Hi /u/dendrytic and thanks for posting on /r/ADHD!
### Please take a second to [read our rules](/r/adhd/about/rules) if you haven't already.
---
### /r/adhd news
* If you are posting about the **US Medication Shortage**, please see this [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/12dr3h5/megathread_us_medication_shortage/).
---
^(*This message is not a removal notification. It's just our way to keep everyone updated on r/adhd happenings.*)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ADHD) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Sounds promising and I'll be keeping an eye on this.
\*but\* check in again in two more weeks and we'll see if you've moved on to a new 'best tool ever' because for me, at least, every new tool feels like a game changer for a few weeks then I stop using it.
Yes, I got a remarkable 2, thought it was great for a couple of weeks. It's now amongst my many half used notepads bundle, I've no idea where the charger and pen is.
I haven’t used an ebook yet, but have used other tools like Rocketbook, smart assistants, and all sorts of apps.
I always start off enthusiastic and energized but once the novelty wears off, it’s just another task that fades into the background. That’s been my experience anyway.
I will say, the e-ink notebook is certainly not a silver bullet. I’m
working to implement a “sacred” 10-minute planning session every day as the The Adult ADHD Toolkit book suggests. It’s just that the e-ink (or pen & paper) makes it a hell of a lot easier to effectively do that. Every single time I’d try with my phone / computer, I’d get distracted and end up spending 30+ minutes of no planning. So there are behavior modifications I’m implementing in conjunction.
Looks like the Supernote Nomad you have has a Sketch Creation feature too. On days where you don't want to write, you can doodle or draw, just to keep the habit going. And of course, you could also mix-up your writing styles, write short-stories, poems, jokes, whatever.
A few things have stuck. I always wear a watch now, intentionally, as part of working on/with my adhd. I got four cheapish quartz watches (like 50$ ea) and keep one in car, two in bed, one in bag, so I rarely forget to wear one in the "morning" (third shift).
Helps a lot because I get the date and time without distraction of phone. I stay more aware of how time is passing. Still not great but less time blind than before.
ADHD is "treatment resistant", which translates to "actively spying on you from the inside and plotting your undoing, ready to counter your every move".
My therapist and I work on this a lot. I have a graveyard of twice used "best newest things" to manage symptoms.
They remind me I can always come back to an old system.
Finding the things things that intrinsically motivate me, and work for me in the long run is helpful.
I am trying a small pad of paper (field notes) and a collapsing orange pen. I may move to digital ink, but am trying this way first. Very very helpful.
That’s actually what I’ve been doing recently. A small notepad with a little cover and a small pen. It’s good….when I remember to look at it when it matters… hence my the pull towards digital tools with reminders/alarms.
Ughhh I’m a project manager (which emphasizes all of my faults; the irony is not lost on me) and use every ounce of brain power for my job and family, but then the rest of my life takes a backseat. I have to find a way to manage life in general lmao
I am looking into scanning options now.
But 2 weeks in to using the dot grid version of this.
Wow.
https://fieldnotesbrand.com/products/national-parks
One of my pitfalls ... I make lists, and lists, then can't find the list I need. Trying to get one single place. I may may that digital-ish. Will follow along. Your journey is a few steps ahead of where mine might go.
Project Director/ manager here. :D. I feel your pain.
Yup, that’s exactly why I grabbed a Rocketbook. Just a reusable notebook where you physically write but there’s an app that scans your notes and you can organize them and give them tags to search. I just never got to the point of actually organizing my scans, so it became much like you described: a huge heap of notes that I can’t find when I need them.
I still may go back to it though. It does seem to have all the pieces I need. I’m just tired, man lmao
Right!😭😭 I am in the process of trying to have a dedicated notebook for lists, random thoughts/quotes, diary, recipes, etc once I get my desk space cleared up and sorted. Almost there! Lmao
I think it is just a colorful way to describe the fact that *you* have ADHD in your *brain* and thus cannot truly ‘trick’ yourself into changing behaviors.
Plus, since it affects motivation, memory, and decision making, it is a greater struggle to maintain effective treatment.
I've never heard adhd described as treatment resistant and it being in quotes made their sentence even more confusing to me.
I still don't really understand what it means. Clearly we can reduce the effects of adhd so how's it treatment resistant? Unless that's medical term that means something different.
Nah youre not missing anything; I think they’re just speaking very casually.
Also, resistant does not mean proof, I learned that the hard way with my watch. It was water resistant, but the water overcame that resistance.
I've had so many tools or hobbies where I've thought "I can't see myself ever being without " and now I can't even remember what most of them were.
I do find intelligent paper enticing though.
Just remembering to use it, to charge it, I'd lose the pen. I'd leave it at home, then at work or in the car. I've about a million notepads with first few pages used, it just ended up like all my other notepads.
For me i have a phone that i use as wallet but that is all i can handle. I can't carry any other items around. At this stage I've tried everything. I run a business, I drive everyone around me crazy with my chaotic ways. I'm not saying it won't work for some but for me it's ended up on the pile of stuff that didn't work.
As a counterpoint to the above comment, I’ve been using a tablet as an organizational tool successfully for the past two years. I only switched from the Remarkable 2 to an iPad 10 + Apple Pencil because I wanted a browser (my work involves entering notes and uploading them and it was getting tedious to have to do it in two steps) and l liked being able to watch movies on planes. Nothing beats being able to jot down to-dos and notes like I’m writing on paper *and* not have said paper get scattered to the wind because it’s all in the same “notebook.” GoodNotes is my app of choice, but there are a hundred more that work just as well.
I've got a Boox e-ink tablet. While I'll admit I found it most "useful" in the first few months, it's still a life saver. I'm using mine daily over a year on. The trick for me was to make sure I wasn't wasting time "improving" my workflow every week 🤣
"'improving my workflow".... YES. How much time have I spent devising ways and systems to be more efficient and manage my lists??
I tend to spend way too much time in' big picture conceptual' mode, or 'getting lost in the minutiae' mode, and never enough time in the 'getting it done' mode.
"But if I just spend more time making my workflow more efficient... It'll pay off!"
"The more I plan the easier it'll be to actually do"
"The reason you can't get anything done is your system needs to be better"
🤦
If only I had just got my stuff done instead 🤷
I have been using my Boox for over a year and it has been amazing. I too suffered from "collectable notebook" syndrome, but it lets me do my research (doing a PhD) then flip to doodle, then write a journal, then to-do list, etc. All without destroying my eyes lol. I actually got it to not hurt my eyes reading papers, but the ADHD benefits have been an unexpected but phenomenal boon!
They have some very expensive tablets (and even a whole ass computer monitor i think) but the Air models at least are fairly competitively priced in their size category
Yeah, it is expensive which I was put off by (got the Air 3 C). Again though, not as much as optometry visits and glasses; and it has really helped out in life in general. YMMV
Yup this was exactly my reaction. I've literally bought tablets 3 separate times in my life for this purpose and I use it for a few weeks before it collects dust, and I eventually sell it.
I just wish something would work forever.
Yes! The best tool is the one that works, is easily accessible, and that you end up being able to consistently use.
For most, it's a variety of tools. Man, using my iPad Pro and Apple pencil is a game changer for handwritten notes for sure, but I'd never lug that damn thing around as an organizer. I'd leave it somewhere. 😅
I bought the iPad air for this purpose, with one of those special note taking apps. The problem is I am always forgetting to charge the iPad ... although having some of my digital notes in one place is sometimes really helpful when I am unable to find some random note months later.
Definitely agree ! But I’ve also realised that it’s not a failure to move on, and you can keep the things that worked at some point around, so that when the next thing fails you can try going back to some old thing that worked
I've found that once I accepted there's no perfect tool, I was able to find "good enough" tools. And, in particular, certain tools that work great in certain environments and not in others.
Like, when I was in one workplace I had a note-taking system that worked amazingly, but when I moved to a different job, I just couldn't adapt it at all, and for awhile I couldn't figure out why.
I’ll chime in here to say I got my Supernote right before the new year 2023, so I’ve had it for like a year and a half. I have continued to use it!!! All the time. It is integral to my workflow. It helps with the way I think.
It feels so rewarding when you get a new expensive “toy”, declaring “I will use this all the time I swear!”, and then you *actually* love it and use it all the time.
