While these basic items may not drastically transform your life, having several of them within reach can provide helpful support.
Spencer Silver was looking to create an adhesive strong enough to be used in aircraft manufacture but ended up inadvertently creating a repositionable adhesive sheet. This sheet has allowed millions of people to communicate and hold information.
2. Memo Pads
3 x 5 lined notebooks provide slightly more confidentiality for schedules, activities, and events throughout the day, but still cheap enough to be bought in bulk. These pads are horizontally lined to provide slight structure and small enough fit in your pocket.
3. Tile or Apple AirTag
Maybe a little more out of the budget-range, but a great item for the symptom of, “Loses things necessary for tasks/activities”. It is blue tooth connected and will chime at the touch of a button on a paired item. The expanded product line has Tile that fit in wallets, and stickers to put on various items around the home.
4. Highlighters
Information processing often impacts reading comprehension. Having some highlighters on-hand can help with parsing the most important information and allow you to come back to it as needed. This reduces the information you must hold and remember.
The more timers, the better. This simple wind-up kitchen timer is recommended as it allows you to make time visual and reduce the amount of mental math needed during cooking. The use of a phone or smart device can lead to distraction and, if lying flat on the counter, it is not going to provide much of a visual cue. Timers need to be visible, and this is a great option.
*Bonus Essential*
6. Body Double
Do you have someone you can share a schedule with? A student may be able to share a google calendar with a classmate and reduce the cognitive load of tracking dates and assignments. It can help with knowing how much time could be needed to complete classwork, or how much studying is expected for an exam.
Hopefully, this provided some ideas and budget friendly items to add to your toolbox of ADHD Resources. We cannot change our complex functional regulatory brain function, but we can try to create an environment that leads to success.
*Wysocki Psychological Services participates in the Amazon Associates affiliate program. This means that if you purchase any products through links on our website, we may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. These commissions help support our organization’s mission to provide mental health services, and we only recommend products that may genuinely help people manage their mental health. Your support through purchases enables us to continue offering care to those who need it. Thank you!
