The more you use ADHD tools the less you need them
I worked with one of my ADHD career coaching students to setup a second brain in Obsidian, and integrate a smart watch into their daily routine (timers, calendar notifications, and so on).
At our last meeting, they said to me…
It’s funny: the more I use these tools, the less I need them.
What they meant was just having a trusted place to offload the stuff in your limited working memory was a majority of the benefit.
When you no longer have a dozen things actively bouncing around that you’re trying not to forget, you’re less likely to forget them.
Putting stuff in the notebook so you don’t forget it means you tend to remember it even if you don’t look at the notebook. Setting a timer or calendar reminder on your watch means you often (but not always) remember the event without the reminder.
The tools become a backup, because sometimes you do still need that.
But the most powerful part of the tools is that it frees your brain to focus on other, bigger things instead of the minutia of “please don’t forget this!”