Weird Ways to Remember
The ADHD brain can be fickle. ADHDers have trouble remembering things, especially in the short term. The old expression “in one ear and out the other” seems to apply to those of us with ADHD. The trick I have found is to find weird ways of remembering. I plan on sharing some weird ways to remember things in this blog post. I hope you find them helpful.
Squawk Like a Bird
I first encountered this strategy on the British TV show Would I Lie to You? One of the panelists claimed to squawk like a bird when locking his front door. It turned out not to be true, but I latched onto it. To me, it seemed like a valid strategy. I now try to use it to remember whether or not I have closed my garage door.
Say It in a Weird Voice
That thing you need to remember? Try speaking it out loud in a weird voice. For example, if you need to remember someone’s name and their name is Roger, you could slip into a fake British accent and say, “Roger! Darling!” or something like that.
Create Something So Stupid You Won’t Forget It
When I was taking a government class in high school, my teacher taught us a way to remember how to spell the word “separation.” Apparently, while writing about the separation of powers in the US government system, many of us incorrectly spelled “separation.” As she introduced the way to remember how to spell “separation,” she told us that it was really stupid but that we never forget how to spell it. She was right. It was stupid, but I have never forgotten how to spell the word “separation.” She told us, when spelling “separation,” you want to separate yourself from A RAT. A lot of people want to spell it “seperation,” but that is incorrect. The words “a” and “rat” are in the middle of “separation.” This stupid little trick has ensured I have never misspelled “separation” again.
Get Weird!
Feel free to use these suggestions if they are helpful or discard them if they are not. I hope more than anything that you will get weird. Another way of saying that is: I hope you will get creative and adapt the suggestions in this blog post for your own purposes. You do not have to use them exactly as I described them. You should feel free to create your own weird ways of remembering. You have the capacity for creativity, so get out there and get weird/creative!