I would love to find something that sticks. Right now the best workflow I’ve settled on is keeping a daily journal (mostly bujo style ) on paper and copying the important parts into Obsidian every night as a review and to have a searchable copy.
Not OP, but i loooooove my supernote. It was expensive, but i use it for work and college.
It has the note taking of course. It reads word, pdf and epub format, with the possibility for note taking on the pdf/epubs and writing for a word document. It has Kindle as well, but doesn't do well with other apps. Its just what i need!
And i love the pen feel, but its not for everyone.
The three big players are remarkable, supernote and boox. I would suggest looking into those, because they offer a little difference in their products!!
I got the A5X about a year and a half ago. I really like to hand write things, i feel like it helps the most with the way I think, so I was burning through notebooks like you said. I can barely picture life before my Supernote!
I've used an Android tablet for a while because I do programming and bent able to paste parts of screenshots on my desktop and annotate them with the pen is incredibly useful. Don't you miss that functionality?
Nope! I'm studying to become a psychologist (in the Netherlands, the whole college thing had a different set up), so i mostly need the pdf/epub thing to annotate and I take notes a lot.
For work i just jot down notes about clients and my to dos. The most important thing is referencing their dossiers when needed, which i always need to do in the computer. I only jot down the most important things on my supernote (coded).
Also, we are building a microcamper and the supernote is a great sketching device.
Lastly: books!
>The three big players are remarkable, supernote and boox. I would suggest looking into those, because they offer a little difference in their products!!
I swear I'm not disputing what you're saying but it's just interesting that in the first article I'm looking into (ZDNet) doesn't mention two of those three. Mostly makes me curious about tech writing and how reliant they are on getting items for reviewing.
What brands did they mention? I'm curious. Remarkable and the Onyx Boox line are probably some of the top recommended e-ink tablets when folks come thru the ereader sub looking for notebook type suggestions
It really depends on how you look at it. Objectively, no, that isn’t true. There are two major players - Amazon and their Kindle Scribe, and Remarkable with their Remarkable 2. Go into your local Best Buy and try picking up anything other than those two. It’s not happening.
But if you start jumping into the communities, you’ll get a different story. That’s when you start seeing Supernote, Boox, Bigme, Pocketbook, etc being heavily recommended. It’s a niche community, so you’ll start to get niche recommendations. These are definitely with listening to.
Of course — I tested the Supernote Nomad and the Remarkable 2. Each excel in different ways and suck in others. The Nomad is perfect for portability and durability as an everyday planner to take with you on-the-go, but the UI is a little chaotic and the writing feel isn’t premium. The Remarkable 2 is considered the Apple device of e-ink: glass/metal construction, incredible writing feel, elegantly simple UI, but imo it’s too large and fragile for everyday on-the-go use. I’ve found myself using the Nomad more because of portability, but if Remarkable came out with a smaller device, I’d switch in a heartbeat.
Neither are missing any features that I need. The Nomad is more feature-rich with email, calendar, Kindle apps, but I don’t use them. I already have a Kindle, I check emails on my phone, and I manage my calendar in a planner note (only events that go in my Google Calendar are those that need to — ie meetings). I’m trying to be very intentional with the tech I use.
Hope that helps.
I haven’t read the book you mentioned yet, but would using an iPad Pro with pencil work just as well?
I’m constantly moving between notes on computer or multiple note books and it’s annoying to say the least.
Is it a specific software inside these devices that makes it usable system? ☺️
Edit: typo
For me it’s that it’s NOT a tablet. No notifications, no apps. It’s just a paper tablet.
I bought my remarkable almost 18mo ago and still use it daily. It’s actually the first device in a LONG time that stuck
At least for me, that part is what’s crucial about the device and its functionality for me, and why I consistently use it so much. I am a huge hand-writer, and do it for all kind of various things, it just helps me think. Having things buried in notebooks or tons of scattered paper notes lying around just doesn’t cut it. These devices shine in my opinion when they are very purposefully designed for what they do best— it’s a restricted and focused functionality, so they can focus on being really good at THAT.
>Probably would've been better for when I was in school.
There are a lot of productivity tools that seemed to work great when I was in school but immediately fell apart when I graduated.
I think the problem now is a lack of structure. School gave me a set schedule and external accountability, and dictated my routines even outside of school hours. Now I have a set schedule for work, but everything outside of work is chaos.
If I can establish some structure of my own, and keep it consistent, tools like this will probably work better.
I’ve used a lamy fountain pen that I refill. I don’t take as many notes now I work from home, but as a techie, I love its tactileness :p I’ve looked at the e-ink tablets in the past so I may take another look. Over-spending though, that’s a whole other topic :|
for real, it looks more like an obsession with new cool productive thingy
I hope it will work in a long run for OP, but honestly in my experience these things don't stick to me at all
I have never stuck with a new tool for this long or felt this emphatically about its benefits. Will this wear off eventually? It could. But so far it’s working great, and I thought to share it with others for whom it might end up being a more lasting solution.
Of course, you should never give up trying to make your life better. I'm just too pessimistic about all these things, they never worked for me longer than a 1-2 months, the only things that were actually good are Meds, a couple of chrome extensions and some little tricks that I invented for myself.
But knowing a lot of strategies and tools helps a lot when you choose how to approach different problems. So your experience will be useful either way.
Great point! One strategy won't work for one tool or system, but can be great for another. It's NEVER wasted time trying to improve one's self or make life smoother. It also gives you ideas to share with others.
Yup
Every new organization tool or plan I've tried has worked great at first, then it quickly just feels like another thing I have to do and then stop doing
I have been eyeing the Boox Note 3 and I think I will get one soon. I am a prolific note taker and list maker, but that all ends up in a pile of spiral binders (seriously, I have years worth of them). I should throw them out because it is impossible to find anything in them, so OCR and search capabilities in a note taking tablet will do that for me.
Plus they are good e-readers.
I created a iOS shortcut that lets me type out or dictate any thought I have and saves it to notes. I’ve slowly improved it adding tags like r and r s that send the data to reminders or shopping lists.
Obviously issue is still remembering to review my notes and random thoughts, but at least they’re there. New iPhone lets me launch from the Action Button, previously I mapped to the back tap.
Here’s the link to the overall [Note Shortcut](https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/0e1356285be6449fbc72f8248909ef23).
It calls a separate [reminder shortcut](https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/4a2e7bb0934a44109e1246fbefb3565e) just so I could keep the stuff separate.
Google's version of this *was* great. Then an update happened, and now my reminders sometimes show up at their set times, sometimes don't.
My favourite is when I get the 8am reminders the next day (that night) at 12:09am.
As an adult with adhd I know that the “new thing” im excited about now, will be the old thing I’m bored about next month, so I learned to stop spending unnecessary money on these things, because I realized I was trying to convince myself that if I buy this or that I will be more productive, but that was never the case, not in the long run, I just needed an excuse to buy whatever I was obsessing about at the time. Having systems to help me be more disciplined & focused for short periods of time works a lot better imo.
What do you do about the fact (for me, anyway) that the minute you put a note or reminder into a file, it ceases to exist and becomes a thing you never saw?
I’m considering getting an Apple Pencil for my iPad to study and use the One Note application.
I still use pencil and paper. I just enjoy the feeling of a mechanical pencil in my hand. I’m always looking for the perfect one lmao
Can you update us in a year and let us know if you stuck with it?
My husband will get really jazzed about a new organizational tool for the first couple months and then slowly loses interest
This!
I use a Remarkable2 + ADHD friendly daily calendar / to do pad. (Amazon, search Two Tumbleweeds). Added the 6x9 pad to a steno notepad same size in a leather 6x9 holder. At end of day, pdf the calendar sheet via phone app, throw it away after transferring undone items to the next biz day. The pdf sheet is kept on my remarkable in a folder labeled for the year. Another folder has random notes scanned, and another I will use for receipts.
The CRUX: it's a notepad, there is no blank calendar page reprimanding you. If you miss a day, there is NO SHAME.
If you gamefy your tasks, it really helps.
I got the remarkable 2, with much the same enthusiasm.
I was also asked by an ADHD friend if I would recommend it.
As an object, it's really wonderful. Sleek, dense, responsive, it feels good to hold and is always a pleasure to use. For this reason I recommend it.
As a cure for ADHD, it isn't. You get out of it what you're capable of putting into it. And since it's very expensive indeed, for this reason, I recommend against it.
