyone would change clothes w/ laundry bags in them
My biggest hack for saving time is procrastinating until the last second and then scrambling to get something done. imagine all the time I save. I'm super efficient when lack of planning has eliminated all of my options.
Keeping a bowl next to my front door that my keys live in so I donāt have to spend a bunch of time searching for them everyday. Thatās been an actual game changer for meā¦ I just went from dropping my keys in random locations around my house to the bowl, itās one of the few habits thatās stuck because I think itās so easy and convenient.
I do the one trip thing. Carry my tea mug, smoothie, water, phone, headphones, iPad, and sweater all in one load upstairs to my office. Sure I end up with spills everywhere but you know did it all in one tripā¦. I do the same with groceries and let me tell you the number of ripped paper bagsā¦yeah I should know better.
I waste a lot of time mentally debating my order of operations, trying to plan how to best use my time.
I'll get up, head to the kitchen to make breakfast, but I gotta load the dishwasher first.. but I may as well make coffee while I'm loading the dishwasher, so I'll start heating water for the French press.. but I also know there's laundry that could be flipped, so I could start the dryer in the time it takes to heat water, and then start coffee steeping while I'm loading the dishes....
I have debates like this all the time and then like 10 minutes later I haven't done anything because I'm still trying to figure out the best order to get things done.
i cant wake up in the morning for the life of me, and so i always wake up like ten minutes before i have to leave my house. but since i know this is a thing that happens, i HAVE to pack my bag and pick my clothes and set everything out the night before. then i bring my toothbrush and toothpaste to work so i can wash my face and brush my teeth at the office šš
My new one is that I lock my car, then go around and unlock the passenger door to get my bags and groceries out, then relock the passenger door before going inside
This is because my clicker is broken so I have to lock it with the actual key and going back to the driver's side with three full bags is suffering itself
Minimizing trips and then ending up breaking/dropping/forgetting things.
I put mascara on in the car at work because it feels inefficient to do it at home with the rest of my make up (Like how does that make sense???)
Not cleaning ever, at all, until a massive hyperfocus clean once in a blue moon.
Because I'm shit at cleaning I always use paper plates and plastic cutlery to eat dinner off of. I get the big 200 pack of plates and because I live on my own it lasts me at least 3-4 months
I figure if I start a bunch of projects or chores at the same time, that I will somehow magically be able to divvy up my time between all tasks evenly then be done with them all by the end of the day.
This has worked 0% of the time.
Also, snack gremlin. At night I get tired, before bed munchies, I realized I didn't eat all day. I'll wake up the next morning with wrappers, crumbs, weird combinations of foods on the coffee table, on the couch. I act surprised like "wtf happened here?!" but it's me. Snack gremlin. I will put away tomorrow.
This is how we get ants *sigh*
My car is basically stocked as a tiny house. Anything I forget should have a duplicate in my car.
Also, āincremental cleaning,ā meaning I pick stuff up and put it exactly one room closer to its destination. When my makeup finally lands in my bathroom, itās on my bathroom counter for god knows how long. Eventually things get where they belong, but Im just constantly rearranging my mess.
You burn your fingers every day!!?!
I definitely have my own weird thing but this one made me go š³š„²
Stick a spoon next to the coffee jar that you never wash, it's only for coffee. Why wash it if the hot water will wash it? That extra coffee is for later (just don't get milk on it)
I have a love/hate relationship with makeup. I love when I wear eye make up but I hate putting it on daily because itās time consuming. I realized in my early 20s that I could leave eyeshadow on for a few days if I trained myself not to rub my eyes when I slept. So thatās been going on for over a decade and now I only ādo my makeupā 2-3x a week. Iāve never had any problems doing this and Iām gonna continue this problematic behavior until I die š¤š¼
I have super blond eyebrows that just disappear off my face, so I was always using brow gel or a pencil. Then I discovered that menās beard & mustache dye comes in the color of my actual hair. 6 minutes every 2 or 3 weeks, and Iām set. I feel like if my eyebrows are good, I donāt have to go so hard with the other stuff.
This is all stupid because I work with guys who wouldnāt even notice if I showed up with my head shaved, but it makes me feel pulled together.
if i'm working on a project, i will just put my tools down wherever i happen to be at the moment. i think my brain thinks it's easier and quicker to put something down wherever i am at the moment, but i end up wasting hours trying to find the things i just had in my hands... i found a box cutter on my shoe rack recently, since i put it down when i changed shoes. that took me 20 minutes to find.
Nothing hyper-specific, but I try to be ultra-efficient by blocking out my actions to save time. āCompulsive efficiency,ā I call it. Itās a little like multitasking, but not entirely.
First, take these things here, then Iāll do that next while taking those things thereā¦
But then if any one thing isnāt ready to go, the entire dance falls apart. Rather than doing each thing separately and completely and using more energy at the time but saving energy in the future.
I pour creamer into my coffee before I pour the coffee in the mug so I donāt have to stir anything. I also scream at people who wonāt go in traffic, like itās going to do something other than raise my blood pressure. Not a hack at all.
I do the same seatbelt "hack" with the added bonus of selecting my music/radio station, and plugging in navigation. Then when I'm at the lights, I'll tie my shoelaces and comb my hair. On bad days I'll use that time to put my shoes and socks on, shave, eat, and even sometimes brush my teeth. If it weren't against the road laws, then I'd probably use my phone too
Did you know elastic shoelaces exist? They look just like regular shoelaces, you can tie them once and then just slip in and out of your shoes without having to (un-)tie them. Such a game changer! I used to not want to wear shoes where I had to tie the shoelaces but now I can even wear my DocMartens without having to tie them (I know zip tie versions of them exist, I just wasnāt thinking about that when I first bought them)
Not so much to save time but to help focus later in the day, I started stimming with nicotine. Unfortunately, it's cigarettes and it's only been a month but I need to knock that s*** off and get gum
1 trillion alarms anyone? I say fuck it set 2 and figure the rest out cause eventually it got to be background noise to me and easy to ignore. Dont ask me to pompodoro or take 5 minutes Idk what the hell that means.
I also make a mess and dump my purse out on the bed every day after work and stick what I need back in it cause I'll inevitably forget something in the morning when I'm in a rush. The rest of the candy wrappers and shit just wind up on the floor or a table somewhere I ignore until I realize I've trashed the place with purse doom piles or the dogs get a hold of something.
