The ADHD Journal Method that WORKS! ✨📓

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Does this look at journaling change your perspective? Do you think that physical journaling is the best way for you to actively process?

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00:00 Introduction
01:00 Purpose of Journaling
01:37 Active Processing
03:30 Alternatives to Journaling
04:25 My Child
04:49 Alternatives to Journaling Continued
05:10 Why does someone with ADHD do something?
06:15 How I've Stayed Consistent with Journaling
06:30 Bucket List Journals/Gamify Journaling
08:05 Use the Journal for EVERYTHING
08:30 Burnout Program
8:50 Journal when Compelled to
9:40 My NEWEST Journal Hack (how to add interest)
11:15 Video Recap
13:30 Outro

[estherfriesen]

I just had a light bulb moment... I think I personally need to buy small journals so I fill them faster, therefore getting a new one more often, AND feeling accomplished!

[polifemo]

My favourite active processing method is to just walk for like an hour or two. Sometimes I pace at home and take notes of my thoughts, but that's optional.

[caitlynb]

ADHDer here. I appreciate the "follow the dopamine" advice. I used to get so frustrated with myself for not being consistent with journaling until I gave myself permission not to do it every day, or even very often. A journal is filled when I run out of pages, regardless of how many years it spans!

[MamaVee]

A stack of journals, each with 5 pages of entries! I feel SEEN! ❤

[JessietheSleepyKoala]

You know, I’ve been trying therapy for over a decade and I’ve never quite understood what I’m doing or why except ‘it’s meant to help’. Literally no one — not even any of my therapists or other mental health professionals— has ever explained it. We so often recommend to people to see a therapist if they’re struggling but not tell them the point behind it. THANK YOU for explaining the purpose of these things cause holy crap that changes how I see it completely.

[crafty_writer]

Something that works for me: take your journal with you everywhere! And I mean EVERYWHERE. You'd be surprised how many things are worth writing down in just your day to day life. Treat your journal sort of like your phone, in the sense that it's something you need with you everywhere and you use it for everything. Another tip: Don't use multiple journals at once. Stick to one and use it for anything. Remember to have fun with it! It's not a chore so don't make it one <3

[chiaracabala]

Wow, I've only just realised why I find emotional conversations hard to process- I literally need to actively process each component... which takes ages!!!

[brookarisa]

I have journaled inconsistently (without guilt) for 11ish years. Originally, it was just nice to have something to brain dump into on hand at all times. But for the last 5 years, I’ve used my own modified version of the bullet journal system, and my journal has become invaluable. Like when I walk out the door my checklist is “wallet, phone, keys, journal”. I use it for everything.

A big thing that’s helped me is not forcing myself to change over each year. I buy sorta expensive journals (bc they’re pretty. hello dopamine), and something about leaving the end blank makes me feel wasteful. I continue with a journal regardless of the new year. I mark new years with a colorful page edge, and just continue on until the last page. There’s something satisfying to me about a full journal. Even if it took me 2 years to get there.

This was a great video. It feels good to know that I’m sorta implementing a lot of the advice on my own. I hadn’t considered adding gamification to my journal, and I think I’ll add a bucket list for 2024. 😊

[nk-dcgc]

omg... this info about active processing HITS ME SO HARD right now.
i've told people again and again, my whole life, "i can't think without writing it down" or "dang, i really really need to write again, so i know what i'm thinking and what's going on." i got strange looks and felt alienated, felt so strange, that i stopped writing my thoughts down as a tween (sfter yesrs of diaries), just to enter a limbo in which i am to this day - feeling like life lives me, not me living life.

[cassettetape]

Less than 3 minutes in & I had to pause cause I started crying. The amount of shame I have been made to feel because of my inability to passively process information... and it has a name😭.

Thank you Hayley💕✨️

[melissalbennett]

"Passive processing" just blew my mind. I'll be 47 in two weeks and had no idea this was a thing. 🤯

[lawliet]

Speaking out loud helps so much even simply talking to yourself. I also love to say the word "stop" oud loud when I notice I'm stuck with something even if it's just my mind not shutting up. And then I'll say something like "Okay, what are we going to do now.." and basically just verbalize my thoughts.

[kt]

i think for me, the keys were: adjusting my expectations, having multiple journals, and leaving room for inconsistency.

Journaling is often discussed as something you have to do literally every day forever, and that's just not something that's realistic for everyone (or at least not right out of the gate). Eventually i had a breakthrough and realized there is no "wrong" way to journal, and that I may never have a perfect, every day, established practice and that's perfectly fine.

I don't journal every day. sometimes i go days or even weeks in between, but i do keep finding my way back to it. it's been about a year, but even using it inconsistently, i've seen real benefits and now unconciously find myself reaching for my journal when i'm feeling upset and overwhelmed.


I also gave up on the idea of having some pristine, organized system that reads like a nice little linear story. My journal is for me and the ACT of journaling is the important bit. So I journal all over the place - I have a physical journal, as well as a "written" one on a tablet, AND one in a google doc. plus i've journalled in other random notebooks when they were close at hand. you could journal on loose paper and then burn it every day if that's what works for you. it's not the "record" that is the key, it's the act of writing and processing.

Maybe one day I'll have a regular every day journaling practice, maybe not. either way, any amount of actively processing my feelings is better than nothing. plus i'm on track to totally fill a notebook for the first time in my life (about 3/4 of the way there!)

[Snailienz]

I need you to know that the reason this video made my subscribe was you pushing up your glasses and going "I'm ✨autistic✨" making my laugh out loud

[OnlyOneFace]

Honestly though, for a couple years I did the personal podcast and it really does help empty my thoughts for the now, but I never revisited those recordings (at least 1hr each). I did do physical journaling to coordinate the things I learn each day, and re-read them every once in a while to see if I can add on anything. But in the end the method I’ve found works best for me is having a personal discord server where I can categorize anything, search anything, hashtag anything I need to recall or get off my mind. I’ve heard Notion can work similarly but having that extra app for one thing hasn’t really worked as a replacement when I can use my server AND contact my friends there.

[HeidiBidels]

This feels exactly like what Ryder Carroll intended the Bullet Journal to be except neurotypicals have taken it and made it so much more rigid and high effort 🙈
Super helpful ideas for my practice, thank you!

[alittlekittycat]

4:34 As someone that had a kitty named Azula— it is very nice to meet Zuko.

[gabbythemoon]

Loved the way you explained this. It’s so important to have neurodivergent focussed advice available to the public.

[katrinacole]

Great video. I do journal every evening, so of like a brain dump. I make my journal fun in that I decorate the pages with colorful stickers - a floral element in the lower corner, a small box to right in the date, and a larger box for my gratitude list. I have been doing it for about 4 years and it works for me. Your ideas are great too and I may try some of them.

[adhderhere]

What I do in my journal is to take note of the things that I think might work for my adhd, it's like an adhd journal, also write down plans and projects, and stuff like that, all things that are adhd friendly, it's like a second brain