I do still pick it up once every week or two, and it's one of my favourite objects. But my brain is often not one of my favourite objects, and that's the one calling the shots.
Not in a rude way, actually curious.
Is there an online resource that explains the concepts behind using notes for planning/managing life? It’s hard not to think in terms of calendar entries, recurring reminders, spreadsheets, and other software.
And if I’m still on my phone and laptop anyways is it helping?
I think I'm going to do this as soon as I can. I have the exact same mindset as you, I should be able to organize my life with technology but if I'm 100% honest adding an appointment into my calendar turns into checking reddit, then watching a few YT shorts, then checking email, etc.
You threw me into a hyper fixation last night and as much as it pains me to say it I think I want the reMarkable2 it just costs like $500 😭 but it's the one device that seems would allow me to organize and save everything with all the things I manage in my day to day
Same man. I went with the remarkable 2 and I use it everyday. I’m terrible with the amount of sticky notes and notebooks I have, it helped me so much. For those looking you can usually find a creator code online for some percentage off and refurbished. I think out the door I paid 180 for just the notebook
I've got a reMarkable tablet and the Kindle Scribe.
Both are just fine to write on.
The interface to get to the data right off the reMarkable tablet is obnoxious (it's got an on-board web server, so when you connect it over usb it sets up a virtual network interface and you have to connect to the device's web server and, one at a time, download the documents.) I'm not paying a monthly fee for someone's "cloud sync service."
The Scribe is a kindle so it just connects like an android device (not QUITE a normal usb block storage device. But it works.)
60% of your tasks can be done on the notebook? Nice. Not to be a buzzkill, but you might be hyperfocusing in this notebook thing. I hope you keep it up.
After getting diagnosed with ADHD and starting Adderall last year I got hyper focused on productivity so I bought myself a Supernote e-ink tablet to replace my paper notebooks since they're a pain to manage, I hate writing in pencil, and I hate having to cross out mistakes in pen. I've actually been able to keep up with using it for the most part, though I didn't use it for a couple months when I was making some other med adjustments that I wasn't handling well leaving me too depressed to care about it for a while. Overall I'm very glad I bought it. Now I have one place for all my journaling and creative writing, plus it helped me to start keeping a planner to organize my days/weeks/months/year and I have to say it has been an absolute game changer.
I do this too! I have an ipad mini and iPad Pro, I used the pro for school and the mini for media and a bit of work too.
I was looking at e-ink tablets a bunch 2 weeks ago…and then I started adhd meds…so that urge has gone away for the time being. I just have a hard time justifying a product that costs as much as my iPads, but does far less sadly
It could! It’s just really hard for me to not get distracted on a more connected & full-featured device like an iPad, so I benefit from a device intentionally designed for focused writing.
I gotta have my Garmin. My phone does it, and my wife asks why I have a separate device to do it... But
You don't want me looking at my phone in the car. Unless you're suicidal I guess in which case let's talk it out
I use my iPad for this but like op mentions in their post when you use other devices there's a risk of distraction there always. The only reason I haven't gotten one of these e-ink devices is because I spent so much money on my iPad I feel like I have to use it 😭😭
It still is crazy helpful don't get me wrong, I was notorious for losing notebooks before so consolidating everything in one place has been a game changer for me. But the minute this iPad dies (I bought it in 2018 so it's no spring chicken) I'm probably going to invest in something like ops talking about.
The factual draws of a e-ink device over you know a tablet is that it doesn't have an LCD screen therefore it can't effect affect your circadian rhythm, I think all of them have backlit features now that are sort of similar but still, and there's no potential variable ocular strain on the default display. That kind of screen is emerged as more of a reading books type of thing and that's something I personally like them for, you can change the fonts to whatever you want, line spacing, font size. I have a competitor's device but once you have like an actual library of books ig will save your progress on all of them. If you read it's nice
I bought an iPad with a 1st gen pencil and I LOVE it.
I want to go mostly paperless, but still no able to hour Al "by hand", and this has been amazing (plus the STOIC journal app).
For paper & pen, I absolutely LOVE using this A5 notepad holder with pockets:
https://www.jetpens.com/Maruman-Mnemosyne-HN188FA-Notepad-Holder-with-5-Pockets-A5/pd/7110
It doesn't seem like much... But, the size is just perfect, their notepads and holder are clean AF and so easy to manage & work with. I cannot recommend this pairing enough, it's godly.
I use a Lamy safari fountain pen that neatly fits in the inside nook of the holders folds. I've been using this setup for at least 4 years now and it's just amazing.
MOSTLY, I use it for brainstorms, or meeting notes. Then I'll copy things over to my computer, or reframe meeting notes in a follow-up email when I get the time.
It really helps me listen. After a while, I've gotten better at shorthands, and organizing live notes so that they're just enough for me to understand at the end of a meeting or when I am back at a computer to transcribe important things. Making the note taking itself less distracting. But it's also manipulatable enough that it's easy to keep on the side when I'm sitting down to focus on something else. I find that anything larger is just too clunky.
I'm definitely interested in a supernote tablet... But this is almost as good in my book. Almost. Definitely cheaper and battery/charger-free.
Note taking is something I loathed when I was younger, and it definitely didn't come naturally to me. It took a while for me to get more proficient at it. BUT, using this setup, the novelty of it got me through the slog of getting into it.
I also recently got a Supernote Nomad and also have ADHD. It’s been a life changer for note taking for university! I also have a pdf day planner that helps so so much. The lack of distractions and apps is ideal for focus. :)
I have the Kindle Scribe and it's been a game changer, honestly. I bring it to the office so I can read at lunch, and the bonus is all my notes from my job are saved on it instead of on a billion sticky notes that I keep losing. Even started tracking my time logs in it, to my payroll manager's great relief =') Also the highlighter/notes inside books also helps me keep track of what I'm reading a lot better, which is a really nice bonus.
I’ve used an iPad with Apple Pencil for site notes at work before and love the idea of embracing it more, but…
My handwriting is terrible anyway, and seems to be worse on a screen.
Is there something out there that translates and improves electronically-written text?
I'll give it a shot, thanks! I've always failed when I tried to do similar though. With paper and pen I always forget the notepad, pen, or both. Or simply forget to keep up on it. Can't tell you how many times I've showed up at the grocery store and forgot the list. Doesn't matter if there were just 3 items on it, I'll try to remember but come back with 12 items and one of the 3 is still missing. I tried to use my phone for grocery lists... I'd forget the phone.
Only thing that has worked for me so far has been a white board hanging on the wall by the entry way with a dry erase marker on a lanyard. Helps when I'm at home at least. If I need the info while I'm out, I take a picture of it before I go.
Ooh I've just been debating getting a Remarkable this week! If anyone wants to do a comparison of the brands here so I don't have to do further hunting, that would be amazing haha
Check out u/gorillaphysics’ [YouTube channel](https://youtube.com/@kitbetts-masters?si=tOuc1V2SQ9FH7SpF) where he’s road tested and reviewed a ton of these devices, many side-by-side.
I use remarkable and have for years. It feels like writing on normal paper rather than a screen.
I also use a whiteboard and post-its for task organization.
Not sure how comparable are those, but I bought iPad following similar logic. The killer for me turned out to be the need to charge such devices. Doesn’t matter if you carry it (compared to pen&paper) if it’s dead. 💀
I also find myself spending TIME planning and noting down stuff, and then never returning to the notes. Have currently over 400 notes between my notes app and obsidian, and not sure if I ever revisited single one of them 😓
The thing about a lot of e-ink devices like the remarkable is that the battery lasts way longer because it’s not using as much to power the screen. And it’s just as useful in “sleep” mode as it is “awake”— when it sleeps, you can set it to just leave the image up. I go weeks without charging the device.
I noticed this when I got my iPad and Apple Pencil!! Maybe a placebo, but I was way more productive in class. Felt purposeful writing down what the professor was saying, kept it on DND so no notifications popped up, and for some reason it was not as tempting to open up apps or websites like I’d do in class on my laptop (I also don’t keep social media apps on it other than Reddit and rarely use it to text).
I use notability!
Yes!! I got a Remarkable 2 about a month ago (yay tax return money!) and it has helped so much.