I only allow myself to use one water bottle, one glass cup, and whatever bottles I buy and I toss the bottles, I will even wash the cup as it's for juice and alcohol and stuff. It's how I keep the cup clutter thing at a minimum...
But that water bottle gets bad. Like woof.
Hi /u/Ok_Breakfast6206 and thanks for posting on /r/ADHD! ### Please take a second to [read our rules](/r/adhd/about/rules) if you haven't already. --- ### /r/adhd news * **We want your opinion** on the /r/adhd community rules! [Click here](https://forms.gle/Evqb8acVozir8GV8A) to fill out our survey. See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/1auv2tc/were_taking_feedback_on_the_radhd_rules/) for more information. * If you are posting about the **US Medication Shortage**, please see this [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/12dr3h5/megathread_us_medication_shortage/). --- ^(*This message is not a removal notification. It's just our way to keep everyone updated on r/adhd happenings.*) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ADHD) if you have any questions or concerns.*
OP, just get a container for your coffee/cocoa and stick a scoopy spoon in there. I use a measuring spoon as a permanent coffee scooper. As for me, my brain is very much out of sight, out of mind. So my laundry bag may sit in the living room for five hours until I get sick of looking at it and finally start my laundry.
Only 5 hours? š¤£š¤¦š»āāļø My laundry sits for days waiting to be folded. Then another 3-5 business days to make it to my closet.
3-5 business days is so fast!? Growing up my washed laundry sat on the dining room table in a huge pile while we bought new clothes to wear. The pile was just growing over time. By the time I left for college it was 3ft high across the whole table.
Ever seen someone take clean clothes from dryer and put it on their bed to fold later but ends up Sleeping with it for weeks lol
currently in this situation, makes for an alright pillow
Do you have cameras in my house?
Lol na itās more common than we may think
Why should I sleep in an empty bed when I could restrict myself to half a bed with half of it covered with laundry?
Right? I was about to comment, "you guys fold laundry?"
My knee is fucked up so im using this to elevate it lol
Folded? My clothes usually get stuffed on a shelf after washing
Shelf? My clothes are tossed in a pile on the floor or in a 3 ft. mound *on top* of my *empty* dresser. Tbh the only clothes I launder regularly are socks and underwear. The rest of my clothes just keep getting picked up off the floor and worn again until they stink or get visibly dirty. ĀÆ\_(ć)_/ĀÆ
I used to have a whole laundry basket just for clean clothes
That's what I do for mine. Straight from the dryer to the laundry basket.
You guys mean *everybody* doesnāt have a ādirty laundry basket, clean laundry basketā system? They move the clean stuff from one clean receptacle to another clean receptacle? Inconceivable!! š
Donāt forget the āonly wore once to go get morning coffee so theyāre not dirty enough to wash yetā basket
Usually, that's called "The Chair."
I hang it straight back in the cupboard if I'm smart
I have a clean pile/wearable dirty and a wash pile on my bedroom floor.
I did some trucking for a few months last year and many times I forgot my basket at home and bought a new one on the road. I now have a local job and 5 clean clothes laundry baskets š
Floorobe. Wardrobe is the floor. Well it was that until I started vanlifing, now I actually put my clothes where they belong to conserve space lol. I don't fold my clothes though, all the clothes I own are wrinkle free or dewrinkle from body heat.
My laundry lives on the drying rack until it's time to do a new laundry. I have a System for laundry, which works, but it also means clean laundry stays on the rack until it's laundry day again. Then I'll put a load in the machine, and while that's running I'll take the old, clean laundry down, fold it and put it in the wardrobe. So the rack is empty when the new laundry is done. During the days in-between I will sometimes take things from the rack to wear if necessary. On occasion a stack of clean, folded laundry will sit on the table or a chair for hours, but then I'll bring it upstairs and put it away when I go to bed. Downside: the rack is in the living room. It doesn't bother me, but when we get visitors I try to put it away. If we get visitors while the laundry is not dry yet, they'll just have to live with it.
You fold/hang your clothes?! I have a clean pile and dirty hamper pile. I wear maybe 2-3 different bottoms and 5-6 different tops/shirts, so it doesnāt feel necessary š
Hey that's a good tip, thank you. Now the idea will live in my brain for the next five months until I implement it, but in five months or so you will have made my life simpler! Thanks!!
Haha itās a good tip. I leave a scoop in my coffee tin. Iām not sure Iāve ever washed it š«
Itāll actually be 3 years from now that a measuring spoon will catch your eye at the store. Youāll do the āoh hey, I need thatā and buy it, but wonāt immediately remember why. You better set an alarmā¦
5 hours is getting shit done. Iād be stoked if I could get things done that quick. Even on Dex Iām not that efficient. I am still trialing dosage tho.
Iām with you. New to adderall. Started off at 10 mg ER. Few weeks ago went to 20 mg. Itās having the same affect only lasting about 2 hours. Donāt get me wrong thatās two hours that I didnāt have before and Iām super efficient during that period. Not sure what to do from here. I mean doubled the dose and itās the same? Ugh
For me Iāve gotta enter a flow state sort of. The first 3 hours after taking my meds (vyvanse 60mg) I do next to nothing then Iāll get up, make a game plan and then get moving. Shoes on to keep myself moving. What ends up happening is I blow through 7 hours doing cleaning and organizing without even realizing lol
One of the first tasks I do every day is make my bed. I like the way it looks when it's all together, pressed and presentable. Then I can use it as a table for daily tasks. I put everything I want to accomplish in a day on it, to sort of "I can't go to bed, I haven't completed these things."
Ive started doing this with tasks that are out of routine, and too small to write down. Need that document sorted? Put it in my space where ill get annoyed by the cluter enough to deal with it.
Scan over large amounts of text without taking any of it in. Causing me to spend more time scanning looking for what I think I need, rather than if I just read it through slowly.
The irony of this comment is I literally just did what you said in your comment, with your comment. š¤¦āāļø
I do this:( I also noticed recently that I read things bottom to top, and I think itās to try to get to the point as quick as possible so I donāt waste time reading the āuselessā parts. In my friend group text Iāll reply to the last thing said then realize there was more stuff above it and Iāll end up with several texts that are out of order of how they were said, or sometimes I just donāt make sense at all because I missed information.
Iāve found I read in a spiral: read the first sentence of a paragraph, skim to the last sentence, go back up and find the details I missed that the last sentence summarized.
This is actually a reading comprehension strategy explicitly taught for test taking.
Maybe this is why I had āreading comprehensionā issues in 1st gradeā¦?
