Make a journal to manage your ADHD

The habit of writing can be one of the best things you can do for yourself

Do you ever have the habit of making a diary or a journal? Handling ideas and combining them to compose pieces of text is one of the best exercises you can do for your brain, particularly if you have ADHD like me. As you read this article in my own journal, this is a testimony of my own experience after about 10 entries.

No matter if you keep a blog dedicated to literature or you just put down scattered thoughts for yourself in the note app of the phone. When you manage to do it frequently, apart from the benefits of writing, you are already making a great thing by creating an element of routine in your life. As you know, implementing routines is one of the most complex endeavors for someone with ADHD, and anything that could help us to make a schedule is welcome.

No matter if you choose to write daily, weekly, frequency is not the most important here. The key is to create a habit which will call you by itself: you will miss writing somehow. You will have an independent organism, your diary or your blog for example, which will suffer if you don't feed it, and you are more likely to take care of it because it's already there. You don't have to go to great lengths to provide the nutrients in the shape of words.

We would suffer if we had the job of creating a whole journal every time we would write. This would be a task that makes anyone willing to refrain, imagine yourself, thinking about platforms, themes, audience... You will do that strictly only once. Then, your only job will be to provide it with content, it's much easier.

You are creating a framework to make writing a part of your life. But what can we write about? What do we have to write, to share?

I'm absolutely sure that every one of us has something to say. I go further and affirm that most of the best stories are still not told, and waiting for someone to deep dive into experiences and to transform them into language.

For me, talking about ADHD was a natural choice because I've lived it every day of my life for 30 years and only knew better about it after my diagnosis 2 years ago. Since the start of the ADHD International Alliance, thinking about a way to share thoughts and provide understanding about this subject was one of the greatest sources of focus of my life.

To start, choose something that you really like to talk about, or some experience you think it's nice to have a record for the future. If you choose to go public like this journal, don't think too much about the audience at a first moment. Odds are that you would be writing only for yourself in the start, but stay strong and keep it up. Once you have a collection of entries, it will be easier for those who are interested in your theme to find you and to follow or subscribe to your writing project.

And once things get going, the sky is the limit. Maybe you could turn your journal into a source of income, who knows? This very journal is an example: although subscriptions can be done for free, there's the option of going paid by supporting it with a tiny monthly amount. In one month, I'm glad to say I already have four paid subscribers, which is a source of extreme satisfaction and motivation to me.

But getting a financial reward for your journal, in my opinion, is a secondary benefit you will be taking. The principal thing is that by shaping your ideas into texts, you will be much better able to organize your thoughts and improve your memory.

When you are in the habit of telling stories, you will eventually practice the skill of managing your thoughts with more accuracy and it will only have good effects as it will very likely turn your brain more functional. It's what is mostly close to physical exercise for your mind. The effects for the memory are even more extensive: it's like the old memory game, the more we play, the more we will be trained to know where the elements that match with each other.

In summary, starting a journal or anything related is a great thing you can do for yourself, regardless if you have or not ADHD. If you are part of the ADHD team, you know that improving memory and mindfulness are particular issues, so it couldn't be more recommended. Try to write about anything. Go short, go simple. And feel free to let me know, I'd be happy to share your new writing endeavor!