Lesson 02 · 12 min
One Place to Put Things
Five capture systems is the same as none. This lesson builds the single place everything lands.
Listen first
Listen first: why capture beats organisation
Spoken introduction · read aloud in your browser
There is a note app, a paper pad, a whiteboard, an email draft to yourself and three screenshots.
Each was a good idea. Together they are a filing cabinet with the drawers in different buildings.
One place. Boring, unbeautiful, always with you.
The principle
Capture is a reflex, not a system
The most sophisticated organisational method in the world fails if the thought never enters it. Capture has to be faster than the urge to move on — which for most ADHD brains means under five seconds.
Which tool matters far less than whether it is always within reach and always the same one. Novelty is the enemy here: a new app feels good for eleven days and then joins the graveyard.
Rule
If it takes more than five seconds, you won't do it when it counts.
Course tool · Lesson 02
One Place to Put Things
Decide where a thought goes the second it arrives — before your memory is asked to hold it.
Where do things currently get lost?
One capture place beats five good ones. Consistency is the whole feature.
Pick one
What usually stops the capture?
Quick win · 4 min
Empty the other places
Open every scattered list you can find right now and move the live items into your one place. Then delete the rest without reading them properly. Nothing important survives only in a list you abandoned in March.
Research says
Working memory has a ceiling — and ADHD lowers it
Working memory differences are one of the most consistently replicated findings in ADHD research. Practically: holding four things in your head while doing a fifth is not a skill to practise into existence. Offloading is the evidence-aligned move.
Kasper, L. et al. (2012). Meta-analysis of working memory in ADHD. Clinical Psychology Review, 32(7).
Reframe
I should keep a proper system.
I should keep one ugly system I actually use.
Use an ADHDier tool
Too Many Things In My Head
A five-minute brain dump when the head is already full.
Open the toolUse an ADHDier tool
Build an External Brain
The standalone version of this lesson's system.
Open the tool
Keep this
Three things to take.
- 01One capture place, always within reach, beats five better ones.
- 02Capture must take under five seconds or it won't happen live.
- 03Emptying it regularly is what makes it trustworthy.