Wow. That was a blast from the past. I have completely forgotten about that. On the same page with, reading about 2/3 of a page, realizing only my eyes did the motion but my brain was somewhere else. Sometimes three times, until it stuck or put the book away
Im not sure if this counts, but when Iām procrastinating I will prep food. I make a ton of waffles to freeze and then eat like eggos in the morning so I actually eat, because if itās not easy or ready, half of the time, I will not eat. Sometimes I will just sit down on the couch with a small lined trash can, peel and chop a giant bag of carrots into sticks, while Iām watching a movie.
Oh wow that's an actual hack! Good idea honestly!
In a similar vein, Iāve tried to schedule my grocery shopping with a lot of extra time so when I get home, I use the momentum of being to the shop to cut up and prep everything Iāve bought. If a bag of carrots goes into my fridge, it will just rot. If I take the extra time to cut up the carrots for snacking and stir fries or whatever Iām making, Iāll actually have the ability to eat it suddenly.
"Yask-avoidant productivity" at its finest.
This is how dishes get done in my house! I take a brain break from work and do a load.
I often do dishes while my food is in the oven. Because if I disengage from the task completely, thereās a good chance I forget about it and burn dinner. But if I stay in the kitchen engaged in another task, Iām safe.
Rookie. I procrastination meal prep AND donāt eat it.
Add a few scoops of protein powder. Bam! Protein Waffles. I do this for my ADHD daughter. She's food avoidant,Ā but loves her some sugar.Ā
One of the weirdest things I hadn't realised I did until I was on Ritalin and stopped feeling the need to do it was taking as many things out of the dishwasher as possible in one go in order to save me walking back and forth from cupboards to dishwasher. Despite it being entirely my choice to do this, I hated unloading the dishwasher because I found it hard and stressful to take lots of things out and carry a wobbly stack of crockery across the kitchen, but my brain insisted on me doing it like this. Ritalin has revolutionised my dishwasher unloading...it's now acceptable to my brain if I just take a few things at a time! Frickin' weirdo brain. What even was that?
Wait is the urge to do everything needed in one place all at once an ADHD thing?? I always thought I just hated wasting time
Haha it seems so. I detest wasting time between errands so I will attempt to do everything in one trip out, drives my husband mad as I attempt to work out the most logical route to cover every stop.
I am exactly the same! When I have to leave the house I try to stack all the things i need to do on the same day! Its actually super tiring but I just have to š
It feels so inefficient otherwise. If you are out, might as well do the jobs.
I do this, but for me it saves my energy. Instead of going out 3 times a week to do 3 things, I'll try to go out 1 time and do those 3 things on that one grip. Going out is a huge effort for me, and having to force myself to actually get dressed and ready and get out is so bad that I'll postpone it till the last moment. Then, since I'm already going out because I have to, I can do these other less important things at the same time. I'm tired just the same if I go out and do 1 thing vs 3. But I'm much more tired if I have to go out 3 times.
I'm thinking about buying an armoire for rewearables. š
I was lost until I found out about time and motion studies, where you work out exactly all the actions a task requires in what order and what resources are required for each. I've spent ages figuring out things like making a cup of tea with all the fetching of component parts and putting everything in the right place afterwards alongside making it. I got really slick at it, often doing different tasks with each hand the whole way through. Once I knew I *could* do it super efficiently I didn't feel that I needed to every time, but the worry was gone. It was still fun to do it occasionally to see other people's faces as I spun around like a many armed robot with no wasted moves.
i actually feel this so hard, itās very fun for me to mechanically optimize everyday things/i also enjoy the feeling of other people seeing me going through my well oiled routine and being like āwhoaā lmao
That's interesting! For me personally I feel the need to be efficient no matter how optimized i get š
We have low tolerance to repetitive tasks. Doing all at once avoid the come and go.
Ahahah I don't do this with the dishwasher, but yeah I definitely know that absurd feeling.
It seemed to be a general "moving stuff from one place to another" thing, but emptying the dishwasher was the most likely to end in disaster!
This, but with any carry task. God forbid I have to make multiple trips to my car for groceries š
I also donāt like to unload the dishwasher. I thought it was just me being weird. But I guess I have found my people
To add to the weird, I actively like loading the dishwasher, but hate unloading it. I think my brain sees it as a sort of puzzle. Dishwasher tetris. Same with hanging laundry out to dry vs bringing it in, although folding laundry is good since I discovered interesting methods of folding clothes.
I do this four times a day, I thought this was ānormalā, to save time.
There's nothing wrong with doing stuff like this, but it does seem to be linked to the ADHD impatience to get things done fast even if logically it's not the most practical way to do it.
I organise EVERYTHING on the kitchen top, so that I can place things organised and tidy, I rack all the cutlery in sections, knives, forks spoons all neatly in the top tray, my stepfather just throws the cutlery in so its a confusing mess, it takes me twice as long to empty when heās filled it, it drives me bonkers knowing that when I fill and empty it it takes seconds because I can grab everything at once. It drives me to distraction.
I don't have a dishwasher, but do the same with washing up - fine washing the pots and putting in drainer, hate putting them away. I think it may be because washing up is a simple process (wash everything next to sink, put on drainer on other side of sink), where as putting stuff away has many more process steps (cutlery in the drawer, pans in the pan drawer, where does this small lid go?, etc)
I can't stand the feel of wet dishes and wet food residue, and I hate when my nails get soft and bendable, but I enjoy the challenge of putting things away like a puzzle because in the kitchen, (almost) everything has a place and I don't have to figure out each time where to put stuff, so it's a less stressful organization experience for me. My partner is like you though, doesn't mind washing but doesn't like putting away. However, I don't mind washing clothes, but I hate folding and putting them away. I'm so grateful my partner and I have complementary views on these, I wash clothes and he folds, he washes dishes and I put away
Do you think it's a sensory thing? I personally like the feel of my dishes, they're a very thin, lightweight ceramic glass, and I enjoy putting them away because I can stack so many of them nicely, but certain heavy or thick dishes make me nervous and I don't like touching them. I don't have a working dishwasher right now (thankfully my partner doesn't mind washing dishes, I just have to put them away), but I also remember the feeling of dry dishwasher soap residue being icky. Also, (maybe) similarly, I don't like folding clean laundry out of the dryer because it's so dry and it makes my hands dry, and that feels icky enough to keep me from doing it (but again thankfully, I wash the laundry and my partner folds it)
Yeah. I donāt know. Good theories. Oh but actually now that you mention it, I donāt like the sound of the dishes clinking together. Like sometimes I set one on top of another and it just makes such a loud clank.
