How I Became a High Achiever at Work Despite ADHD Memory Challenges

One of the biggest things I learned as an adult is that I don’t have a learning problem. I have simply always had a retrieval problem.

I can learn something, understand it, and even be really good at it.

But if you ask me about it weeks or months later without warning? My brain will most likely glitch and buffer.

Even now, if I’m caught off guard, nouns disappear, but I built a system that keeps me functioning, and even excelling, during meetings or training facilitation.

I take a lot of notes.

Note-taking keeps me mentally grounded. It also creates something I can fall back on when I actually need the information. And as a bonus, it makes me look exceptionally organized.

If I’m just listening, my brain drifts. I can’t focus on what is being said, and, unfortunately for me, my go-to unconscious stim is rocking back and forth. While workplaces are becoming more inclusive overall, the vast majority of people don’t interpret that behavior as professional at all, so I mask it. And masking takes even more concentration and energy. Therefore, I need something to do while I process information.

Writing gives my brain an anchor, a way to have an activity, and a project to build while I’m listening to instructions. I learned that I like to take freeform notes and then rewrite them into various organized formats. They call this “processing through restructuring,” and it helps my brain to engage with information multiple times. However, I try to be strategic about these formats and create reference articles, SOP’s, or facilitation guides to give me structure and a goal with a deadline. (Yes, I create arbitrary personal deadlines to get my work done.)

But the real power of notes shows up later.

Before I need to perform, teach a class, lead a meeting, or present something, I review my notes. Usually, this happens a few hours or a day beforehand. Similar to how neurotypicals cram for an exam, but for me, this isn’t cramming, because I already know the information, I just need to unlock it.

The information is already in there somewhere.

My notes are the key that opens the door.

I read them, and suddenly my brain goes:

“Oh. Right. That’s what we’re doing.”

And then I’m fine.

Notes also reduce my anxiety. They are my safety net. If a client or colleague asks me a question and I don’t remember the answer, I can say, “One second while I look that up.” There is nothing wrong with checking information before you speak, and this gives me a pause to account for the brain buffering, as well as allows me to confirm the information.

*Tip: either take your notes digitally or transfer them to a digital, searchable format like OneNote. Then, you don’t even need to remember where the information lives. Just search for the key term and toggle through your tabs.

I didn’t learn this ability, how taking notes helps me function and retain information, until I went back to college. I actually dropped out of Ohio State before I got my Bachelor's degree because I couldn’t pass History, Trigonometry, or any other subject that required deep memorization, because I just couldn’t recall it when needed. Then I figured it out, and went back to college as an adult and got a 4.0 in both my undergraduate and graduate degrees. Taking notes strategically was a game-changer! I also realized that I wasn’t incapable; I just didn’t yet have the tools that I needed to succeed. (I didn’t get diagnosed with ADHD until I was much older.)

I wish someone had told me earlier that it was okay to need external memory systems.

Now I can facilitate a class on a topic six months after I learn it without panic. I just read my notes, and my brain shows up. My brain didn’t change; my system did. And once I stopped trying to remember everything and feeling bad for failing, I finally started succeeding.