An Absurdly Easy Solution To Your Poor Working Memory

16 Comments: An Absurdly Easy Solution To Your Poor Working Memory

1. Also here to flag the very, very problematic “Believe it or not, I sometimes listen to rap when I am driving. (And if you are my friend you won’t repeat that.)”

   I flinched in the opening at “…those same notes were like trying to read Chinese” — there are 1.3 *billion* native speakers, and plenty of other ways to say you don’t comprehend something without other-ing — and then rap comment was bafflingly terrible — and doesn’t illuminate or explain anything that could possibly justify its use.

   Editors, how does this get past you? Please update this with an editor’s note.

2. My solution was to make a diary with EVERY hour of every day with its task.
   That got me through high school and university.

3. I have terrible memory as well. Also had a lot of trouble
   with math. In addition to ADHD, I also have dyscalculia and sensory processing issues (ive tested positive for autism spectrum – what would have
   been Aspergers). Anyway – it’s very frustrating. I absolutely must see/write
   down or take photos (ie like of parking spots). Start giving me verbal directions and I grasp pretty much nothing.

4. Yeah the comment on rap got to me too. I made an account just to say so. It didn’t strike me as intentionally racist, but yeah…you may want to look into why you feel the need to hide your enjoyment of rap or why you think it would be unbelievable.

5. “Believe it or not, I sometimes listen to rap when I am driving. (And if you are my friend you won’t repeat that.)” Umm, did this comment stand out to anyone else? Intentional or not, this is racist. Ouch. Do your homework on this one, Liz, and make it right.

6. Adhd is basically having a brain with a fast processor but no RAM.

7. All good with not taking up more tasks and obligations than you really can. But monotasking? I will forget what that one task was anyway.
   If I remember I had to do sth while I’m doing sth else, even grabbing my phone or agenda to write that down will make me forget what I was at, and I’ll also forget what I was about to write, or that I took my phone to add sth to my “to-do list”, or that I went to my room to get my agenda. How about things that you just have to wait for a machine to get done? Laundered clothes tend to sit in the machine for a few hours, but at my lowest times I’ve even had them there for 2 days, constantly remembering that I needed to hang them and forgetting before I did so.

8. The author seems to be conflating working memory and focus. Monotasking may help with your focus, but it’s not going to do anything to improve your working memory; you’re just avoiding the loss of focus that would expose your poor working memory, as in the example of her blowing her cooking by doing multiple things at once. Is her memory suddenly better if she focuses only on the cooking? Of course not.

   It’s also ironic that she pimps monotasking, but then later encourages listening to music while doing things you should be focusing intently on.

9. I lost my planner.
   The other thing I want to mention to my fellow ADHD people is that if you have ADHD, you must get Adblock, and,for people with this disability, I think the world should accommodate us by not forcing ads on us by way of barring us unless we disable our adblockers. I can’t afford to see the stupid ads, not me, not my pocketbook. My ADHD is serious, and I have to live on disability because I’ve never been able to hold onto even one single job.
   Hey, don’t have a site like this unless you can tolerate some very angry comments. People with these disabilities cope with huge stresses. You can’t expect us to be perfect when you open a door like you’ve opened here. It’s infuriating to get a link that sounds like help, and then it’s not that you want to help, it’s that you’re trying to sell a book. To this site’s credit, though, there are some helpful links.
   I don’t see all the ads people are talking about, but you people running this site probably need to remove some of the ads that are hurting the very people you claim you want to help.
   Therapists think they have a right to earn a living at what they do. I disagree. If you want to dedicate your life to helping people, then you should accept some responsibility for helping those who have the disorder you want to help but are unable to afford your help because of their disorder. If you can make money off of my disability, then I should be able to make money off of my disability, too. Is that possible? No. Take some responsibility already.
   Cutting off the people who truly need help instead of only the ones rich enough to give you the money you need to build that new deck on your house means that you’re not really a therapist at all.
   Saints should have hands that even sinners can reach.

10. Anyone like me? Have poor working memory but not ADHD? By the way, I do everything on this list! However, was not diagnosed with ADHD. They said it was all due to my poor working memory.

11. There are 8 distractions in the body of this article, each of which invites the reader to wander away and multitask, even as one tries to monotask (that is, read the article). In fact the entire ADDitude website is one big distraction circus!! COuldn’t be worse design for people with ADD unless you added blinking lights.

    1. LOOOOOL First i looked for a planner on amazon – then i created an account and now im replying to your comments so actually 9 distractions including you 😉

    2. Unfortunately, it’s all about the money. Think about it like this:

       >More time spent on ADDitude = more advertisements being seen
       >More ads being seen = more ad revenue for the site. It’s how they make their money.

       Even neurotypical people are more likely to stick around if they see an interesting article. It’s all about creating a design that keeps the viewer there clicking more articles, seeing more ads, generating more revenue.

    3. Seems like a lot of sites are built that way, commensurate on how much the organization is willing to cover the cost for their site. Free sites are available but at the mercy of an advertising circus. Even my aging smart phone is its own ad machine. What a shame. :/

12. I forgot what I was going to say!

    1. This hurts because it’s too real 🙁