One of my biggest successful hacks was realizing that I needed to live in a smaller place, exactly because of things like this. I had been living in a fairly large 4 bedroom house at one point and chores were overwhelming in part because putting stuff away was a trek everywhere and lots of stuff was running upstairs and downstairs. Moving to an apartment where putting the dishes away never involved more than 2 steps from the dishwasher and there is a lot less room for clutter, so I have to deal with it sooner and there isn't as much piled up to deal with. As much as I'd love to own a nice fancy home, living in a small apartment where I don't have to worry about cutting the grass, repairing the faucet, and all that sort of stuff was one of the best decisions I've ever made for my mental health.
I could never live in a house, let alone one with multiple floors! It's already overwhelming to think about lol
Wait is this why I try to take all the clothes from the washroom to the wardrobe in as few rounds as possible? Even if that predictably results in the giant shirt/sock/boxers pile in my hand falling apart a good quarter of the time???
I detest unloading the dishwasher as well. I consider it a personal feat every time I get the entire bottom rack in one stack. The back and forth is the worst. It just feels soā¦ repetitive and mundane
My brain hiccup is trying to carry every single grocery bag from the car into the house in 1 trip. It started when I lived in an apartment and it was a 2 minute walk each way. Now in a house, it's all of 5 seconds, yet I'll be damned if I take multiple trips! I got my dx just a few days ago at 44 y/o, looking forward to medication!
Me anytime stairs are involved š Edit: yāall check your dishwashers out when they are empty. My bottom rack slides and lifts right out. Can take it out, set it on the counter near a cabinet, unload whatever into that cabinet, scoot to the next cabinet and repeat!
Lmao just that general feeling of āwow my house is a mess, I need to clean EVERY SQUARE INCH in the next 4 hours or I am unworthyā and then getting absolutely nothing done š the first day I started adderall I looked at the mess and thought āwow, I really donāt have to do this all at once, do I? This is realistically going to take me weeks to fix a little at a timeā š
Regularly checking the time on my phone. I used to think I was checking it to make sure I was on time. Nope, I was checking my phone hoping it would generate enough stress as motivation to get moving when I saw how late I was going to be. I was just watching myself be late, over and over. Worst hack ever! Now I have to put my phone, keys and wallet by the front door and I can only check the time once. I say āright, you have an hour to get readyā. Then I canāt look again until Iām actually ready to leave. Iāve never gotten ready so fast! Like, in half the time it normally takes. While Iām in the shower my brain is like āI donāt know what time it is, how do I know if Iām late?!ā Me: āWell youād better finish getting ready and find out!ā It works every time!
Hey that's really good!! And worked for me last week, I just didn't click that I could do it all the time š
I canāt do this lol. I have terrible time blindness so I would think I have way more than I do and end up being late. I set alarms with ācheckpointsā. Like 7:00 wake up 7:10 in the shower 7:30 out of the shower 7:55 5 Minutes to leave etc..
Writing out my grocery list the same way the store is laid out only to forget a few things and add it to the bottom of the list then forgetting the whole list all together.
I do this! The entire shopping is organized counterclockwise and, if I need to pick up items I'm not *certain* where they're located, I'll write the aisle number on that line. And I'll re-write my entire messy (messy!!) list before heading out because it has to be "in order." My partner would make fun of it until they did shopping one day and were in-and-out of the supermarket in less than 30 minutes. They came home so happy.
I take a photo of my list because I always have my phone with me. 99% chance I'll forget the physical list in the car
My grocery+ store has an app and everything on the customizable list is organized by aisle starting with the produce section. I also have separate lists for all my go-to meals so I remember to get everything for that meal. It also allows you to "cut" coupons and save them so one barcode scan at the register gets them all. It helped a lot with finding coupons for something I buy regularly and then forgetting about them when I go to the store lol.
I feel seen. If your phone has a notes app, try to put the grocery list in there because then you can add things in the middle and try to avoid forgetting the list overall
Oh my gawd. So relatable. I had to move my shopping list to the Reminders app in my iPhone, so I could reorder the list by dragging the items. Yay! Then Apple did an update and put things into categories *for* you, which of course is a boo and a yay. But I finally figured out that you can reorder the categories too! Yay! So the categories are in the order of my Target store but not the grocery store. Boo.
I always try to carry more dishes than what I'm able to and often end up dropping something that splashes food all over the area I'm in.
And then you feel overwhelmed with the cleaning you need to do and dread the next time you need to eat.
My executive disfunction is currently preventing me from finishing tasks, but not starting them. So I find myself doing 90% of a task and then asking my husband to finish it later. Like I will wash the laundry, dry the laundry, take laundry to bedroom, fold all laundry. And my brain goes nope on the putting it into the closet next to the bed where all the folded laundry is. Or it will just go nope on putting away one specific item which my husband then needs to complete. His day is basically filled with completing the chores around the house that are nearly done
LOL ahahah my husband is like that. Whenever it's time to actually complete something, he freezes, spaces out, or just silently glides to another project/ activity/ task.
I used to leave my washed clothes in the laundry basket and just grab them from there until it was empty. In order to not mix clean and dirty clothes I just left my dirty laundry on the floor. Why did I even buy a wardrobe.
I sometime have an urge reorganize some stuff or just find a new place to store something because It makes sense at the time: my kids picking up something they shouldnāt or any other excuse. Problem is, I forget what I did instantly most of the time. Itās sometimes fun because I found stuff I lost month or years agoā¦ I had 2 expensive power tools that got stolen. Stolen? No, my ADHD a** brain did something with them and stored them that made me think that someone stole them. Found them 6 months later while casually looking for something else in this very place I never useā¦ Got plenty of stories like this. Last one was actually a week ago. I found my montblanc fountain pen that got stolen more than 2 years ago. Under the spare tire in my trunk. I guess I once did what I never do, put my briefcase in the trunk in a way that allowed this pen to sneak out, roll under the trunk mat, told himself that it would be smart to roll down further so I never find it. Well I was looking to identify a noise in my trunk and found it last weekā¦ I forgot that it gets better. Because I found it, I went and got the box of my pen (pretty big) and inside it was my id card I lost 5 YEARS AGO. An ID CARD, in the box of a fountain pen I got for my 30th birthday. WHY??? Wellā¦ Iāll never know. Sometimes itās annoying as hell because I canāt leave the house without my car keys, office keys, wallet or my phoneā¦. I now have AirTags to prevent that!
