I have a small notepad (a Rhodia Dotpad no 12) that I use for... well, everything. It's a mishmash of notes, lists, reminders, a personal budget tracker and anything else that I feel the need to jot down. The contents vary constantly, I tear pages out when I no longer need them, or when I copy them to either my journal or my flashcards (more on the flashcards in a later post), No matter what's in there, I always go through it every day.
Every morning, over breakfast usually, I go through my notepad, and jot down new ideas or scratch off things I did the day before. I don't keep regular to-do lists in there, though, those I write down in my journal or on a post-it (or I do them right away). To-do lists are too much of a distraction, especially because they often are fleeting. My notepad is for longer term things, and I often move things that lived on my to-do list first because they become bigger than I initially thought. An example of how I use my notepad: I've recently updated my freebies. I created a checklist that was perfect for my needs, and at hand whenever I worked on the documents. This way I could focus on one screen, and not have to go back and forth between apps. I immediately notice when I fall out of the notepad habit, I am way more fractured in how I spend my day, hopping from one project to the next, wherever my ADD leads me. My lists ground me in a positive way. And writing things down instead of adding them to an app really helps me keep my brain from going frazzled. Sometimes lists stay in my notepad for a while, sometimes they don't even make it to the end of the day. Whatever lists or notes are left at the end of the pad are getting transferred to a new notepad, and the journey starts all over again. All in all, this system is pretty perfect for me, disorganised enough that it tickles my brain every time I leaf through. Perfect.