Episode: 632
Title: HPR0632: Notebook Method for ADHD
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr0632/hpr0632.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-08 00:11:26

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Today we're opening their eyes
What do you think you guys think you're thinking about?
For what?
It's one that it's the last thing that I remember
I was doing anyway
You're laughing like a woman
You got advice from ashift
Welcome everyone.
My name is Drupes and today I'm going to be talking about coping with ADHD with a method
that I've come up called the notebook method.
And I've read a couple books on ADHD, which is something that I deal with and I haven't
seen this method per se and it works really well for me and maybe it doesn't work for anyone
else because ADHD is cool like that.
But I just graduated from college finally and I don't like to take medication.
And so I've come up with this notebook method of taking notes in school and how to study
for tests and it didn't work in all my classes and it doesn't solve all problems but it
definitely helped me like I made the deans list a bunch of times and I'm all finishing
up my college.
Alright, so some of the problems that I have is I have trouble remembering things and
I fidget a lot like my foot's tapping now and I'm playing with my pen.
And I don't pay attention well and I have trouble staying on task and I'm poor organ is
an organizer and I'm very impulsive.
Yeah, that sounds fun.
Let's go do that.
Alright, let's not.
So this helps out with some types of classes more than others like this didn't really work
in my finance class but in a history or English or heavy lecture notes where you're not
having to solve problems works really well.
Okay, so the notebook method I take lots of notes for school and I put them into a fancy
little hipster notebook.
So I'm like a melinsky or mullinskin or however mull skin however you want to pronounce
it doesn't really matter or you could put it in a better notebook that looks very similar
and I pay a lot of money for these little notebooks like I don't know what it's like
ten bucks it's a lot for a little notebook for one class and it makes it feel more important
to me because it's fancy and it's different and it's small and it costs me some cash and
it makes it feel more important to me which which helps me to pay attention to it.
Now I like to leave lots of space when I'm taking these notes so I write most of my notes
on the right hand page leaving room for additional stuff on the left hand page.
And I number all the right hand pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 all the way down with my pen which
gives me something to do while I'm fidgety excuse me in class and it also lets me refer
to it so I'm on like page 64 and I'm like oh this is reference in page 32 and that's
really kind of handy.
So every day I read these notes and from that day and I print out photos to tape into
my little notebook which is really really silly looking but it gives me a visual reference
for my notes and it keeps me involved is I get to use the computer and scissors and tape
you know because I'm four years old and I get to put this in my notebook and it gives
me something to do while I'm reading over my notes so that I can remember so and so
I took this picture and this is the style of picture that this guy took I don't know
or if we're studying JFK or whatever I like to have some pictures.
Now each notebook I have one notebook for every class and they're all labeled on the
outside because they are all the same color and they all the same.
So I have all these similar notebooks that are all labeled for whenever classes.
Now I read the notes before class and before tests obviously and this helps to put this
the information in my head, I've got my pictures, I've got my notes that I've handwritten
in my little fancy notebook and it gives me something to like get into the class mode
with if I read them before class which is kind of neat.
Now for really complex stuff I write a little study guide out on legal paper and as rewriting
it helps me commit the stuff to memory so I can review over my notebook and then I can
look at my little loose leaf sheets I've stable together of notes that I've put together.
Reading it also before sleeping is very helpful because then my little mind thinks about
it while I'm sleeping, I don't know, it does it helps.
So let's turn to the page here okay now these notes that I'm taking in this little notebook
I write them with a fountain pen which again I like to fidget and fountain pens are fun
to take apart and play with and smear ink all over yourself which kind of stops you from
fidgeting a little bit with it.
The pen I use because you can spend any amount of money you want on a fountain pen other
than like very small amounts I just dropped it.
I have a LAMI pen which was a $10 pen it's close to Fari and I bought a little $3 refillable
tube and I have to refill it every day.
I run the whole thing out of ink almost every day and it kind of makes writing fun it's
in a flexes it's all dawn drapery and it's real smooth and I don't know it's just different
I like it and the having to refill it every night helps me get into that study mode it's
kind of like a trigger like I dinner I want to go smoke a cigarette I refill my pen I know
I have to read through my notes and it's kind of fun like again like a little kid I like
playing with the different inks and trying them out and ink is insanely cheap and multicolored
so I can have brown ink or I can have blue ink or I can have colors I mix myself which
are usually kind of nasty looking and the fountain pen also helps keep me from tapping
it on the table and tapping it on stuff because if you drop it a bunch it's just going
to get ink all up in the cap and then it's nasty and I don't know it's a pain but it
helps me gives me something to focus on this school oriented as it would be and so let's
see my planner most planners are big and they're pain and they're really complicated like
I really don't need a mileage chart because you know I have google maps on my cell phone
and there's a lot of things and I probably have a planner on my cell phone but I like writing
it down it helps me remember it so I bought a small size notebook like a little pocket notebook
that's again I think it's a melansky mole sky however and it's simple and it's small and it's
my own design so I put my tasks in it and I don't go to sleep before I either complete all the
tasks for the day or I cross them in a and cross them out or I reschedule them for another day
so I can go through and I'm like oh I forgot to do this I don't do that tomorrow and I'll put it
there and be in my little notebook goals for the day and I'm constantly referencing this thing
I have the day up at the top a little page number at the bottom and I'll put times on things
unless there's a specific scheduled time um yeah so every two days because I complete a page or
you know a sheet every day so I get a whole piece of paper done every two days and I get to fold it
over kind of like you did in fourth grade and it's kind of satisfying to have all that stuff crossed
out and folded over which kind of gives me incentive to complete all my tasks so I get to fold the
page over which is kind of silly and this helps me with organization it was remembering when things
are going to be do what I have to get things done helps me to stay on task and it helps my
impulsiveness because it's like I wouldn't it be cool to have something that did this I can knock
that out in like an hour and a half a code and then I go to my notebook and I was like oh
shit I got bunches have to do today and percepture tomorrow I'll do that on Saturday and the
other time Saturday runs around I look at them like you know that's not really that cool
and uh can just cross it out and it's small because it's a little pocket notebook so I can take
it places with me really easily which enables me to um you know if I'm hanging out with a friend
they're like hey why don't we go do this you know Tuesday I can remember to actually go do it on
Tuesday it's kind of nice um let's see some problems with this some ink sucks and most of it you're
gonna have to blow on it to dry or it could be too watery and it all depends on the ink that
been in the paper so you get to fill around with stuff and find what you like best I use some
noodles ink is what it's called and it's hella cheap and it lasts for a really long time and
it's nice and dark but I have to blow on it on the Mullinskin notebooks but nice to know books
I don't have to but again they give me something else to do I'm that kid in class blown on his notes
um let's see end these things these little notebooks they eventually start coming apart because I
told them everywhere and I bought some books blind glue and it's so easy to glue these things back
together so hey uh to recap I take notes and fancy little notebooks every day and
then I read them and I have a fancy pen for doing all this and I have a fancy planner that I drew
on myself and it helps me to keep organized it helps me to stay on task it helps me with my
fidgeting helps me pay attention and helps me remember things because I have a graphical
photograph to to put with the text helps with my impulsiveness it's all good stuff
and uh hopefully my my little notebook method can help someone else and I might be a doctor
of all kinds of things you know I've been in college for like 12 years actually I'm not a doctor
of anything but hopefully this will help you and if it doesn't maybe it'll you'll be able to
understand that weird kid that's got the weird notebook in the fountain pen and you're like what
a little hipster maybe he's just an hpr listener with pdhd anyway uh I've been droops and this has
been hpr thank you for listening to hacker public radio hpr sponsored by caro.net so head on over
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