98: Try this ADHD Friendly Hack to Remember Your Nagging To Dos – Suggestion Box Saturday

Suggestion Box Saturday

Here’s a simple idea for tackling all those small, nagging household tasks that never quite make it onto your calendar. Set up a suggestion box, any bowl, box, or container will do, somewhere you pass regularly, like a landing spot near your garage entrance. Keep a notepad and pen right next to it.

Catching the little annoyances in real time

Life is full of tiny friction points you notice and then immediately forget: the light bulbs under the cabinets that burned out, the item you keep meaning to return to a store, the cabinet handle that’s come loose again. These things rarely get written down in the moment because you’re mid-task, cooking dinner or rushing out the door, and they don’t have deadlines or urgency, so they just loop on repeat in your memory instead of landing anywhere useful. The fix is simple, the second you notice one, jot it down, fold it up, and drop it in the bowl. Anyone in the family can add to it.

Why these tasks never get done otherwise

Items that could be done at any time tend to get done at no time. Without a deadline or a dedicated moment, they just nag at you indefinitely until, one day, you realize you could have hired a handyman for a hundred small fixes that have been bothering you for months.

Turning it into a Saturday ritual

On a quiet Saturday morning, walk over to the bowl and pull one out at random, then see it through to completion. If it’s the light bulbs, that might mean a family trip to the hardware store, maybe combined with other errands or breakfast out, and coming home to actually install them. If it’s the loose cabinet handle, it might just mean grabbing a screwdriver from the garage. Either way, you cross it off, feel the satisfaction of a real win, and still have the rest of your Saturday free.

One important caution

This is for small, contained annoyances, not major projects. Something like “clean out the garage” will just get pulled out, stared at, and thrown back in defeat. Keep the scope realistic: things like finding a recycling center for old paint, or picking up a product that solidifies leftover paint for easy disposal, are perfect. Nagging and yucky is fine. Overwhelming is not.

Getting the bowl started

The first time, walk through your house room by room with your notepad and jot down everything that’s quietly been bothering you. It can also be fun to see what your kids toss in without your knowing, things bugging them about their own room or bathroom that you had no idea about.

Your practical, actionable step

Set up your own suggestion box this week: a container, a notepad, and a pen, placed somewhere you pass often. Fill it with a handful of small nagging tasks to start, then pick one this Saturday and see it through to completion.

Until next time, continue to choose joy.