For a few months prior, I had created my own daily and weekly planner sheets — dateless planners were so heavy and I wanted to customize because I felt things like daily affirmations and reflections were a waste of space for me. Basically I would print a planner sheet for each day and week, 5 days at a time. But I was finding that it quickly became a lot of paper. And I hated needing to rewrite the same things every day under reminders, the running to-do list, etc.
I uploaded the PDFs of my planner sheets to my Remarkable, and it’s been a dream. I just use the same daily sheet everyday and erase things as they’re completed, so I don’t have to rewrite stuff constantly.
Me glancing at the dead reMarkable tablet that I haven't touched in a year...
It was great while it was working. Maybe I need to get back to it (step 1 is to charge it lol)
For me it’s a really nice pencil and an orange Rhodia notebook. Especially since I got medicated.
I’ve found that part of the game is making relatively granular lists so that I can go back to them during invoicing and justify what I’ve done.
One of the worst things about ADHD is that it tricks you into thinking the time you spent wasn’t properly spent even when it was.
Sounds great. I always have so many things buzzing in my head that I must have multiple notebooks to jot them down in their different categories to get them off my mind. And then of course I can't find the specific notebook! This sounds like a better idea. I'll add it to my wish list.
As a tech person, I'm a huge fan of e-ink and am convinced it's eventually going to become way more widely used. I'm hoping minimalist e-ink phones become a mainstream thing, too.
I totally agree. Feels like it’s still a small niche of early adopters but I’m seeing growing interest in them every day. The fact that Amazon released a device last year is a point of validation.
E-ink tablets vary quite a bit, some being no more than regular Android-based devices with e-ink displays, but there are others that are more intentionally designed to do away with digital distractions. Companies like Supernote and Remarkable produce devices centered entirely around note-taking with no ability to browse the web and install apps.
i agree with you on the distraction booby trap. getting mine in a week. while i cant write on it, i am planning to use it for books and read-later apps.
what 'canvas' do you use for planning? is it the same, or a separate app for scheduling? i believe they are both very close, but different.
I'd really love to, it's actually one of my biggest dreams, but here in Brazil, like almost every imported electronic product, it's insanely expensive. It's like 3,500 BRL, which is around 680 dollars, or about 2.5 times the monthly minimum wage. I do plan to buy it, but I’ll have to wait until it gets cheaper. Or at least until I get rich.
Nice!
note book usage is a constant necessity for me. I go through heaps of them.
I never really go back and read them either, they just have the benefit of keeping me focused by translating information into notes, sorta like that process in my brain reinforces the information.
I'd 100% get an e-ink one but I've found that a huge benefit to me is the tactile nature of organisational stuff. If it's large and physical it can't escape my attention, and it makes it a little bit more enjoyable as like a tangible thing to interact with.
I've taken to never using my laptop in any environment that needs notes and it's been a huuuuuuuuuuge benefit.
Glad to hear OP!
I got the remarkable 2 Tablet as a graduation gift, because I've been trying really hard to reduce the amount of paper I use, but I love writing and buying new notebooks. I use the tablet for absolutely everything, work, lists, journal, counseling... everything. I also download templates from Pinterest for creative money saving lists, TBR lists, recipe cards.. as long as I can save it in a PDF the possibilities are endless. I also create different notebook covers on Canva and download those so it feels like I'm actually using multiple notebooks. I like the feel of the pen on the tablet (it feels like writing on actual paper compared to using an apple pencil on an iPad) and I like that I don't have Internet access so I can't get distracted and start doom scrolling on Instagram, or mindlessly putting things into an Amazon shopping cart only to delete them a week later. I highly recommend this for others with ADHD / Hyperfocus issues.
u/dendrytic searching for "The Adult ADHD Toolkit" on Amazon has been a nightmare - apparently those exact buzzwords have fallen in grace with many authors, and there's no way I can just pick one up and it'll be the right one (or even a good one). Which one exactly do you recommend, by which authors? (I don't mean a rude tone, I'm actually kind of desperate, 41yM diagnosed just six months ago, everything in my life feels like it's ruined beyond repair, including my marriage on the bad days).
No worries! Here ya go – [https://www.amazon.com/Adult-ADHD-Tool-Kit-Facilitate/dp/0415815894](https://www.amazon.com/Adult-ADHD-Tool-Kit-Facilitate/dp/0415815894)
Great to hear! I've been considering this route from sometime now. I feel if I could break my technology addiction I feel much better! Has this helped with your energy at all?
Yes, feeling more energetic, but obviously that’s anecdotal. My laptop has stayed on my desk for the entire past 2 weeks; usually I’d lug it around with me everywhere in hopes of getting more “work” done, but I’d just end up going down rabbit holes squandering whatever energy I had for the tasks I needed to do.
I have the remarkable2. I adore it. It's pricy, I watched eBay for a few months and got mine for like 250. Best part is eBay sets up reminders for you 🤣
I use my iPad for this a modified GTD+Bujo system. Mindfulness and effort are built in. If I want to be able to read what I wrote I have to pay attention
How accurate/sensitive is the writing? I still take loads of notes at work, and prefer writing things down to typing them out, as I pay more attention and retain better. However, my handwriting is awful, so it can be a struggle to read my own writing sometimes.
Any time I've tried to write on a touch-screen or graphics pad, it's terrible. Are these e-ink notebooks better?
For me, accuracy is on par with writing on paper. Also really depends on the specific pen and digital preset you use. I’ve found using a finer pen tip with a ballpoint pen preset makes my handwriting actually look a bit better.
If you’re in the states, Best Buy usually has the Remarkable 2 on display demo if you want to give that a shot.
The worry about messing up in a physical notebook is so real! I got a small whiteboard for my studies which gives me more freedom but sometimes I’m too lazy to transfer things to my notebook and end up losing them.
Yep, it’s very real and for me creates a constant undertone of anxiety whenever I put pen to paper. This paper tablet so far has helped a lot with that.
Hi /u/dendrytic and thanks for posting on /r/ADHD! ### Please take a second to [read our rules](/r/adhd/about/rules) if you haven't already. --- ### /r/adhd news * If you are posting about the **US Medication Shortage**, please see this [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/12dr3h5/megathread_us_medication_shortage/). --- ^(*This message is not a removal notification. It's just our way to keep everyone updated on r/adhd happenings.*) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ADHD) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Sounds promising and I'll be keeping an eye on this. \*but\* check in again in two more weeks and we'll see if you've moved on to a new 'best tool ever' because for me, at least, every new tool feels like a game changer for a few weeks then I stop using it.
Yes, I got a remarkable 2, thought it was great for a couple of weeks. It's now amongst my many half used notepads bundle, I've no idea where the charger and pen is.
What about it eventually didn’t work for you?
I haven’t used an ebook yet, but have used other tools like Rocketbook, smart assistants, and all sorts of apps. I always start off enthusiastic and energized but once the novelty wears off, it’s just another task that fades into the background. That’s been my experience anyway.
I will say, the e-ink notebook is certainly not a silver bullet. I’m working to implement a “sacred” 10-minute planning session every day as the The Adult ADHD Toolkit book suggests. It’s just that the e-ink (or pen & paper) makes it a hell of a lot easier to effectively do that. Every single time I’d try with my phone / computer, I’d get distracted and end up spending 30+ minutes of no planning. So there are behavior modifications I’m implementing in conjunction.
Looks like the Supernote Nomad you have has a Sketch Creation feature too. On days where you don't want to write, you can doodle or draw, just to keep the habit going. And of course, you could also mix-up your writing styles, write short-stories, poems, jokes, whatever.
A few things have stuck. I always wear a watch now, intentionally, as part of working on/with my adhd. I got four cheapish quartz watches (like 50$ ea) and keep one in car, two in bed, one in bag, so I rarely forget to wear one in the "morning" (third shift). Helps a lot because I get the date and time without distraction of phone. I stay more aware of how time is passing. Still not great but less time blind than before.
Every. Damn. Time.
ADHD is "treatment resistant", which translates to "actively spying on you from the inside and plotting your undoing, ready to counter your every move".
My therapist and I work on this a lot. I have a graveyard of twice used "best newest things" to manage symptoms. They remind me I can always come back to an old system. Finding the things things that intrinsically motivate me, and work for me in the long run is helpful. I am trying a small pad of paper (field notes) and a collapsing orange pen. I may move to digital ink, but am trying this way first. Very very helpful.
