Lesson 04 · 11 min
Make It Visible
The environment can do most of the remembering, if you put things where your body already goes.
Listen first
Listen first: designing for the person you are at 7am
Spoken introduction · read aloud in your browser
The vitamins in the cupboard were never taken. The vitamins beside the kettle were.
Same person. Same intention. Different shelf.
This is not a trick. This is most of the work.
The principle
Cues beat willpower, reliably
Behaviour follows cues far more than it follows resolve. That is true of everyone; it is simply less forgiving in ADHD, where the internal reminder arrives at the wrong moment or not at all.
So the design question is never 'how do I remember this?' It is 'where does my body already go, and can I put the thing there?'
Front door. Kettle. Bathroom mirror. Car seat. Phone lock screen. These are the six locations that do more work than any planner.
Design rule
Put it in the path, not on the list.
Course tool · Lesson 04
Put It Where You'll Trip Over It
Out of sight is genuinely out of mind. So put the reminder in the path of your body.
Which paths does your body always take?
Notice
What's currently hidden that shouldn't be?
Storage is where good intentions go to be tidy and forgotten.
Quick win · 5 min
One thing out of the cupboard
Choose one item you keep forgetting and move it into the open, on a surface you physically pass every day. Accept that it will look slightly untidy. Untidy and done beats hidden and pending.
Reframe
A tidy home is an organised home.
A visible home is a functional home.
Research says
Environmental supports are part of the guidance
NICE guidance for ADHD recommends environmental modifications and practical supports as part of a treatment plan, alongside anything else. Rearranging your surroundings is a legitimate intervention, not a workaround.
NICE (2018, updated). Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: diagnosis and management (NG87).
Keep this
Three things to take.
- 01Behaviour follows cues, so put the cue where your body already goes.
- 02Hidden storage quietly deletes intentions.
- 03Visible and slightly untidy beats tidy and forgotten.