When Justin joined Optimize Your ADHD Brain, he would write everything down. And I mean everything.
If I would give a 3-minute exercise to do (in pairs!) Justin would write it down because he might forget.

He had this overhanging anxiety of, "What if I forget?"
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While you are doing any task, you (without even realizing it!) are using your 28 thinking skills.

When the thinking skills you need to use are strong, doing the task happens easily.
If the thinking skill you need to use is weak, doing the task will be a challenge.

The struggle that Justin had, came from a weak thinking skill of holding 2 or more pieces of information at once.
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Holding 2 or more pieces of information at once is just what it sounds like. Can you remember 2 or more numbers when someone is giving you their phone number, or do you need them to give you one digit at a time?

What about remembering pieces of information a potential client is telling you. Will you remember it during the conversation, or do you need to write it down because you’ll forget?

My favorite way to improve this thinking skill, is to give yourself 2 pieces of information to hold onto without writing it down.

In sessions, we do these fun brain exercises where you’ve got to find very specific shapes within dots.

Most people draw a shape as soon as they find it and will then go onto the next shape.
I gave Justin a challenge - instead of drawing the shape as soon as you see it, hold it in brain, look for the rest of the shapes and only once you find all of them, do you draw of all of them.

In the beginning it was super challenging. Justin would find himself tempted to draw the shape so “he wouldn’t forget” or he would lose the shape and he’d have to find it again.
Over time, Justin found ways to hold the information in his brain, such as retracing it in his brain multiple times or added sounds and colors to the shapes.
By the end of the program, not only did Justin have an easy time holding all the shapes in his brain at the same time, he saw a drastic change in how he was operating on daily basis because of this improved thinking skill.

Small things like getting credit card numbers from clients were transferred over easily.
And big things like giving over information to his team went without a hitch.
Plus, his anxiety that hit might forget, dropped a ton.

You too can improve your thinking skill by giving yourself 2 things to hold in your brain at the same time.
Start by giving yourself 2 tasks to do without writing it down (answer Voxer & make a coffee)
Then, once you’re comfortable, give yourself 3 tasks to do and move on from there.

You can also do this within the task.
If you have a task that requires you to hold information, don’t write it down.
Give yourself the challenge of holding it in your brain.
In the begging it’s going to be a challenge and overtime it will get easier and easier and you’ll challenge yourself to hold more and more pieces of info at once.