Everyone can be forgetful at times, but for those with ADHD, forgetfulness is a daily struggle. This leads to frequently losing things, forgetting conversations, and missing appointments and plans without realizing. Working memory is the brain’s ability to temporarily hold and work with information without losing track of what we’re doing. The primary reason for forgetfulness in those with ADHD is a weakness in working memory. This can lead to issues such as constantly misplacing your wallet, forgetting deadlines, and entering a room and forgetting why you went in there in the first place. If you’re struggling with ADHD & forgetfulness, here are 8 effective tips and tools to help.
ADHD and Forgetfulness in Women
ADHD is linked to forgetfulness as the disorder impacts the ability to store and process information. ADHD is believed to impair the executive functioning of your brain, which can cause issues with information storage. Memory problems surface in ways like missing appointments, failing to remember friends’ birthdays, or forgetting where you put your keys, leading to routinely forgetting important information or items in daily life. Forgetfulness often manifests as a key part of the “inattentive” ADHD type and can often go unnoticed due to women’s tendency to mask their symptoms and overcompensate with careful planning and being overly organized. Forgetfulness can have an affect on relationships, work, and personal responsibilities, impacting your day-to-day life.
10 Signs of Forgetfulness in Women with ADHD
- Forgetting important dates such as friends’ birthdays
- Frequently misplacing items
- Struggling to remember appointments
- Forgetting important details or instructions
- Difficulty keeping track of schedules
- Forgetting routine tasks like house chores
- Brain fog
- Short term and long term memory issues
- Immediately forgetting something someone just told you
- Abandoning a task midway because you forgot what you were doing
4 Techniques to Help with Forgetfulness for Women with ADHD
1. Meditation and Mindfulness
Meditation and mindfulness exercises can help your brain activate alpha waves (the ones that help you tune out distractions). Meditation has been shown to improve concentration, reduce stress, and increase blood flow to the brain, which can help strengthen memory capacity. Meditation can significantly reduce your stress hormones, which contribute to mental fatigue and brain fog. Starting a daily meditation practice (even a few minutes in the morning or before bed) can work wonders for your brain and memory.
2. Healthy Lifestyle Habits
Healthy habits like working out regularly, eating a healthy diet, and getting adequate sleep can all help with forgetfulness as they promote a healthy mind. Focus on consuming brain foods like whole grains, salmon, eggs, leafy greens, nuts, and berries. Physical activity is good for your brain and helps boost memory. It also reduces stress. Any type of movement from walking to strength training to martial arts is great for brain health. It’s also important to get a good sleep as disrupted sleep can make forgetfulness worse. Aim for 7-9 hours of deep, uninterrupted sleep each night.
3. Write Everything Down
Make it a habit to start writing everything down, whether it’s in your paper planner, a notebook, or the Notes app on your phone. Anytime you agree to plans, make an appointment, or need something from the store, keep an ongoing list to make it easier to keep track of all the small things that tend to slip your mind. You can also do this for a new show or book you want to check out or restaurant you want to try.
4. Use Organizational Strategies
Utilizing to-do lists, daily planners, calendars, and reminder apps can prevent you from forgetting appointments, due dates, and plans. They’ll help you with memory and task management so you can stay on top of your schedule and responsibilities. Use these organizational strategies to your advantage to help with forgetfulness.
4 Tips, Tools & Resources to Help
1. Leave Notifications “Unread” Until You’re Ready to Answer
This goes for everything from texts to emails to direct messages on social media. Reading a text and thinking “I’ll reply later” is not the best idea for those with ADHD. You may have the best intentions, but these things are super easy to forget when they’re not in your face. Either reply right away or leave it unread so that there’s still a notification that reminds you that you have to answer.
2. Create a Launchpad
If you’re often forgetting/misplacing your keys and wallet before you leave the house, create a launchpad- a specific place in your home that you always check before leaving. It could be a shelf, a small empty bowl, or a drawer in your entryway console table. Place items like your wallet, keys, and sunglasses here. It’s also great if you have to bring something you don’t usually take with you. Have a birthday card you have to mail out? Put it in your launchpad. Having a launchpad will make it easy to grab everything all at once when you’re leaving, just remember to put them back in the launchpad when you get home.
3. Talk to a Professional
A professional therapist can help you manage your ADHD symptoms and work directly with forgetfulness/memory issues. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can help you learn to identify and change patterns and behaviours that contribute to forgetfulness. It can also help you develop skills to enhance working memory, organization, and time management.
4. Use Alarms to Your Advantage
Alarms are one of the best tools you can use to manage forgetfulness. Set recurring daily alarms like “take supplements” “put in laundry” or “take the dog for a walk”. Whenever you’re taking a break, you can also set an alarm to remind you to get back to work. Most smartphones have a clock app that includes programmable alarms and other features, and there are alarm apps available to download as well.
If you have ADHD and struggle with forgetfulness, we hope these tips, tools and resources help!
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