Using the oven timer to prevent fires

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.

The Leg Wrap

Summary: Use physical attachment to stop losing items
Cost: Free

Whenever you have a personal item that you can't near you leave in plain view all the time (like a laptop bag or backpack when you are at lunch), wrap the strap around your leg or put your ankle through the loop - so you can't leave the table without it. If you get up to use the restroom, you might want to take it with you.

You might trip yourself or jump along like a cartoon dog on a leash, but you won't forget your expensive laptop at the restaurant.

I also use my shoes as markers because I won't go off without them. If you have a shopping bag that won't loop comfortably - you could put your shoe under (or inside) it and then sit on your stocking foot. Any physical reminder that stops you from forgetting the item is worth considering.

Never use the hotel dresser drawers

Summary: Using the luggage rack reduces lost items
Cost: Free

Nearly every hotel room has a folding luggage rack to hold your suitcase. When you get to your room grab this thing out of the closet and put your suitcase on it. When I have hanging clothes (suits, etc) I'll hang them in the closet and put the luggage rack in there with them. To get my suitcase I have to 'see' the hanging clothes as well.

Tip: Anything invisible will be left behind in the hotel room.

I carry a mesh dirty-clothes bag to hold the dirty clothes so they are separate from the clean clothes. I will usually hang this from the luggage rack that holds my suitcase (or chair if it is on a chair). All clothes are either in the suitcase or in the bag -not on the floor or anywhere else they are likely to turn invisible.

Your preparation for check-out is faster, you will *never* leave clothing behind in the hotel room again.

If you have work-out clothes or swimsuits that need to hang out in the bathroom consider adding a reminder tag to your suitcase.

Use only the desk and bathroom plugs

Summary: Use visual plugs as reminders not to leave things behind
Cost: Free!

One tough thing about travel is that every hotel room is different, there isn't an established 'home base' for your things, and it is incredibly easy to leave things behind.

TIP: Your most important ally is putting things in your visual space. You are a keen observer but if something is hidden it is likely to be left behind.

One of the big culprits with leaving things behind for me (especially expensive electronics things) is the outlets in the hotel rooms. There aren't enough is one problem - which tempts you into using the deadly outlet behind the bed, under the desk, or under the nightstand.

Scenario: You plug your cell phone into the nightstand outlet. Perfect - your phone is there when you need it. The next morning you are in a rush to get up - you unplug your phone and leave the charger. You pack your bags and check out the charger (invisible) is left behind.

I use only the bathroom outlets and the desk outlets (by necessity) - brick chargers in the bathroom outlet jump right out at you. When I pack my toiletries bag I grab the charger and pack it at the same time.

If I have early check out I will pack my suitcase and leave it in the bathroom with the phone sitting on top of the suitcase. Morning comes, brush teeth, pack toiletries bag and the cell phone charger has never been left behind since.

Two of Everything

Summary: You might as well buy duplicates when you can
Cost: Varies (but less than buying in an emergency)

Travel brings with it a lot of risk and challenges for the ADD person...new locations, new patterns, sleep disturbances, and many many distractions. There are a few worries we can just eliminate immediately with one system:

I call it "GET TWO OF EVERYTHING"

You just get two of everything and pack one of them. You leave it always ready for travel and always in your suitcase ready to go. Keep it contained, packaged, and ready. I can always be ready for travel on very short notice without a lot of panic or forgetting things.

You know how you are - you are going to mess up somewhere forgetting to pack something if you have to remember to take it back out of your bag and put it back in with every trip. Because you will inevatibly forget something you'll be forced to buy it where it might be really difficult to find (cell phone charger for a Verizon phone in London) or very expensive (pretty much anything you need).

When you forget something, you are scrambling on short notice, sometimes with a language barrier, no sense of where things are in your location to try to get the things you need most to be functional when you travel.

Implementation:
You need a packing checklist (covered in another post) - just get two of anything that is on your essentials list, a travel toothbrush, a travel phone charger, a travel laptop charger, a set of headphones, etc.

I have a toiletries bag that has a duplicate of everything I need in it.
I have a backpack for my laptop (I didn't duplicate that of course) that has all the things I need there for travel (my laptop travel charger is a duplicate of my desktop one - worth it - I had to do a major presentation on a borrowed laptop because I forgot the charger once.), lan cable...anyway, I'll cover this in more detail with the packing list.

Meds Reminder

Summary: Reminder system for medications
Cost: Free!


I have a little pillbox for travel so the storage and reminder is built in. This works great and a 7 day box holds meds and vitamins needed for my typical trip.

I had the problem of not being able to remember if I took my prescription meds that evening or not, but a pillbox is kind of a pain for daily meds - so I came up with a simple home system that tracks my meds using the bottles they come in. (This works great for me because mine are one-a-day meds). No more refilling pill containers and no worries that you've forgotten today's meds or risk of double-dosing.

Keys to this approach: Very visual reminder, self-updating when you do the task.

Instructions:
Make a chart with the days of the week (or times) in large squares with a marker and paper. Use bigger paper if you take a lot of meds.

Use:

As you take the dose of medication you just put the bottle in the next slot. This system would of course also work for vitamins, supplements, etc. if the bottles are a managable size.

History:
I came up with this system about 10 months ago and it has worked just great. I did replace the paper once when it got wet - can't beat the cost of this system.

Kitchen Whiteboard

SUMMARY: Full Sized Kitchen White Board
COST: $25

I have a full-sized office whiteboard in my kitchen.
When I put it up I wondered if people would go 'ew, white board in the kitchen' and turn up their aesthetic noses - but the reaction has been 100% positive. What a cool idea! How useful! I wish I had that.

Life lesson - Create a functional lifestlye first (then make that style as cool as you can), people will respect you for that (and you're a lot less likely to miss Jury Duty again).

My sister the designer suggested a frame around the outside that matches the cabinetry - when I do that project I'll post.

I'd suggest a ceramic board (erases more cleanly) white board that is also magnetic (lets you get the clutter off of the fridge and post papers)

I love these Expo Dry Erase Markers. These dry-erase markers have a little eraser on the cap instead of having an eraser that keeps falling off of the board tray and getting lost or needing a boardside rack.