The hall task, and medicine station!

UPDATE: Three Months in…

I currently have four working thinking spots, in my studio behind this wall and here in the hall. One for digital work flow, one for analog drawing. A small working shop area for projects like this being built and the tools. And this, my brain dump and external tactile working memory, that in part is helped and prompted by movement.

All helping shape my attention a bit better.

Will probably be the last update to this post about it?

Would recomend, infinity out of a billion!

UPDATE: One Month in…

So this is proving quite effective so far. I’ve been using it for a month and it’s both doing the thing I intended, and is tactile and aesthetically engaging in the use. I’ve been fine tuning things about it, rounded the desk corners and added places to put things, and some ‘flair’ in the form of pins that amuse and please me [I’ve hade a collection for a while I used to rotate on my courier bag] and are relevent to the mindset around this station.

This is the sort of thing that’s very particular to the user and use, but if you’re dealing with similar issues around ADHD and have some means of creating a similar station I’d recomend that.

You would not have to build it, it’s just about having a dedicated place for this. In my case our place had limited options, a normal small desk would not fit and it was a chance to push my carpentry skills a bit while letting me customize it to exactly what I need from it.

Ten out of ten, would recomend! ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Hi folks, so if you’ve been reading you know I’ve been on temporary layoff until march, and one of the ways I’m using that time was to get some big dangling life issues resolved.

Sorted out a pile of back taxes with the aid of an accountant, after hiring an OT for accountability help getting tons of paperwork sorted last year.

Now along with trying to get the next instalment of Mind Engine done I’ve been working on figuring out some things post late in life ADHD DX, confirming what has been long suspected but also getting a bit of formal help and also just resolving some ideas.

Booked a half dozen OT appointments over the winter to keep on track and help think of strategies, a lot of it has been mainly about executing on somethings I’ve been thinking about over the summer.

For about a decade and a bit I’ve been living with type 2 diabetes, which was getting somewhat under control pre pandemic but then I shifted to full time and very sedentary work in animation, and threw that all off track. Things got bad during shut down and then I was doing ok just after with going for walks but had other issues. And I’ve since fallen off the horse a few times.

For over a year, I’ve been thinking I needed some kind of new AuDHD self accommodation measure, to address the problem.

My main chronic issue has been a lack of focus mornings, remembering to take meds, what I’m doing for the day, thinking about active things and exercises, and all that. My default is to be a bit adrift for the first few hours of the day before my brain kicks in and I recall what I need to do. And I don’t mean just a bit foggy, truly blank. No thoughts, no intent, no memory internally of what I need to do.

Sometimes that’s not bad, I like a slow wind up but while that worked when I was younger and setting my own schedules, now for multiple reasons it’s MUCH more of a problem.

When I was freelancing full time I knolled my drafting table and work station the night before to remind me of things I need to do, but I’m no longer freelancing nearly as much, and I have to knoll my whole life more due to health issues, not just the days work.

Some folks can use internal strategies for this kind of thing but also being Aphantasic, that approach has simply not worked for me. Not for lack of trying, but internal systems or even a day planer once out of site, is of no use. I need something fixed in my space, that can’t be missed or hidden. That has ONE JOB. To be a brain dump/planning/medical/task station.

So I needed to set up this in a spot that I’ll see first thing. No room in the bedroom for more stuff, would get lost likely as well between my wife’s and my own clutter. So picked a spot in the middle of the apartment, across from the bathroom, feet from the bedroom but also every other space in the apartment. And designed a wall mounted secretarial style desk/counter/station for the spot. Spent some time over the last two weeks building it.

I’m not a pro woodworker but made many basic things over the years and a lot of ideas about how to build it spun out of watching Adam Savage and Dave Folgler do some things, so tip of the hat to them.

Been using it for a week and still fine tuning, seems to be working well! Much more consistently remembering to take meds, getting focused faster and making plans for what kind of gym/fitness stuff I’m going to do. Some critical life infrastructure for my home

I’m debating painting it, there’s a warp in the door I’d like to fix, water and a heat gun I read would take care of it. But think I want to use it for a bit and let ideas about any painting percolate, and for the moment loving the bare wood.

ED2: The magnetic black whiteboard material came, I cut a bit to fit the lid panel and it’s perfect, falls right on my eyeline so the place for key planning notes and To Dos.

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ED: By the by NO AI
was used for any of this.

That’s not remarkable to me or anyone who does a lot of woodwork, but these days… you never know. Best to be mindful of that IMO.

But also it occurred to me because the thought before, was I’m using this desk for doing a lot of things, people turn to AI powered apps to recently. I’m doing the tasks more manually, I don’t want those cognitive tools to atrophy. But I also deeply object to them for numerus reasons.

Ok please don’t do that if you can help it, specifically LLMs and image, video and song generators. For so many reasons, if you can help it in any way. Thanks. ~Max