I’m finding it all a bit odd that I now know how AS works, yet find that I fail to spot how it applies to me. My whispered thoughts in this article were pretty much figured out as I was writing. More proof, I guess of just how important (and useful) writing this blog is to me.

I have a ‘ticklers’ calendar as part of my Google Calendar setup, which is set up to SMS me things I need to remember, like birthdays and renewal dates for things. Receiving the SMS means that the task makes it onto my to-do list for the day, so has less chance of being forgotten. For such a small amount of effort to create it, it really is worth it’s weight in gold!

I have a rule to try and stay away from computers/phones etc during family time, especially at the weekend, so knocking up an email to myself on my phone doesn’t work so well for me.

I have something of a rule about at least trying to

I can relate to this so well. I used to have a lot of problems like that – I still do. Normal task managers don’t work for me but email does.

Now I send myself emails all the time from the blackberry. About 60% of my mail comes from myself.

If I get a blog idea, I email myself.

For me, this is a big part of being autistic. I want to have my to-do list (because how else can I remember what to do now?), wind myself up like a clock, and then go through my day, doing things on my list, consistently and easily, like…clockwork. The problem is: I’m not a clock, and ultimately, I start feeling like a prisoner of my lists. That’s when I “forget” to check them or to get back to them.

I think that executive dysfunction is about having a brain that has so many thoughts that I can’t keep up with them, so I just follow them where they lead. Then, I make a list to kind of rein myself in, and my brain rebels and just wants to follow all these wonderful thoughts. And then I try to override them with my list, and the struggle begins anew. Soon enough, I feel paralyzed and depressed and can’t even remember whether I’m wearing socks.

For me, the solution is to try and accept that my brain works differently from other people, and that I will never really be able to follow my lists on a daily basis. They have become a reminder of what to do when I go too far afield, like a trail of breadcrumbs leading me back to the basics of my life when I’ve been out in the forest of my special interests and imagination for too long.