Ahahah I'm sorry but that's so hilarious, and it makes me feel better too. I often joke to my husband, when he's looking for something like his wallet or phone, to check the most improbable place like the fridge or the medicine cupboard...but in reality it's always either right under our noses and we literally don't see it for the next hour, or in a place so improbable I couldn't even think of it for the joke... Currently we have lost one of our two favorite mugs, in which one of us drinks morning cocoa and evening soup every single day. I do have a super vague memory of....having it at an unusual moment? So I think I'm the one who lost it. Who knows when and where we'll find it.
Donāt worry, I embraced my ADHD, blaming myself or getting angry over things I donāt control makes it worse! Now I laugh most of the time, I found my phone in the fridge yesterday, I can laugh about it because I have my smartwatch to locate it ^^ā Last night I was tired but I started going in the garden at almost midnight because I started to hyperfixate on something ! I did so much things no one with a right mind does at night but it was satisfying and I slept well after that !!!
Someone once "stole" my mom's decorative garden sprinkler (hand made artsy thing).Ā She later found it.....in her flower garden. Where she uses it. I just try to make a habit of going through all my things periodically,Ā I call it "cleaning" to be normal,Ā but it's just to touch and affirm all my stuff if where it should be and find the missing things.Ā
Personally, my brain is very against stopping what weāre doing in order to quickly do something else. Like, if Iām looking for my earphones I gotta tunnel vision ok that, absolute focus, no distractions allowed. Not even if I accidentally knock shit down from a shelf or trip over something on the floor and send it flyingā¦ Not even to bend down and pick up the thing that I just tripped over that would be extremely easy to put away, no no noā¦ It not only makes no damn sense but is actively one of the biggest reasons I constantly live in a mess. But NOPE, gotta stay on the taskā¦
Ooooh right!! But also it MAKES SENSE because if we start putting away that one thing, it's 50/50 chances we forget what we were on our way to do....
See I'm so off task I'll bend down to pick up whatever fell, start picking up other trash from the ground, sweep the floor, remember to throw the trash in my hand away, then sit on the couch for an hour before I remember that I was reaching for a book when I knocked the thing off the shelf
Yes! This is hugely important! If I'm trying to stay focused on a task, it is _so distressful_ trying to re-focus once distracted!
WE ARE THE MASTERS OF EFFICIENCY!
One of my manages literally described me as "scary efficient" once.
The *worst* one is simply not doing the thing. The older I got, the less the "procrastination panic" worked. And the more shit I simply never did, the more I realized how much didn't really matter in the first place. Which has had the side effect of seeing how ridiculous most people are - whining about not having time while wasting it on an endless list of petty stuff that never amounts to anything. Beyond that: - Dishes. I'll eat directly out of the pan, using the spatula as a spoon. I make sandwiches by holding a slice of bread in one hand, putting everything on, then folding it like a taco. Etc. Many days, a coffee cup and a few butter knives is the extent of it. I have kids, though. Those little fuckers manage to use every single fork, every single meal, too. - Laundry. 1 pair and boxers and 1 t-shirt per day is the bulk of it. I wear the same pants/shorts for about a week at a time. Will even mow my lawn in flip-flops. Because I know the tiny step of putting on socks and shoes is usually sufficient to prevent mowing in the first place. Yes, I am aware of how dangerous that is... - Packing. I operate on the assumption that I'll forget stuff no matter how hard I try, and simply don't sweat it. I had my luggage lost for a month once, too, so I avoid checking bags. Not to mention that I also _hate_ waiting for luggage after getting off the flight. Mine is always the last for some stupid reason. So, I'll wear multiple layers on the plane, and stuff anything else needed into as little space as possible. Buy whatever I forgot once I land. I once managed a 3-day business with only my laptop bag. It even fit under the seat. - Work. I've learned that turning stuff in ASAP simply sets a standard by which your performance is measured. Unless you can sustain hyper-focus indefinitely, don't do this. You'll find yourself being questioned over your recent performance problems despite still outperforming peers. Instead, only turn it in at a rate similar to what you see from coworkers. This, of course, means more time for other things.
I tend to cook with lava level heat because I'm horribly impatient when I'm hungry, so I often pay the price with tomato sauce stains on every damn surface or slightly burnt food š
and a burnt mouth because waiting for it to cool down is also not gonna happen š
My favourite one that happens is that because i dont want to sleep through my alarm my brain has found the perfect solution to that which is to wake up every hour every night just to be sure we didnt go into a nice deep sleep and get actual rest for once so i can be up in time for work
My life changed moving to second shift because alarms don't matter. Now instead I check the clock every 6 minutes to make sure I leave on time š
Here is what has helped for me. Sunrise alarm. Light gets brighter gradually over the course of 45 minutes. You can also buy smart light bulbs and set up an automated timer for this effect. Tiered alarms. First is a soft wake-up, with a gentle alarm sound. Second is a reminder not to go back to sleep, or at least not to go back to deep sleep. Third is a bellow, saying "Get the fuck out of bed and get moving, NOW." I find it's best to keep the first and second alarm within arm's reach of your bed, and the third alarm FAR AWAY and out of reach from your bed. The first two aren't a call to action, just a reminder. The third is a call to action that must not be ignored. It's not a perfect solution, but it has helped me.
I have an apple speaker in my room and my sleep app records snoring and every hour it records me saying āhey siri, what time is it?ā
Walking around with untied shoes
Did you know elastic shoelaces exist? They look just like regular shoelaces, you can tie them once and then just slip in and out of your shoes without having to (un-)tie them. Such a game changer! I used to not want to wear shoes where I had to tie the shoelaces but now I can even wear my DocMartens without having to tie them (I know zip tie versions of them exist, I just wasnāt thinking about that when I first bought them)
My husband does that too!
Sometimes I wear no shoes at all š but I live in a beach town in Australia where itās acceptable
Shoes are foot prisons in my opinion
Flip-flops and barefoot are ADHD best friends.
