One of the biggest complaints new clients come to me with is overwhelm. One of the biggest things they seek is a quieter mind. And one of the first things I do with my clients is to start making more space in their busy brains. A crucial part of this is a task management system.
What's Your Way?
How do you keep track of all the millions of things you have to do?
In your head?
In a Whatsapp group with yourself?
On a phone app?
In a paper planner?
With a digital task management system like Trello?
On paper (maybe lots of little pieces of paper)?
Other?
Stop Relying on your Brain!
In this day and age of constant interruptions, distractions and demands; even neurotypical brains struggle to keep it all in mind. Busy, noisy ADHD brains have it even harder. Not to mention trying to prioritize one task over another when you can't see them all in front of you. Then there's that niggling anxious voice whispering in your ear, "What am I forgetting? When am I going to drop the next ball?"
The first step is acceptance that our minds are very unreliable hard drives, especially when stressed. So option #1 above should never be your default option. Remembering just does not work. Let it go!
So Now What?
There are advantages and disadvantages to each of the other options listed above. You can read more about that in this blog post I once wrote:
Essentially, there is no best system. The best one is the one you actually use! The point is, if we want more peace of mind, if we want room for our creativity to flourish, we have to limit what we carry around up there.
So what's your (partially) successful system? Comment below.