My ADHD Brain: AnyList for Shopping Lists and Errands

Video Description

👉 With ADHD, emotions can go from 0 to 100 fast. My free Emotional Thermometer & Guide helps you recognize where you are on the scale and what strategies work at each level: https://larahammocktherapy.com/#emotional-thermometer In this video, I'll discuss how I use the AnyList app for shopping lists and errands. This is part of a series on my ADHD brain and all of the systems I use to compensate for a lack of internal structure and organization. Please subscribe and leave comments below! **** A truncated transcript follows. A full transcript can be found at https://www.marblejar.net/blog/2017/6/24/my-adhd-brain-use-anylist-for-shopping-lists-and-errands. **** Hi, everyone! This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll discuss how I use the AnyList app for shopping lists and errands. This is part of a series on my ADHD brain and all of the systems I use to compensate for a lack of internal structure and organization. Like many women, I'm the head procurement officer in my house. One of my many quirks is that I absolutely HATE grocery shopping. I'd rather clean bathrooms than grocery shop -- really. Because of this, I only do it once a week. I will go to extreme lengths to avoid going more often than that. I also have issues with running out to do a single errand. It feels like a giant waste of time. This must come from my childhood when we carefully budgeted gasoline and did our errands all at once and infrequently. Because of these quirks, I require a good list system to remember the things we are running out of and errands that I need to run, so that I can do them all efficiently in one run. Enter the AnyList app. I love this app and don't even use all of its many features. First let's talk about how things get on my list. List Triggers For things that we use frequently, I usually have one backup item in the house. Sometimes several backup items -- depending on how quickly we use that item. For example -- we have a laundry detergent in use and one back up. When I open the backup laundry detergent, that is the trigger to put that item on my shopping list. For things like macaroni and cheese, where many boxes could be consumed in a single week, I keep a pack of 6 in our cabinet. When the last one is opened, that is the trigger to put it on the shopping list. I have a pack of 6 rolls of toilet paper in each bathroom and one extra in the house at all times. If I open the back up pack of toilet paper, that is the trigger to put it on the shopping list. Family Triggers Okay -- so, it's tricky to get the kids and my husband to follow any system. In order for this to work, they have to let me know when it's time to put something on the list -- either face to face, by email or text. But, in this case, there are natural consequences to their actions. I go grocery shopping once a week. If it's not on my shopping list, I don't buy it. Because I don't typically run out and make a special trip for things my kids forgot to tell me about, they have to wait a full week or longer for that item. Want is definitely a powerful incentive for them to follow my system. Now let's walk through some of the great things about AnyList: Lists I have the AnyList app set up with 5 lists, but you could make as many as you want. Let's take a look at the iPhone version of the app: • **Today's List - this is generic list to remember things I might need for that day. • Shopping list - this is for weekly grocery shopping • Target - anything I need from Target. I go there as needed, but probably once a month or a little more frequently. • Super H and Costco - our local Asian grocery store and big box store. I go to these places very infrequently -- maybe once a quarter or so. • Errands - this is the catch-all category for everything else: anything from all other stores, returns, stamps from the post office, taking bikes to get repaired, etc. Store labels Just for mental clarity, I like having a small number of lists, so that means that some lists govern items from multiple stores. For those 2 lists (Super H & Costco and Errands), I use the "Store" label. These labels are list-specific -- meaning that I can have 20 stores labels in my Errands list, but only 2 in my Super H and Costco list. You can see the store labels for the items that I have in my Errands list. You just have to put these in one time and AnyList remembers them for future entries. Let's put in something new. Let's say I need an umbrella from JC Penney. . . **** Read a full transcript at www.marblejar.net. ****