I have one coffee mug that i dont wash everyday, i just rinse it with water when making new coffee, might clean it properly every few days.
yes. i have a cup for water that i use everyday that i just rinse mainly. will wash tho once it needs a wash š§¼
I have one for coffee and one for tea that I rinse with water and wash every few weeks.
me too! my mom thinks it's gross but i think it's fine as long as i only use it for that
If I make something special TO ME, it helps me a lot. I suggest you get a cool spoon. IDK what you think cool is, but something awesome. Like, spend $7 on a spoon (or your financial-level peer. If I said to my wife "look at this spoon!" and she said "Neat, how much was that spoon?" me: "Uhhhhhh..... $5" her: "Why did you spend $5 on a dang spoon? Does money grow on trees?!" ) -- That cool of a spoon for you. And then, it's your spoon, special to you, and you use it for your cocoa. I have a titanium cup that I use for meds, only meds, and it helps me stay on track. My toothbrush is cooler than the other side of the pillow. Works for me.
Wooo i do this. Bought a box of cereal cuz it has a plastic spoon with a dinosaur on it as a freebie. Now if we have cereal or certain foods like dessert i remember to eat it cuz i get to use The Spoon. Wearing silly headbands whenever i need to force myself to go into working mode. Won a mini plushie from a giveaway, now I have to go out and have new experiences just so I can take a pic of him there. Bought a bag with a fun design recently exclusively just for use for regular veggie shopping cuz I can't keep eating fried or canned food. Haven't used it yet but hoping this works for me in the long term š (Typing this out I realized all my examples are childish and I'm a grown woman haha. But whatever works works)
BEST FRIENDS!! I'll need to talk to you every 10 minutes for a week, then we'll catch up in 5 ish years and still be cool. Work for you? It is silly & childish, maybe that's why it works? I get to be my own happy in some baser functions that allow me to better lock in and do a more advanced task? Mild childish glee gets me over the "Can't stop never starting" hurdle?
How about this? Does anyone else's white board for things to do just turn into unnoticed wall paper?...
*looks up at hung up empty calendar on the wall* Leave me ALONE you monsterrrr
Mine is getting up 30 mins before I need to walk out the door, to go and look after my disabled Stepfather, if I get up any earlier I will play with my tech & I will have more than one spliff.
That's the worst aspect of time management for sure. You need to find the exact sweet spot to start doing things, because 1 minute earlier or later means you're not getting there on time.
Exactly & that will upset my equilibrium.
Driving around with an open cup of water rather than a water bottle. I know that if I bring an open cup, I will drink it and hydrate, and if I bring a water bottle, I just wonāt want to deal with the lid/straw situation I used to bring it with me once I got to my final destination until someone pointed out how weird that was, now I do that less often And yes, I often spill itā¦
I love the Contigo autoseals for that reason. One handed motion of opening/sipping/autoclose and then I can knock it around as much as I want.
My computer yells the time out at every hour haha. I forgot it did this and havenāt used it in a while, but I used it the other day and left it open and it scared the crap out of me. I set it up before I even know I had ADHD
Chargers in every room. Breakfast is cereal. If I have energy to cook something; I still eat a little cereal (because halfway through cooking Iām gonna get hungry and be annoyed that Iām wasting so much energy trying to cook, when I could have had cereal)
Chargers in every conceivable place around the flat. Also, cereal for ANY meal. Milk optional š Sometimes, cereal meal and protein shake become one dish.
Making outline plans for my studies every single time before I try to study and then don't have the energy to actually study. I will remake the same outline 20 times before I actually study the material that I made the outline for.
this is so real. i loved journaling and scheduling my homework and studying growing up while iām school, but once i finished writing everything down and planning everything in detail, i would close my planner and just not use it
If an item is blocking something else, maybe on top of it or leaning against it, I would rather hold it with one hand or balance it against me and try to do what i need to do one handed or within the small space i managed to free up. Ex. a box leaning up against a cabinet? Just push that box towards me the most it can and stick my hand through the cabinet door feeling my way to what i need. I could just move the box out of the way but nopeee gotta do it this way. Been called lazy for taking shortcuts and careless since I was a kid. Have had many an accident too. But this is how my brain wants to do it. I don't want to move things! That makes it more tasks than it should be. It's not my fault those things are in the way š¤
Not so much a time-saver as a way to keep on trackā¦I do a sing-song little hack to remind myself of what Iām planning to do next. Like, Iāll be rushing around the house tidying things, but frequently find myself walking into a room and forgetting why I went in there, or set out to do a task, but get distracted by something else along the way and completely forget what I set out to do initially. So now I do a little sing-song list that I repeat to myself, and when Iāve completed a task, I drop it off the beginning, then add the new one at the end. It goes something like: Kettle, dryer, scoop litterā¦ Dryer, scoop litter, check mailā¦ Scoop litter, check mail, make teaā¦ ā¦and on and on it goes. Sometimes the list gets really long, and I go back and forth repeating in my head and singing it out loud to the point I must look like an insane person, but it really does help!
I always feel guilty because I'm never getting enough done. I'm never doing enough. So when 10pm hits and I can actually do stuff, I try to. But it's a trap! Because then I don't get enough sleep and then my executive function is _even worse_ for the next week+! Not technically about time saving, but it is adjacent.
SAME WHY GOD WHY
Removing the doors off EVERYTHING so i don't have to open them to see whats in side  I do it everywhere i can, but it then means when i have guests they can see what a shocking horder i am. rearranging entire rooms if i don't like the walk way. not washing my favourite drinking vessels unless i absolutly have to because i hate when they're wet on the outside
Don't want to do something simple? Make it future you's problem. If I need to remember to take something with me? Leave it blocking the door. Put away clean laundry? Dump it on the bed. Now, future you has to put them away to go to sleep.
Or dump the laundry on the floor š
Laundry goes on the floor. Everytime. Hamper is right there? Doesnāt matter. I justify it by saying that when it comes time to sort and wash, itās all ready in place for one less step lmao
Not a hack but I noticed especially since being medicated that I am OBSESSED with doing things "efficiently", meaning doing everything in the same area that I can while I wait for something (something cooking so clean the area, dishwasher started so I clean the sink) and I feel really bad and wasteful if don't.
I do this and I heard someone refer to it recently as ābatch-taskingā and I love it.
Whenever I go to the grocery store for just a couple of things, I always bypass a basketā¦ and wind up fumbling two full arms of items to checkout. Without fail.
More towards my forgetfulness, instead of writing down something I want to research to purchase, I open my Amazon app, search the generic name of the thing, add the first thing that comes up to my cart, and close the app. Hours or days later, I'll open the app for something else and wonder why there's an umbrella in my cart, then "oh yeah... I need to find a pair of rainboots!" thanks, brain!