That’s actually what I’ve been doing recently. A small notepad with a little cover and a small pen. It’s good….when I remember to look at it when it matters… hence my the pull towards digital tools with reminders/alarms. Ughhh I’m a project manager (which emphasizes all of my faults; the irony is not lost on me) and use every ounce of brain power for my job and family, but then the rest of my life takes a backseat. I have to find a way to manage life in general lmao
I am looking into scanning options now. But 2 weeks in to using the dot grid version of this. Wow. https://fieldnotesbrand.com/products/national-parks One of my pitfalls ... I make lists, and lists, then can't find the list I need. Trying to get one single place. I may may that digital-ish. Will follow along. Your journey is a few steps ahead of where mine might go. Project Director/ manager here. :D. I feel your pain.
Yup, that’s exactly why I grabbed a Rocketbook. Just a reusable notebook where you physically write but there’s an app that scans your notes and you can organize them and give them tags to search. I just never got to the point of actually organizing my scans, so it became much like you described: a huge heap of notes that I can’t find when I need them. I still may go back to it though. It does seem to have all the pieces I need. I’m just tired, man lmao
Right!😭😭 I am in the process of trying to have a dedicated notebook for lists, random thoughts/quotes, diary, recipes, etc once I get my desk space cleared up and sorted. Almost there! Lmao
I’m a project coordinator and I relate so heavily!
What does this even mean?
I think it is just a colorful way to describe the fact that *you* have ADHD in your *brain* and thus cannot truly ‘trick’ yourself into changing behaviors. Plus, since it affects motivation, memory, and decision making, it is a greater struggle to maintain effective treatment.
I've never heard adhd described as treatment resistant and it being in quotes made their sentence even more confusing to me. I still don't really understand what it means. Clearly we can reduce the effects of adhd so how's it treatment resistant? Unless that's medical term that means something different.
Nah youre not missing anything; I think they’re just speaking very casually. Also, resistant does not mean proof, I learned that the hard way with my watch. It was water resistant, but the water overcame that resistance.
I've had so many tools or hobbies where I've thought "I can't see myself ever being without" and now I can't even remember what most of them were.
I do find intelligent paper enticing though.
Just remembering to use it, to charge it, I'd lose the pen. I'd leave it at home, then at work or in the car. I've about a million notepads with first few pages used, it just ended up like all my other notepads. For me i have a phone that i use as wallet but that is all i can handle. I can't carry any other items around. At this stage I've tried everything. I run a business, I drive everyone around me crazy with my chaotic ways. I'm not saying it won't work for some but for me it's ended up on the pile of stuff that didn't work.
As a counterpoint to the above comment, I’ve been using a tablet as an organizational tool successfully for the past two years. I only switched from the Remarkable 2 to an iPad 10 + Apple Pencil because I wanted a browser (my work involves entering notes and uploading them and it was getting tedious to have to do it in two steps) and l liked being able to watch movies on planes. Nothing beats being able to jot down to-dos and notes like I’m writing on paper *and* not have said paper get scattered to the wind because it’s all in the same “notebook.” GoodNotes is my app of choice, but there are a hundred more that work just as well.
I've got a Boox e-ink tablet. While I'll admit I found it most "useful" in the first few months, it's still a life saver. I'm using mine daily over a year on. The trick for me was to make sure I wasn't wasting time "improving" my workflow every week 🤣
"'improving my workflow".... YES. How much time have I spent devising ways and systems to be more efficient and manage my lists?? I tend to spend way too much time in' big picture conceptual' mode, or 'getting lost in the minutiae' mode, and never enough time in the 'getting it done' mode.
"But if I just spend more time making my workflow more efficient... It'll pay off!" "The more I plan the easier it'll be to actually do" "The reason you can't get anything done is your system needs to be better" 🤦 If only I had just got my stuff done instead 🤷
I'm sorry, but who let you into my head? 🙂
Well since I'm here- there's washing in the machine you forgot about. Go hang it out now. Not in 5 minutes. Now.
I have been using my Boox for over a year and it has been amazing. I too suffered from "collectable notebook" syndrome, but it lets me do my research (doing a PhD) then flip to doodle, then write a journal, then to-do list, etc. All without destroying my eyes lol. I actually got it to not hurt my eyes reading papers, but the ADHD benefits have been an unexpected but phenomenal boon!
Was not expecting the price. Wow
They have some very expensive tablets (and even a whole ass computer monitor i think) but the Air models at least are fairly competitively priced in their size category
Yeah, it is expensive which I was put off by (got the Air 3 C). Again though, not as much as optometry visits and glasses; and it has really helped out in life in general. YMMV
I been using a bullet journal for 3 years and has improved my task management greatly
Yup this was exactly my reaction. I've literally bought tablets 3 separate times in my life for this purpose and I use it for a few weeks before it collects dust, and I eventually sell it. I just wish something would work forever.
Yes! The best tool is the one that works, is easily accessible, and that you end up being able to consistently use. For most, it's a variety of tools. Man, using my iPad Pro and Apple pencil is a game changer for handwritten notes for sure, but I'd never lug that damn thing around as an organizer. I'd leave it somewhere. 😅
When I spent $100 on new stationary and said to the cashier "I'm an organised person now!" ... that was a lie 🥺
Thanks for making me feel normal about doing this same thing
I bought the iPad air for this purpose, with one of those special note taking apps. The problem is I am always forgetting to charge the iPad ... although having some of my digital notes in one place is sometimes really helpful when I am unable to find some random note months later.
Very relatable. Also, writing something down doesn't mean I'll actually read it ever again. So all these best tools ever don't change a thing for me.
Definitely agree ! But I’ve also realised that it’s not a failure to move on, and you can keep the things that worked at some point around, so that when the next thing fails you can try going back to some old thing that worked
I've found that once I accepted there's no perfect tool, I was able to find "good enough" tools. And, in particular, certain tools that work great in certain environments and not in others. Like, when I was in one workplace I had a note-taking system that worked amazingly, but when I moved to a different job, I just couldn't adapt it at all, and for awhile I couldn't figure out why.
Dude my diet was so on point for like a couple weeks I felt so on point about it 😂😂
First thing I thought about
RemindMe! 2 weeks
I’ll chime in here to say I got my Supernote right before the new year 2023, so I’ve had it for like a year and a half. I have continued to use it!!! All the time. It is integral to my workflow. It helps with the way I think. It feels so rewarding when you get a new expensive “toy”, declaring “I will use this all the time I swear!”, and then you *actually* love it and use it all the time.
I would love to find something that sticks. Right now the best workflow I’ve settled on is keeping a daily journal (mostly bujo style ) on paper and copying the important parts into Obsidian every night as a review and to have a searchable copy.
Fellow techie here. Are you comfortable sharing which notebook you ended up with and if you feel it's missing (or has unnecessary) features?
Not OP, but i loooooove my supernote. It was expensive, but i use it for work and college. It has the note taking of course. It reads word, pdf and epub format, with the possibility for note taking on the pdf/epubs and writing for a word document. It has Kindle as well, but doesn't do well with other apps. Its just what i need! And i love the pen feel, but its not for everyone. The three big players are remarkable, supernote and boox. I would suggest looking into those, because they offer a little difference in their products!!
YES!!! I came here to shout about my Supernote! I fucking love that thing and it has been game changing.
So happy to see others who feel the same way. I have honestly never felt this way out any other piece of productivity tech.
I got the A5X about a year and a half ago. I really like to hand write things, i feel like it helps the most with the way I think, so I was burning through notebooks like you said. I can barely picture life before my Supernote!
I've used an Android tablet for a while because I do programming and bent able to paste parts of screenshots on my desktop and annotate them with the pen is incredibly useful. Don't you miss that functionality?
Nope! I'm studying to become a psychologist (in the Netherlands, the whole college thing had a different set up), so i mostly need the pdf/epub thing to annotate and I take notes a lot. For work i just jot down notes about clients and my to dos. The most important thing is referencing their dossiers when needed, which i always need to do in the computer. I only jot down the most important things on my supernote (coded). Also, we are building a microcamper and the supernote is a great sketching device. Lastly: books!
Yeah, the new Atelier is awesome. I just wish they can figure out how to allow templates/background images to it.
