Summary: Use kitchen priorities for safety
Cost: Free
Please Note: The smoke alarm is not a good substitute for the oven timer.
The problem is that waiting for food to cook or water to boil is boring. And boring times are the most likely problem areas for your ADD.
If you are preheating the oven, use the oven timer for 5 mintues. If you put something in the oven, set the timer for just under the right amount of time (to give you time to set down whatever project you were doing for the 14-16 minutes that it took the pizza to bake).
Then turn off the oven, then turn off the timer.
If (ohmygosh the food is burning!) you get distracted taking the food out, or finding a collander or a hot mit - just leave the timer buzzer going off. Never turn off the timer until you have turned off the heat.
I have not left the oven on once by mistake when following this coping strategy.
Related:
Another good idea is to never leave the kitchen when you have food cooking for any reason. There are plenty of distracting things do do and clean while you are waiting for water to boil. If you do have to leave the kitchen for some reason - try to take a big cooking implement with you (spatula, hot mitt, something like that). If UPS is at the door, they won't mind if you sign for a package with a hot mitt on - way less embarassing than explainging the fire-truck to the neighbors.
Related:
The toaster oven (with no built-in timer) is dangerous for this reason, use 'toast' but not 'bake' in the toaster oven unless you set a separate reminder alarm.
Related:
Never get out of arms reach of any faucet you have opened.
Cost: Free
Please Note: The smoke alarm is not a good substitute for the oven timer.
The problem is that waiting for food to cook or water to boil is boring. And boring times are the most likely problem areas for your ADD.
If you are preheating the oven, use the oven timer for 5 mintues. If you put something in the oven, set the timer for just under the right amount of time (to give you time to set down whatever project you were doing for the 14-16 minutes that it took the pizza to bake).
Then turn off the oven, then turn off the timer.
If (ohmygosh the food is burning!) you get distracted taking the food out, or finding a collander or a hot mit - just leave the timer buzzer going off. Never turn off the timer until you have turned off the heat.
I have not left the oven on once by mistake when following this coping strategy.
Related:
Another good idea is to never leave the kitchen when you have food cooking for any reason. There are plenty of distracting things do do and clean while you are waiting for water to boil. If you do have to leave the kitchen for some reason - try to take a big cooking implement with you (spatula, hot mitt, something like that). If UPS is at the door, they won't mind if you sign for a package with a hot mitt on - way less embarassing than explainging the fire-truck to the neighbors.
Related:
The toaster oven (with no built-in timer) is dangerous for this reason, use 'toast' but not 'bake' in the toaster oven unless you set a separate reminder alarm.
Related:
Never get out of arms reach of any faucet you have opened.
2 comments:
These are really great strategies, FREE (always good), and fairly easy to implement. I would like to make your link available to my clients by posting it to my website at Seattle Direct Counseling, with your permission. I think it would help my ADD/ADHD clients tremendously.
Thanks for the comment :)
Please feel free to link and share with anyone who might benefit. One of the reasons for writing these down is to help other people who benefit. And I can somehow feel that all those lost cell-phone chargers went toward a good cause.
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