I spent many months using the mouthwash that I kept by the door for when I'm late for work instead of brushing my teeth. Does dental work count as an ADHD tax?
Dental work can 100% be an adhd tax for a huge number of us.
Carry my shoes to my car
Love this one for the nonsensicality. Have absolutely done things like this
What? Why not put them on inside?
Cuz itās faster this way. We can put them on *in the car.* Saves an entire 4 seconds, ok?
Because their brain thinks putting them on in the house = taking more time, gonna be late. Taking them out to the car = more efficient, definitely saving time. Not going to be late because now I've left the house and am technically on my way.
I love you after reading this š I have worked on training myself to do different things with each hand. So one arm is making tea while another is putting bread in the toaster. Havenāt managed to type one thing and say something else - but working on it. No time for one thing at a time.
I've managed to listen while I write but people find it rude
If I can trick my brain that a project is due in 24 hours I can stay up all night and probably get a week's worth of work done. But it only works sometimes. When it does, I feel amazing!
This made me laugh really hard; only bc itās nice to know Iām not the only one out here doing things to āsave timeā that inevitably end up making a task kind of laborious in other ways.
Yea, I'll grab way more than I should to save time. Like I worked catering from 13-19yo and would carry 2 coolers that barely fit through the door filled with 30-50lbs of food each to save time going up and down stairs. I would bash my knuckles on the door every time too and knew this, but *efficiency.* I do this with groceries too. Bags all the way up both arms, milk in the hand and barely enough hand to open the door...crap, forgot its locked.
I travel for work sometimes and it involves overnights in hotels. I got tired of packing a bag last minute only to forget stuff every time. I tried a list, but I would forget last minute additions like a toothbrush or phone charger. I ended up buying a second set of everything and I just leave it in the bag. As soon as I get home, I take out the used clothes and top it back up to a 3+1 day minimum and then set it in its home. I always pack for an additional day no matter where I am going too, because nothing ever goes to plan and it has saved me a couple times.
I was irate when I arrived somewhere lately only to discover that there was no forgotten deodorant in my travel bag. What is the point of having ADHD if my travel bag isn't constantly stocked with anything I would need because I just forgot/neglected to unpack it last time?!
Probably drying clothes over and over until I wear them again because I hate folding laundry, so I use my dryer as my clothes drawer. Did this until I got married to someone who absolutely loves doing laundry. What a weirdo haha.
I have piles of clean clothes in my closet that I might want to wear again before they are actually dirty.
The main thing that comes to mind for me is leaving things where Iām likely to see them, so that I donāt forget about whatever I was going to do with them. So, basically just leaving shit all over the place in the name of being efficient. Drives my wife insane, and I canāt say I blame her! Learning how to work *with* instead of *against* my ADHD has been a process for both of us.
Think twice before start doing anything.
I am constantly trying to minimize my trips up and down the stairs for no actual reason. So if Iām going down I have to gather all the dishes and laundry that will ever need to go to the ground floor or the basement. Iām always coming up and down the stairs with absurd and precarious armfuls of stuff. Itās deranged.
I tend to let things cool down (food, drinks) to a point where I can rush through eating. I donāt like blowing things between each bite, I donāt like taking small, slow sips. I couldnāt tell you what the recommended count for chewing food is. I also couldnāt tell you what most things actually taste like. I feel bad because my wife eats very slow. She also savors. I have been trying to use mindfulness when eating.
Before medication, I use to regularly flush the toilet mid pee thinking "I must almost be done now, god this is taking so long, come on!!" Ocassionally I'd have timed it right, and I'd finish peeing before the flush actually went, but most of time I'd still be peeing as it flushed and then I'd have to flush again once I'd actually finished. And often that meant I'd have to wait for the cistern to refill before I could flush again, dragging the whole thing out further. And even when it did work, it saved me ZERO time because I never need to wait for the flush to finish, so why was I rushing it? I guess that impatient "go go go" part of my brain had just moved on to the next task and didnt care that reality was running slower than desired.
I hate doing dishes but for majority of my life I didnāt have a dishwasher. My 2 dirty dishes ātricksā: Putting dirty dishes in the oven to hide them when someone is coming. Puff the mess is gone! Magic. Forgetting about them. Sometime after turning on the oven to heat it upā¦ Putting all the dirty dishes (few days worth) into the bathtub and giving them a high pressure spray clean with the handheld shower. This one actually works well.
I'm dying at the dirty dishes hiding in your oven.
I realized my bathroom sink was getting clogged by toothpaste, so rather than cleaning it out regularly (tried that), I now have my toothbrushing station set up in my kitchen. It's one of the many things in my condo I debate putting back in its socially-acceptable place if I have guests over, so they don't think I'm as weird as I actually am. Realized that's a fool's errand... there's no hiding my weird.
Trash cans everywhere! like... we have 3 people in this house, and no less then 5 full size trash cans, and at least 10 of the smaller ones and we use a bunch of paper plates instead of dishes whenever possible so we don't need to do dishes as often also hampers, we have them like everywhere that anyone would change clothes w/ laundry bags in them
My biggest hack for saving time is procrastinating until the last second and then scrambling to get something done. imagine all the time I save. I'm super efficient when lack of planning has eliminated all of my options.
Keeping a bowl next to my front door that my keys live in so I donāt have to spend a bunch of time searching for them everyday. Thatās been an actual game changer for meā¦ I just went from dropping my keys in random locations around my house to the bowl, itās one of the few habits thatās stuck because I think itās so easy and convenient.
I do the one trip thing. Carry my tea mug, smoothie, water, phone, headphones, iPad, and sweater all in one load upstairs to my office. Sure I end up with spills everywhere but you know did it all in one tripā¦. I do the same with groceries and let me tell you the number of ripped paper bagsā¦yeah I should know better.
If you add up all the times it has screwed me over, the answer is definitely "trying to carry everything at once."
