Living with ADHD, or other types of neurodivergence, it’s easy to find yourself in what I call the ADHD time warp. If you don’t always know the answer to “What did I do today?” at the end of most days, then you also experience the time warp.
How I cope with the time warp
Throughout the day, as I go about my daily routines, I pick a cue and decide to make that my “check-in” – mine is when I’m in the bathroom. ?
When I hit my check-in, I open a dedicated note on my phone and look at my accomplished list. These aren’t things I finished, just things I did and worked on that feel important to me.
At the end of each day when I put my phone on the charger in another room, I do my final update for the day.
On Fridays when I do Majordomo days, I go through my phone and update it with tasks I feel are relevant to remember. Tasks like picking up the kitchen may not feel important, but changing the water in my fish tank and washing the bedding is important, so I don’t go indeterminate amounts of time between doing them because I “just did them” but have no concept of when.
Switching to an ‘accomplished’ list instead of using to-do lists has helped me a lot because if I don’t get a to-do list finished, but get a lot of other things done, it feels like a failure.