ADHD Tool Tip: Keep a Running To-Do List

The ADHD tool I’m sharing in this post is a very simple, basic item: a 3″x5″ pocket journal with a pen. As I’ve stated previously, tools that work for one person do not work for everyone. Choose the tools that best support your unique brain and your unique executive function challenges.

Something that works for me and my brain is a running to-do list. I keep it in a small journal that tucks neatly into my pocket or my purse or, if I’m traveling, my backpack. (I like this one because it comes with a pen, which is very convenient and reduces the chance that my thought might escape while I hunt down something to write with.) At the beginning of the year, I turn to a new page, write the year on it, and continue my list.

As various things I want to remember enter my thoughts, whether something major or something trivial, I add each to my running to-do list. Sometimes, I’m very diligent about keeping my journal with me to write in, and, other times, I lose track of it altogether. When I find it again, I keep going with my list. This running to-do list in my pocket journal ensures that the fleeting thought I had about that very important thing that I keep forgetting will be recorded and available when I’m ready to act on it.

Sometimes I use the list to inform my plans for a day or a week. Sometimes, I go through it and cross off things I’ve completed without even realizing I did. Sometimes, I review the list from the current year and past years to see how much I’ve accomplished.

Not everything I put on the list gets completed. There are things that I’ve written in it that became less important or even irrelevant as time passed and situations changed. That’s okay. In a way it tells a story of my life and its phases and what was important in a particular period of time. The point of the list is to support working memory, decrease anxiety, and evidence successes along the way.

Yes, you can accomplish the same thing using the notes app on your phone or a Google doc on your computer, but don’t underestimate the powerful brain-body connection that occurs when handwriting something. The simple act of handwriting something you want to remember increases the likelihood that you will, even if you lose what you wrote it on, far greater than if you type it into a digital format.

If you’d like to try using a pocket journal to record a running to-do list, clicking on any of the highlighted words or the picture will take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn on qualifying purchases. I like this journal because of the size and convenience of it. If there’s another journal that gets you excited about keeping a running to-do list, get it.