>The three big players are remarkable, supernote and boox. I would suggest looking into those, because they offer a little difference in their products!! I swear I'm not disputing what you're saying but it's just interesting that in the first article I'm looking into (ZDNet) doesn't mention two of those three. Mostly makes me curious about tech writing and how reliant they are on getting items for reviewing.
What brands did they mention? I'm curious. Remarkable and the Onyx Boox line are probably some of the top recommended e-ink tablets when folks come thru the ereader sub looking for notebook type suggestions
It really depends on how you look at it. Objectively, no, that isn’t true. There are two major players - Amazon and their Kindle Scribe, and Remarkable with their Remarkable 2. Go into your local Best Buy and try picking up anything other than those two. It’s not happening. But if you start jumping into the communities, you’ll get a different story. That’s when you start seeing Supernote, Boox, Bigme, Pocketbook, etc being heavily recommended. It’s a niche community, so you’ll start to get niche recommendations. These are definitely with listening to.
Super note nomad fam rose up
Of course — I tested the Supernote Nomad and the Remarkable 2. Each excel in different ways and suck in others. The Nomad is perfect for portability and durability as an everyday planner to take with you on-the-go, but the UI is a little chaotic and the writing feel isn’t premium. The Remarkable 2 is considered the Apple device of e-ink: glass/metal construction, incredible writing feel, elegantly simple UI, but imo it’s too large and fragile for everyday on-the-go use. I’ve found myself using the Nomad more because of portability, but if Remarkable came out with a smaller device, I’d switch in a heartbeat. Neither are missing any features that I need. The Nomad is more feature-rich with email, calendar, Kindle apps, but I don’t use them. I already have a Kindle, I check emails on my phone, and I manage my calendar in a planner note (only events that go in my Google Calendar are those that need to — ie meetings). I’m trying to be very intentional with the tech I use. Hope that helps.
I haven’t read the book you mentioned yet, but would using an iPad Pro with pencil work just as well? I’m constantly moving between notes on computer or multiple note books and it’s annoying to say the least. Is it a specific software inside these devices that makes it usable system? ☺️ Edit: typo
For me it’s that it’s NOT a tablet. No notifications, no apps. It’s just a paper tablet. I bought my remarkable almost 18mo ago and still use it daily. It’s actually the first device in a LONG time that stuck
At least for me, that part is what’s crucial about the device and its functionality for me, and why I consistently use it so much. I am a huge hand-writer, and do it for all kind of various things, it just helps me think. Having things buried in notebooks or tons of scattered paper notes lying around just doesn’t cut it. These devices shine in my opinion when they are very purposefully designed for what they do best— it’s a restricted and focused functionality, so they can focus on being really good at THAT.
Not OP but I went with a Boox Nova Air. It’s black and white (not colour), A5 and I love it.
Everything always ends up back to phone alarms, pen and paper for me. Probably would've been better for when I was in school.
>Probably would've been better for when I was in school. There are a lot of productivity tools that seemed to work great when I was in school but immediately fell apart when I graduated. I think the problem now is a lack of structure. School gave me a set schedule and external accountability, and dictated my routines even outside of school hours. Now I have a set schedule for work, but everything outside of work is chaos. If I can establish some structure of my own, and keep it consistent, tools like this will probably work better.
I’ve used a lamy fountain pen that I refill. I don’t take as many notes now I work from home, but as a techie, I love its tactileness :p I’ve looked at the e-ink tablets in the past so I may take another look. Over-spending though, that’s a whole other topic :|
Yep, there’s an eternal wisdom to pen & paper that I wish I’d been tapped into a lot younger.
remind us in a month.
!remindme one month
for real, it looks more like an obsession with new cool productive thingy I hope it will work in a long run for OP, but honestly in my experience these things don't stick to me at all
I have never stuck with a new tool for this long or felt this emphatically about its benefits. Will this wear off eventually? It could. But so far it’s working great, and I thought to share it with others for whom it might end up being a more lasting solution.
Of course, you should never give up trying to make your life better. I'm just too pessimistic about all these things, they never worked for me longer than a 1-2 months, the only things that were actually good are Meds, a couple of chrome extensions and some little tricks that I invented for myself. But knowing a lot of strategies and tools helps a lot when you choose how to approach different problems. So your experience will be useful either way.
Great point! One strategy won't work for one tool or system, but can be great for another. It's NEVER wasted time trying to improve one's self or make life smoother. It also gives you ideas to share with others.
Yup Every new organization tool or plan I've tried has worked great at first, then it quickly just feels like another thing I have to do and then stop doing
I have been eyeing the Boox Note 3 and I think I will get one soon. I am a prolific note taker and list maker, but that all ends up in a pile of spiral binders (seriously, I have years worth of them). I should throw them out because it is impossible to find anything in them, so OCR and search capabilities in a note taking tablet will do that for me. Plus they are good e-readers.
I created a iOS shortcut that lets me type out or dictate any thought I have and saves it to notes. I’ve slowly improved it adding tags like r and r s that send the data to reminders or shopping lists. Obviously issue is still remembering to review my notes and random thoughts, but at least they’re there. New iPhone lets me launch from the Action Button, previously I mapped to the back tap.
Please share the shortcut!!
Here’s the link to the overall [Note Shortcut](https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/0e1356285be6449fbc72f8248909ef23). It calls a separate [reminder shortcut](https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/4a2e7bb0934a44109e1246fbefb3565e) just so I could keep the stuff separate.
This is awesome, thank you so much! Great idea!!!
Yeah, how does that work?
This sounds awesome. Please share. The “Siri” remind me tomorrow at 10 am blah blah blah has been life saver for me.
Google's version of this *was* great. Then an update happened, and now my reminders sometimes show up at their set times, sometimes don't. My favourite is when I get the 8am reminders the next day (that night) at 12:09am.
I wish these weren’t so pricey, it seems like a killer solution for my notes
Definitely pricey, but you might be able to find one more reasonably priced on subs like AdoptSupernote or eBay
As an adult with adhd I know that the “new thing” im excited about now, will be the old thing I’m bored about next month, so I learned to stop spending unnecessary money on these things, because I realized I was trying to convince myself that if I buy this or that I will be more productive, but that was never the case, not in the long run, I just needed an excuse to buy whatever I was obsessing about at the time. Having systems to help me be more disciplined & focused for short periods of time works a lot better imo.
What do you do about the fact (for me, anyway) that the minute you put a note or reminder into a file, it ceases to exist and becomes a thing you never saw?
I’m considering getting an Apple Pencil for my iPad to study and use the One Note application. I still use pencil and paper. I just enjoy the feeling of a mechanical pencil in my hand. I’m always looking for the perfect one lmao
Note: there are screen protectors that better mimic the texture of paper when you use apple pencils.
Any idea if there is an e-ink tablet that doesn’t store files in a vendor’s “cloud”?
To my knowledge, Supernote and Remarkable don’t unless you initiate the sync to their cloud. Not sure about the others.
Can you update us in a year and let us know if you stuck with it? My husband will get really jazzed about a new organizational tool for the first couple months and then slowly loses interest
This! I use a Remarkable2 + ADHD friendly daily calendar / to do pad. (Amazon, search Two Tumbleweeds). Added the 6x9 pad to a steno notepad same size in a leather 6x9 holder. At end of day, pdf the calendar sheet via phone app, throw it away after transferring undone items to the next biz day. The pdf sheet is kept on my remarkable in a folder labeled for the year. Another folder has random notes scanned, and another I will use for receipts. The CRUX: it's a notepad, there is no blank calendar page reprimanding you. If you miss a day, there is NO SHAME. If you gamefy your tasks, it really helps.
I got the remarkable 2, with much the same enthusiasm. I was also asked by an ADHD friend if I would recommend it. As an object, it's really wonderful. Sleek, dense, responsive, it feels good to hold and is always a pleasure to use. For this reason I recommend it. As a cure for ADHD, it isn't. You get out of it what you're capable of putting into it. And since it's very expensive indeed, for this reason, I recommend against it. I do still pick it up once every week or two, and it's one of my favourite objects. But my brain is often not one of my favourite objects, and that's the one calling the shots.
Not in a rude way, actually curious. Is there an online resource that explains the concepts behind using notes for planning/managing life? It’s hard not to think in terms of calendar entries, recurring reminders, spreadsheets, and other software. And if I’m still on my phone and laptop anyways is it helping?
