Forgetfulness is sort of a hallmark of ADHD, don’t you think? That and an inability to focus are the things people most often associate with it.

So how come we’re so forgetful?

Well, there are a few reasons.

First, our problems with Executive Function can add to our difficulty remembering the things we are supposed to remember.

And of course, at any given moment we have so many things floating around in our brain. It’s a wonder we aren’t more forgetful than we are.

Our inability to focus plays into our forgetfulness, too, as does our habit of living in the future.

When you come home from work, for instance, you’re thinking about what’s for dinner and the evening ahead. Your head is in the future, ahead of you, so you’re not paying attention when you put down your keys and cell phone. That’s why you have trouble finding them later.

Now if you had set up a good habit of always putting your keys and phone in the same place, there wouldn’t be an issue of forgetfulness there.

So setting up good habits, good systems and structure can be one way to compensate for your tendency to forget.

Another way to help you remember things is to use a planner of some kind.

Paper planners seem to work well for most ADD Moms because it’s easy to enter the things we need and the act of writing them down helps reinforce them in our mind.

You might also want to consider some sort of electronic system as well. Most experts say that you should only use one calendar for everything. Otherwise you risk double booking yourself.

However, an electronic calendar (I like Cozi) has a couple of advantages over a paper one.

First, if you have internet access, you can always pull up your calendar, no matter where you are. And second, an electronic calendar can remind you with an alarm.

Compensating for your forgetfulness isn’t hard once you take the time to figure out where you are most forgetful. Then it’s just a matter of putting some solutions in place to help.