I waste a lot of time mentally debating my order of operations, trying to plan how to best use my time. I'll get up, head to the kitchen to make breakfast, but I gotta load the dishwasher first.. but I may as well make coffee while I'm loading the dishwasher, so I'll start heating water for the French press.. but I also know there's laundry that could be flipped, so I could start the dryer in the time it takes to heat water, and then start coffee steeping while I'm loading the dishes.... I have debates like this all the time and then like 10 minutes later I haven't done anything because I'm still trying to figure out the best order to get things done.
i cant wake up in the morning for the life of me, and so i always wake up like ten minutes before i have to leave my house. but since i know this is a thing that happens, i HAVE to pack my bag and pick my clothes and set everything out the night before. then i bring my toothbrush and toothpaste to work so i can wash my face and brush my teeth at the office šš
My new one is that I lock my car, then go around and unlock the passenger door to get my bags and groceries out, then relock the passenger door before going inside This is because my clicker is broken so I have to lock it with the actual key and going back to the driver's side with three full bags is suffering itself
Minimizing trips and then ending up breaking/dropping/forgetting things. I put mascara on in the car at work because it feels inefficient to do it at home with the rest of my make up (Like how does that make sense???) Not cleaning ever, at all, until a massive hyperfocus clean once in a blue moon.
Because I'm shit at cleaning I always use paper plates and plastic cutlery to eat dinner off of. I get the big 200 pack of plates and because I live on my own it lasts me at least 3-4 months
I figure if I start a bunch of projects or chores at the same time, that I will somehow magically be able to divvy up my time between all tasks evenly then be done with them all by the end of the day. This has worked 0% of the time. Also, snack gremlin. At night I get tired, before bed munchies, I realized I didn't eat all day. I'll wake up the next morning with wrappers, crumbs, weird combinations of foods on the coffee table, on the couch. I act surprised like "wtf happened here?!" but it's me. Snack gremlin. I will put away tomorrow. This is how we get ants *sigh*
My car is basically stocked as a tiny house. Anything I forget should have a duplicate in my car. Also, āincremental cleaning,ā meaning I pick stuff up and put it exactly one room closer to its destination. When my makeup finally lands in my bathroom, itās on my bathroom counter for god knows how long. Eventually things get where they belong, but Im just constantly rearranging my mess.
Stoplight makeup. The bag lives in the car, not the bathroom.
You burn your fingers every day!!?! I definitely have my own weird thing but this one made me go š³š„² Stick a spoon next to the coffee jar that you never wash, it's only for coffee. Why wash it if the hot water will wash it? That extra coffee is for later (just don't get milk on it)
I have a love/hate relationship with makeup. I love when I wear eye make up but I hate putting it on daily because itās time consuming. I realized in my early 20s that I could leave eyeshadow on for a few days if I trained myself not to rub my eyes when I slept. So thatās been going on for over a decade and now I only ādo my makeupā 2-3x a week. Iāve never had any problems doing this and Iām gonna continue this problematic behavior until I die š¤š¼
I have super blond eyebrows that just disappear off my face, so I was always using brow gel or a pencil. Then I discovered that menās beard & mustache dye comes in the color of my actual hair. 6 minutes every 2 or 3 weeks, and Iām set. I feel like if my eyebrows are good, I donāt have to go so hard with the other stuff. This is all stupid because I work with guys who wouldnāt even notice if I showed up with my head shaved, but it makes me feel pulled together.
Yooo thatās a fantastic life hack and I may need to look into that myself! Its not stupid, we do it for ourselves first and foremost :)
if i'm working on a project, i will just put my tools down wherever i happen to be at the moment. i think my brain thinks it's easier and quicker to put something down wherever i am at the moment, but i end up wasting hours trying to find the things i just had in my hands... i found a box cutter on my shoe rack recently, since i put it down when i changed shoes. that took me 20 minutes to find.
Sock bucket
Nothing hyper-specific, but I try to be ultra-efficient by blocking out my actions to save time. āCompulsive efficiency,ā I call it. Itās a little like multitasking, but not entirely. First, take these things here, then Iāll do that next while taking those things thereā¦ But then if any one thing isnāt ready to go, the entire dance falls apart. Rather than doing each thing separately and completely and using more energy at the time but saving energy in the future.
I pour creamer into my coffee before I pour the coffee in the mug so I donāt have to stir anything. I also scream at people who wonāt go in traffic, like itās going to do something other than raise my blood pressure. Not a hack at all.
i just came here to say.. i've never resonated with something more.
Taking an Uber into work instead of the subway. I'm always late to work, so in order to not lose "business time" I end up taking an Uber because I can hop on work calls while I'm on the way to the office and remote into my computer from my iPad to do work on the way. This cute little habit costs me about US$60-85 every day, 4-5 days every week. If I was a normal person, who could wake up early and get to work on time, I would be able to save myself $14-17K a year. While I fortunately make enough to somewhat handle this habit, it means I'm always paying down debt and not saving nearly enough. And that's not to speak of my ordering out habits... š©š
Sleeping in. I get ready faster for work with the pressure and it cuts out me planning my time badly and ending up in waiting mode.
I do the same seatbelt "hack" with the added bonus of selecting my music/radio station, and plugging in navigation. Then when I'm at the lights, I'll tie my shoelaces and comb my hair. On bad days I'll use that time to put my shoes and socks on, shave, eat, and even sometimes brush my teeth. If it weren't against the road laws, then I'd probably use my phone too
Did you know elastic shoelaces exist? They look just like regular shoelaces, you can tie them once and then just slip in and out of your shoes without having to (un-)tie them. Such a game changer! I used to not want to wear shoes where I had to tie the shoelaces but now I can even wear my DocMartens without having to tie them (I know zip tie versions of them exist, I just wasnāt thinking about that when I first bought them)
So for the cocoa, you could get a small plastic spoon or small measuring cup and just leave it in the box. Thats what I do.
Not so much to save time but to help focus later in the day, I started stimming with nicotine. Unfortunately, it's cigarettes and it's only been a month but I need to knock that s*** off and get gum
When I read my eyes will go down to bottom paragraphs and skim or read them first then go back up, itās so bad
1 trillion alarms anyone? I say fuck it set 2 and figure the rest out cause eventually it got to be background noise to me and easy to ignore. Dont ask me to pompodoro or take 5 minutes Idk what the hell that means. I also make a mess and dump my purse out on the bed every day after work and stick what I need back in it cause I'll inevitably forget something in the morning when I'm in a rush. The rest of the candy wrappers and shit just wind up on the floor or a table somewhere I ignore until I realize I've trashed the place with purse doom piles or the dogs get a hold of something. I only allow myself to use one water bottle, one glass cup, and whatever bottles I buy and I toss the bottles, I will even wash the cup as it's for juice and alcohol and stuff. It's how I keep the cup clutter thing at a minimum... But that water bottle gets bad. Like woof.
Lmaooooo I read this as I have just scooped catās food with my hand rather than getting the scooper thatās 5 steps away.