The Adult ADHD Toolkit book is what I’ve been using
I think I'm going to do this as soon as I can. I have the exact same mindset as you, I should be able to organize my life with technology but if I'm 100% honest adding an appointment into my calendar turns into checking reddit, then watching a few YT shorts, then checking email, etc.
Every. Single. Time. And I deluded myself for years into thinking the tech was working for me.
You threw me into a hyper fixation last night and as much as it pains me to say it I think I want the reMarkable2 it just costs like $500 😭 but it's the one device that seems would allow me to organize and save everything with all the things I manage in my day to day
Same man. I went with the remarkable 2 and I use it everyday. I’m terrible with the amount of sticky notes and notebooks I have, it helped me so much. For those looking you can usually find a creator code online for some percentage off and refurbished. I think out the door I paid 180 for just the notebook
I've got a reMarkable tablet and the Kindle Scribe. Both are just fine to write on. The interface to get to the data right off the reMarkable tablet is obnoxious (it's got an on-board web server, so when you connect it over usb it sets up a virtual network interface and you have to connect to the device's web server and, one at a time, download the documents.) I'm not paying a monthly fee for someone's "cloud sync service." The Scribe is a kindle so it just connects like an android device (not QUITE a normal usb block storage device. But it works.)
60% of your tasks can be done on the notebook? Nice. Not to be a buzzkill, but you might be hyperfocusing in this notebook thing. I hope you keep it up.
After getting diagnosed with ADHD and starting Adderall last year I got hyper focused on productivity so I bought myself a Supernote e-ink tablet to replace my paper notebooks since they're a pain to manage, I hate writing in pencil, and I hate having to cross out mistakes in pen. I've actually been able to keep up with using it for the most part, though I didn't use it for a couple months when I was making some other med adjustments that I wasn't handling well leaving me too depressed to care about it for a while. Overall I'm very glad I bought it. Now I have one place for all my journaling and creative writing, plus it helped me to start keeping a planner to organize my days/weeks/months/year and I have to say it has been an absolute game changer.
I feel like this should be an app or feature on the iPad not a whole device.
I use app Goodnotes w/ an Apple Pencil on my Ipad
I do this too! I have an ipad mini and iPad Pro, I used the pro for school and the mini for media and a bit of work too. I was looking at e-ink tablets a bunch 2 weeks ago…and then I started adhd meds…so that urge has gone away for the time being. I just have a hard time justifying a product that costs as much as my iPads, but does far less sadly
I use Notably with an Apple Pencil, too. I got a paper texture screen protector and it works great.
It could! It’s just really hard for me to not get distracted on a more connected & full-featured device like an iPad, so I benefit from a device intentionally designed for focused writing.
It’s just another ADHD tax. Paying extra for something to have *less* features 😂
I gotta have my Garmin. My phone does it, and my wife asks why I have a separate device to do it... But You don't want me looking at my phone in the car. Unless you're suicidal I guess in which case let's talk it out
I use my iPad for this but like op mentions in their post when you use other devices there's a risk of distraction there always. The only reason I haven't gotten one of these e-ink devices is because I spent so much money on my iPad I feel like I have to use it 😭😭 It still is crazy helpful don't get me wrong, I was notorious for losing notebooks before so consolidating everything in one place has been a game changer for me. But the minute this iPad dies (I bought it in 2018 so it's no spring chicken) I'm probably going to invest in something like ops talking about.
The factual draws of a e-ink device over you know a tablet is that it doesn't have an LCD screen therefore it can't effect affect your circadian rhythm, I think all of them have backlit features now that are sort of similar but still, and there's no potential variable ocular strain on the default display. That kind of screen is emerged as more of a reading books type of thing and that's something I personally like them for, you can change the fonts to whatever you want, line spacing, font size. I have a competitor's device but once you have like an actual library of books ig will save your progress on all of them. If you read it's nice
I bought an iPad with a 1st gen pencil and I LOVE it. I want to go mostly paperless, but still no able to hour Al "by hand", and this has been amazing (plus the STOIC journal app).
*goes to buy it* which one do you recommend?
Supernote Nomad because I wanted something super portable, but check my edit for other brands!
For paper & pen, I absolutely LOVE using this A5 notepad holder with pockets: https://www.jetpens.com/Maruman-Mnemosyne-HN188FA-Notepad-Holder-with-5-Pockets-A5/pd/7110 It doesn't seem like much... But, the size is just perfect, their notepads and holder are clean AF and so easy to manage & work with. I cannot recommend this pairing enough, it's godly. I use a Lamy safari fountain pen that neatly fits in the inside nook of the holders folds. I've been using this setup for at least 4 years now and it's just amazing. MOSTLY, I use it for brainstorms, or meeting notes. Then I'll copy things over to my computer, or reframe meeting notes in a follow-up email when I get the time. It really helps me listen. After a while, I've gotten better at shorthands, and organizing live notes so that they're just enough for me to understand at the end of a meeting or when I am back at a computer to transcribe important things. Making the note taking itself less distracting. But it's also manipulatable enough that it's easy to keep on the side when I'm sitting down to focus on something else. I find that anything larger is just too clunky. I'm definitely interested in a supernote tablet... But this is almost as good in my book. Almost. Definitely cheaper and battery/charger-free. Note taking is something I loathed when I was younger, and it definitely didn't come naturally to me. It took a while for me to get more proficient at it. BUT, using this setup, the novelty of it got me through the slog of getting into it.
I also recently got a Supernote Nomad and also have ADHD. It’s been a life changer for note taking for university! I also have a pdf day planner that helps so so much. The lack of distractions and apps is ideal for focus. :)
I have the Kindle Scribe and it's been a game changer, honestly. I bring it to the office so I can read at lunch, and the bonus is all my notes from my job are saved on it instead of on a billion sticky notes that I keep losing. Even started tracking my time logs in it, to my payroll manager's great relief =') Also the highlighter/notes inside books also helps me keep track of what I'm reading a lot better, which is a really nice bonus.
Hey OP, you seen this? I think you’d love it. 60fps eink screen, zero blue light, android based OS https://daylightcomputer.com/
Don’t do this to me!
I’ve used an iPad with Apple Pencil for site notes at work before and love the idea of embracing it more, but… My handwriting is terrible anyway, and seems to be worse on a screen. Is there something out there that translates and improves electronically-written text?
I'll give it a shot, thanks! I've always failed when I tried to do similar though. With paper and pen I always forget the notepad, pen, or both. Or simply forget to keep up on it. Can't tell you how many times I've showed up at the grocery store and forgot the list. Doesn't matter if there were just 3 items on it, I'll try to remember but come back with 12 items and one of the 3 is still missing. I tried to use my phone for grocery lists... I'd forget the phone. Only thing that has worked for me so far has been a white board hanging on the wall by the entry way with a dry erase marker on a lanyard. Helps when I'm at home at least. If I need the info while I'm out, I take a picture of it before I go.
You're not joking. I got a remarkable 2 earlier this year and some linked PDF planners. Worth every penny and would buy another in a heartbeat.
Ooh I've just been debating getting a Remarkable this week! If anyone wants to do a comparison of the brands here so I don't have to do further hunting, that would be amazing haha
Check out u/gorillaphysics’ [YouTube channel](https://youtube.com/@kitbetts-masters?si=tOuc1V2SQ9FH7SpF) where he’s road tested and reviewed a ton of these devices, many side-by-side.
I use remarkable and have for years. It feels like writing on normal paper rather than a screen. I also use a whiteboard and post-its for task organization.
I always wished for this to be a thing. And I didn't know till now it exists. I'll have to check it out, I could use something like that.
Not sure how comparable are those, but I bought iPad following similar logic. The killer for me turned out to be the need to charge such devices. Doesn’t matter if you carry it (compared to pen&paper) if it’s dead. 💀 I also find myself spending TIME planning and noting down stuff, and then never returning to the notes. Have currently over 400 notes between my notes app and obsidian, and not sure if I ever revisited single one of them 😓
The thing about a lot of e-ink devices like the remarkable is that the battery lasts way longer because it’s not using as much to power the screen. And it’s just as useful in “sleep” mode as it is “awake”— when it sleeps, you can set it to just leave the image up. I go weeks without charging the device.
