The ADHD Med Tracking Trick I Rely On

You know, there’s something oddly humbling about realizing you can recall thousands of zip codes from when you worked at UPS years ago, yet not whether you already took your morning meds today. Maybe it’s just me, but keeping track of when and whether I have taken meds is not my forte (h/t Speechprof and IYKYK).

Eventually I just stopped acting like this was ever going to work out. And instead of fighting the inconsistency of my own brain, I added a daily habit in order to work with how my brain works. It’s super basic: I just take a picture of the pills before taking them, every time I take any pills. Then? My phone’s gallery remembers for me! 🙂

ADHD Meds Tracking Life Hack

1. Before you take your meds, grab your phone and take a photo of the pills in your hand (or on your table surface). That’s the whole strategy.

If you’ve been around these internet streets, you might recall that I also use my phone to take pics that prevent me from getting lost. If interested, check out Forget Where You Parked? Try This ND-Friendly Photo Hack.

Back to the ADHD meds thing, this has helped me solve several problems beyond just keeping track of whether I took my pills. The photo shows which pills I took, and when. The gallery also stamps dates of pics, of course, which helps me keep track of when I may have started a new med or stopped another.

I do this for all meds. Regular morning meds? Photo. Tylenol? Photo. At the end of the month, I delete the whole batch and reset.

Why not use a pill organizer?

Look, if they work for you then I love that for you, I do. They don’t work for me. My problem was remembering to fill the thing in advance. I’d end up filling it in the morning, right before I needed that day’s morning meds. And then I’d confuse myself because I would intend to leave that morning’s pills out so I could take them separately and fill the morning’s spot for that day.

And all that did was (1) lead to me immediately losing track of whether I had taken the AM pills or not, or if I’d just assembled the organizer. And (2) at best, it would push the same problem back to the evening meds on that day next week anyway.

It basically created more steps and left me with one round of meds every week that I was never sure whether I’d taken or not. I just can’t with those things.

So I take my little med photos and move on with my life. If I need to confirm later, and I very often do need to do that part, I check my photos. And when my doctors ask when I started a new med, I also check my photos. I will do this forever.

I hope this helps somebody like me out there. If it doesn’t that’s fine too. I hope you figure out a strategy that works for you as well. And if you’d like to share your strategy, please find this post on social media and let s know what works for you! Solidarity always, friends.

Want to discuss this topic?

* There is this post on bluesky and this thread on facebook *