Remembering routines

[maidenm]

So... I'm not in a very good emotional state right now and I need to do something to help me keep my head above the water so to speak and I figure trying to make my daily life a bit easier might be as good as anything.

I have asperger's syndrome and while it has it's benefits some things are quite difficult, such as routines. These routines can range from stable sleeping hours to toothbrushing to medication and the like. Sometimes I even forget to eat, or I eat a little all the time instead of proper meals.

I've gotten a lot of tips on how to remember things, but many of them rely on other routines (leave medication next to toothbrush for example) so the usefulness of them sorta crumble along with eachother...

I suppose what I want right now are tips on how to get some structure in my days so... how do you do it? If you are neurotypical, do you think your way could work for me?

 

[Raikas]

Can you make yourself a schedule mapping out your days and post it somewhere you'll see it? Like a hardcopy on your wall and another attached to a calendar app on your phone (with alarms), another in outlook (if you use it for work/school) and so on?

 

[maidenm]

Scheduels are difficult for me because after a while they sink into the background and I stop noticing them. I tried using my phone's calender for quite some time and that was pretty much only a failiure. Right now I rely on a friend who reminds me daily about my medication trough sms since I at the very least look at my phone once in a while, but I hate to rely on others because of my problems like that.

 

[Baron_BJ]

I've got Ass-burgers as well and I've got similar problems with regards to schedule, however I've found mild success with a slight variation on the idea of keeping things near each other. It's not fixed my problem (by a long shot), but it has made it easier for simple things such as medicine and the like.

Essentially I found a small section of my house where I spend almost all of my free time when I'm not hanging out with people (In my case that particular section was my computer desk) and then I leave the specific objects there so that as soon as I sit at my computer (and I WILL sit at my computer at some point practically ever day) I'll see my pills beside my keyboard, a toothbrush (I keep one under each sink in the house as well should I spontaneously remember to do it beforehand, I also leave a small number of pills there as well, the basic idea being that no matter what there's no way I can really be lazy about it by saying "bathroom is upstairs, I'll do my teeth and pills in 10 minutes" because I know I won't) and a sticky note that's attached to my desktop that is always in my peripheral vision that will remind me of certain things.

I can see why you might not be able to handle that though, my Ass-burgers come with special sauce and a very mild form of OCD, although mine only pertains to keeping very certain things in a very orderly fashion and thankfully that doesn't apply to everything, so this works for me but I can see how someone with a very similar form of burgers to myself would be incapable of dealing with this sort of crap just lying around in such obtuse locations.