Those things are hella expensive after looking into it
I noticed this when I got my iPad and Apple Pencil!! Maybe a placebo, but I was way more productive in class. Felt purposeful writing down what the professor was saying, kept it on DND so no notifications popped up, and for some reason it was not as tempting to open up apps or websites like I’d do in class on my laptop (I also don’t keep social media apps on it other than Reddit and rarely use it to text). I use notability!
Yes!! I got a Remarkable 2 about a month ago (yay tax return money!) and it has helped so much. For a few months prior, I had created my own daily and weekly planner sheets — dateless planners were so heavy and I wanted to customize because I felt things like daily affirmations and reflections were a waste of space for me. Basically I would print a planner sheet for each day and week, 5 days at a time. But I was finding that it quickly became a lot of paper. And I hated needing to rewrite the same things every day under reminders, the running to-do list, etc. I uploaded the PDFs of my planner sheets to my Remarkable, and it’s been a dream. I just use the same daily sheet everyday and erase things as they’re completed, so I don’t have to rewrite stuff constantly.
Me glancing at the dead reMarkable tablet that I haven't touched in a year... It was great while it was working. Maybe I need to get back to it (step 1 is to charge it lol)
Can you outline the kinds of things you use it for that are helpful? ❤️
For me it’s a really nice pencil and an orange Rhodia notebook. Especially since I got medicated. I’ve found that part of the game is making relatively granular lists so that I can go back to them during invoicing and justify what I’ve done. One of the worst things about ADHD is that it tricks you into thinking the time you spent wasn’t properly spent even when it was.
How’s it going, OP? Did you fall off the digital notebook wagon or are you still cruising along?
It’s literally literal.
Sounds great. I always have so many things buzzing in my head that I must have multiple notebooks to jot them down in their different categories to get them off my mind. And then of course I can't find the specific notebook! This sounds like a better idea. I'll add it to my wish list.
Remindme! 2 days
As a tech person, I'm a huge fan of e-ink and am convinced it's eventually going to become way more widely used. I'm hoping minimalist e-ink phones become a mainstream thing, too.
I totally agree. Feels like it’s still a small niche of early adopters but I’m seeing growing interest in them every day. The fact that Amazon released a device last year is a point of validation.
---okok
E-ink tablets vary quite a bit, some being no more than regular Android-based devices with e-ink displays, but there are others that are more intentionally designed to do away with digital distractions. Companies like Supernote and Remarkable produce devices centered entirely around note-taking with no ability to browse the web and install apps.
I've been tempted, but went all in on fountain pens to get me back I to writing. (Creatively, journaling, taking work notes for retention....)
I have an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil for the same reason. I use it for everything.
I love my remarkable 2
I got the boox note air but hated the writing interface so i went back to my ipad lol
Been meaning to try this, but I keep forgetting. Thanks for the motivating reminder!
I am super confused at how much this post sounds like marketing. XD
OP had had this thing for a week. Bit early to say it's a life changing habit.
I use my ipad mini for this.
i agree with you on the distraction booby trap. getting mine in a week. while i cant write on it, i am planning to use it for books and read-later apps. what 'canvas' do you use for planning? is it the same, or a separate app for scheduling? i believe they are both very close, but different.
I'd really love to, it's actually one of my biggest dreams, but here in Brazil, like almost every imported electronic product, it's insanely expensive. It's like 3,500 BRL, which is around 680 dollars, or about 2.5 times the monthly minimum wage. I do plan to buy it, but I’ll have to wait until it gets cheaper. Or at least until I get rich.
Nice! note book usage is a constant necessity for me. I go through heaps of them. I never really go back and read them either, they just have the benefit of keeping me focused by translating information into notes, sorta like that process in my brain reinforces the information. I'd 100% get an e-ink one but I've found that a huge benefit to me is the tactile nature of organisational stuff. If it's large and physical it can't escape my attention, and it makes it a little bit more enjoyable as like a tangible thing to interact with. I've taken to never using my laptop in any environment that needs notes and it's been a huuuuuuuuuuge benefit. Glad to hear OP!
I just want one the size of a phone, that doesn't cost several hundred dollars.
Is that the title of the book? Who's the author? Thx
iPad Pro with a paperlike screen protector did the trick
I got the remarkable 2 Tablet as a graduation gift, because I've been trying really hard to reduce the amount of paper I use, but I love writing and buying new notebooks. I use the tablet for absolutely everything, work, lists, journal, counseling... everything. I also download templates from Pinterest for creative money saving lists, TBR lists, recipe cards.. as long as I can save it in a PDF the possibilities are endless. I also create different notebook covers on Canva and download those so it feels like I'm actually using multiple notebooks. I like the feel of the pen on the tablet (it feels like writing on actual paper compared to using an apple pencil on an iPad) and I like that I don't have Internet access so I can't get distracted and start doom scrolling on Instagram, or mindlessly putting things into an Amazon shopping cart only to delete them a week later. I highly recommend this for others with ADHD / Hyperfocus issues.
Also this is not an ad and I am definitely not an influencer. I just really like the tablet.
u/dendrytic searching for "The Adult ADHD Toolkit" on Amazon has been a nightmare - apparently those exact buzzwords have fallen in grace with many authors, and there's no way I can just pick one up and it'll be the right one (or even a good one). Which one exactly do you recommend, by which authors? (I don't mean a rude tone, I'm actually kind of desperate, 41yM diagnosed just six months ago, everything in my life feels like it's ruined beyond repair, including my marriage on the bad days).
No worries! Here ya go – [https://www.amazon.com/Adult-ADHD-Tool-Kit-Facilitate/dp/0415815894](https://www.amazon.com/Adult-ADHD-Tool-Kit-Facilitate/dp/0415815894)
I might need this in my life. Which device did you get?
I just use Notepad++.
RemindMe!
Give recommendation please
Supernote Nomad.
Supernote Nomad!
Great to hear! I've been considering this route from sometime now. I feel if I could break my technology addiction I feel much better! Has this helped with your energy at all?
Yes, feeling more energetic, but obviously that’s anecdotal. My laptop has stayed on my desk for the entire past 2 weeks; usually I’d lug it around with me everywhere in hopes of getting more “work” done, but I’d just end up going down rabbit holes squandering whatever energy I had for the tasks I needed to do.
Would you mind letting me know what brand/model it is out of interest? Cheers.
In my edit
Not sure what you mean by in your edit - where?
Thanks
I'm a techie has well, paper and pen is my way to go for personal things, it's the best way I remember things.
!remindme on 6 weeks
I have the remarkable2. I adore it. It's pricy, I watched eBay for a few months and got mine for like 250. Best part is eBay sets up reminders for you 🤣
!remindme one month
I purchased the SN A5X for the same reasons and I love it so far.
I've been considering getting one for a long time now. Your post might be what makes me go for it.
Give it a shot! I bought a couple and really put them to the test within the return window.
I've been using mine for over a year and it has all my ebooks on it
Just purchased a remarkable thinking an e-ink would help! Can’t wait to get started!
RemindMe! 8 weeks
I use my iPad for this a modified GTD+Bujo system. Mindfulness and effort are built in. If I want to be able to read what I wrote I have to pay attention
thats why I do mine in pencil and paper.
Mhmm... let us know if you're still using it in a month.
this just reminded me of that clipboard but it was like an etch and sketch until you pressed a button and it flashed the screen
Been using Evernote (6+ yrs), and currently Notion (3+ yrs) as my second brain quite successfully over the years. No digital pen needed.
How accurate/sensitive is the writing? I still take loads of notes at work, and prefer writing things down to typing them out, as I pay more attention and retain better. However, my handwriting is awful, so it can be a struggle to read my own writing sometimes. Any time I've tried to write on a touch-screen or graphics pad, it's terrible. Are these e-ink notebooks better?
For me, accuracy is on par with writing on paper. Also really depends on the specific pen and digital preset you use. I’ve found using a finer pen tip with a ballpoint pen preset makes my handwriting actually look a bit better. If you’re in the states, Best Buy usually has the Remarkable 2 on display demo if you want to give that a shot.
The worry about messing up in a physical notebook is so real! I got a small whiteboard for my studies which gives me more freedom but sometimes I’m too lazy to transfer things to my notebook and end up losing them.
Yep, it’s very real and for me creates a constant undertone of anxiety whenever I put pen to paper. This paper tablet so far has helped a lot with that.