When neurotypical people tell you to "just make a to do list".

For what it is worth, it is useful to come to the conclusion that the brain is an awful place to store something you want to remember. It may not be a list, but I certainly remember better outside my head than inside. Developing tooling that works for you is important to coming to grips with your brain.
- I remember great inside my head, i just forget to remember.
  
  my brain is an infinite ikea filled with filing cabinets, staffed by a single slightly confused librarian who has to navigate by leaving scratches on the walls
  once the librarian finds the relevant filing cabinet there's all the information you could possibly want, but good luck finding that one specific cabinet.
  
  I never forget to remember. It's remembering the thing I need to remember within a relevant time period, and not hours to decades past that time, that is the problem.
- Everyone is different and I'd go so far to say that there's probably a HEFTY chunk of individuals that this wouldn't work for, me included.
  I don't forget to do things. My brain just refuses to acknowledge that they're urgent to do.🤷‍♂️
  
  My favorite strategy is literally putting crap I need to remember in my way. Remember my daughter's jacket for school? You belong in front of the door now. Need to remember making a meal? Gonna leave out a bunch of ingredients on the counter. Everybody is different, I just find that kind of stuff works for me too.
- I’m still trying to find what works. I have about 5 different methods, some electronic, some not, and I never use one regularly because I forget.
  I really want to find one that I stick to :(
  
  I use a self hosted version of Trello for work and a combination of hand written notes. Unless I make a Trello note for it that thing may as well not exist. Immediately leaves my mind after. I try to capture the lighting in a bottle by taking enough notes to mean something later. I undercut myself with short cryptic notes sometimes, but usually it is enough to spark my brain back to what I was thinking.
  Self hosted version is focal board, for the tech enthusiast.
- I don't know if I have adhd but I see a lot of posts that seem to have similar mannerisms to me. I find I have to have multiple ways of making lists because I will start ignoring them. I also have to focus on the most important things to do. Like constant mantras in my head to get these things done. One of them must be going through all the stuff I need to get done and prioritize the most important. I try to do this every weekend. must be done. must be done. I have to like leverage obsesive thought.
  
  If this sort of behavior is interrupting your life at all, you might want to see a doctor. This type of behavior sounds like it could be ADHD.
  But I am obviously not a medical professional. This is just my opinion as someone with ADHD that had previously been an interruption in my life.

TO-DO list:
Make TO-DO list
Don't do anything on the TO-DO list
Realise step 2 is paradoxical because I'm already making the TO-DO list
Read the entire Wikipedia page about paradoxes

The ironic thing is that when I write it down, then I remember it without needing the list (I can see the note in my head), but if I don't write it down, I forget it. It's not exactly a list, but my home and office spaces are littered with post-it notes.
It's no surprise that I'm a visual person.
- This is a real strategy for overwhelmed neurotypicals too, something about taking an explicit step to memoize the info convinces the brain to add a bookmark.

Is it just me or is this missing one TO DO?
- Counted from the top? I've done several times now and it looks and sounds good to me.🤷‍♂️
- I guess it works if you include the TODO in "TO DO List", which i also didn't include at first.
  
  I've spent WAY too much time today listening to this theme song and counting the To dos and I still cannot hear more than 7. If you're counting 8 then maybe our ears are just on different wavelengths.🤣

Exactly. To do lists only work when you are able to fixate on them, otherwise they're as good as scrap

You mean "search for and compare various apps and websites for managing to do lists, to find the perfect one of my needs"? Right away!

Checkout bullet journaling. Its a system for keeping yourists from becoming a doom pile of lists. But you mostly make the system yourself works for me since its pretty flexible. My work life would be fucked without it.

One best practice among many for ND people. The meds help the most lol.
My day at work starts with my browser folder that pulls up daily checks then I start my to-do list right after. If not, I'm floundering, getting of task on other things, or browsing lol.

Heh. Band class. Good times.

To-Do lists have been instrumental in me handling my ADHD. Is it easy to make a list? Yes. Is it easy to get carried away and make 1000 lists, lists of lists? Also yes. Is it easy to get started? Hell no. But once you do, completing shit becomes addicting. Mindfulness is key. Make sure you're not beating yourself up if you miss items on the list, but try to do as much as you can. You'll be exhausted, and you'll feel like you haven't wasted the day.
- At the end of the day, everyone's different and has different things that work for them.🤷‍♂️

Some people will give the most common advice and then get pissy when someone says that isn't helpful for them.

Idk, to me to-do lists are things I use to externalize the 10 different thoughts bouncing around in my head, which quiets it down for a bit and allows me to think about the most important one(usually the first one on the list that inspired the list). Makes me feel good the other things are documented and lets me forget about it for a moment.
- Everyone is different and has a different strategy that works for them.🤷‍♂️
  Personally, I'd make the Todo list, put it down somewhere unconventional, and then forget where it's at or even forget it existed in the first place.
  
  Yeah, once I accepted I don't actually need to return to the to-do list and accepted they're more "externalize the noise" lists, they became helpful. before that not so much.

I find the act of making the list is helpful for prioritising tasks, but I wind up referring to it very little if at all.
Usually I make it while waiting for food or on public transport