The ADHDer's Guide to Building the Ultimate Everyday Carry Kit for Supercharged Productivity Without Forgetting Anything

There’s the feeling you have, and the feeling you want.

Here’s the feeling I bet you’re familiar with: you’ve rushed out the door with just enough time to make your appointment. It’s an important one, and you’ve worked hard on getting ready for it, but this morning was just kind of extra hectic. You get to the appointed place, you open up your bag…and realize it’s not there.

What is “it”?

“It” changes from time to time, from person to person. It might be a folder with an important document. It might be the power adapter for your device that has your notes that somehow is at 10% battery. It might be your medication. For me, “it” has been all those things, and “it” has also been my bike lock, my watch, my wallet, my coffee, and on one occasion, my daughter (I am not proud of that fact.)

And that feeling is why there’s a certain genre of content that has been written, spoken, photographed and videoed in thousands of ways. A type of organizational pornography that is usually, but not entirely, directed at men, that promises a world where “it” is never, ever left behind.

It is the world of the Every Day Carry, or EDC.

The EDC Seduction

You may think that an Every Day Carry is simply the things that you carry every day — your keys, your wallet, maybe your purse or man-sack with a notebook and pen.

That is no more an EDC than walking with your friend down the street is a pas de deux.

An EDC is an intentional practice, designed to prepare you for any contingency you might encounter during your day. According to the enthusiasts and experts, this can, in fact, extend to anything — which is why there are “urban EDC” and “hiking EDC” and “IT EDC” and “Music Festival EDCs”.

The idea is to look at the environment you’re going to be facing, and prepare for as many contingencies as you can easily carry on your person.

Yes, everyone does this to some extent — but if you’re using the acronym EDC you’re basically a low-key prepper, imagining worst-case scenarios and trying to mitigate them in the most efficient and minimalist way possible.

You know what environment I go into every day? Whether it’s a weekend, a workday, a vacation, a date, or a call to Grandpa duty so my kid and her spouse can go see Moulin Rouge?

In all of those cases, I am going into them with ADHD. And that means I am statistically far more at risk of that horrible feeling of forgetting than an neurotypical grandpa.

That’s why I’ve created a special kind of Every Day Carry for myself:

The ADHD EDC: What’s in your sac*, Gray?

I’m going to tell you, I promise. But before you scroll down to the list, be warned: this is the list that I came up with, after chatting with friends like @AndySporring and also talking with my partner and other friends to find out: what do I often need but often forget?.

You have to do that work for yourself, lest you become one of those wide-eyed EDCvangelists offering useful things when they aren’t needed, or inadequate things when they are**. While most EDC enthusiasts embrace minimalism, I believe it’s even more important for people with ADHD, simply because the more things you carry with you, the more you have to lose.

As Einstein famously possibly would have said, “your sack should be as simple as possible, but no simpler.”

With that caveat, here’s what goes in my speed sling, divided into two categories: expendable and persistent:

Expendables are items that will need to be restocked, recharged, or otherwise filled up at the end of every day. I do this by having a “command center” (hat tip to @ariannabradford from ADHDone) with a simple, flippable tag: one side says “Restock and resupply!”, the other side says “Good to Go!” The practice is to only take my bag if the tag says “Good to Go” — and when I get back home and put my sac down right where it belongs, I flip the card to “restock” until I’ve actually checked that everything is topped off.

The expendables are:

• a pill box with full day’s worth of meds (ADHD and other) + my afternoon ADHD med + 2-4 ibuprofen + 2 breath mints.
• a battery pack (which has a built-in wall plug and USB-C cable, making it entirely self-sufficient to charge almost all my devices)
• an Apple Watch Battery Charger (the one device not covered by the battery pack)
• Cash ($10, in the form of one $5 bill and five $1 bills — more on this later)
• Stickers and art cards — because you never know when you can brighten someone day with a happy little sticker or a hand-written note or picture.

Persistent items do change from time to time, but for the most part they are the things that don’t need to be refilled/recharged but that I will use during the day:

• Bullet Journal (currently a A5 Baron Fig Confidant)
• Sketchbook (just an A5 size generic)
• Various writing instruments: Cocoiro brush pen (black), Pentel Energel RTX, zebra three-color ball point, Papermate 7mm mechanical pencil, Onto 9mm pencil.
• Folding ruler
• Wall adapter and USB-C cord (works on phone, laptop, earbuds and to recharge battery pack)
• Beats Fit Pro ear buds (not shown) Yes, I like AirPods Pro better, but after having one fall out of my ear and be lost forever, I need the more secure fit.
• Key fob with car and office key

A short and incomplete list of things that used to be in the EDC and no longer are:

• Pocket knife
• Folding keyboard (voice dictation has gotten good enough that it’s just as fast)
• Colored pencils or markers
• Tape
• Bandaids
• Sewing kit
• Cliff Bar/trail mix
• Reading glasses in case with microfiber cleaning cloth.

Balancing “what might happen” with “what is likely.”

All of the adjustments to my EDC come from extensive prototyping, revisions, and field-tests. The goal is that if I was stranded somewhere with nothing but my EDC — say my car broke down somewhere, or a flight was delayed — I could still do most of my work, keep myself fed and entertained, and handle most basic tasks or functions.

What does that look like, though? I simply started paying attention to the times that I was annoyed when:

• I forgot my computer:My phone has a large screen, and when turning it horizontally and using the keyboard, I can do emails, write articles, even some basic spreadsheet work.
• I forgot to take my meds and There’s a low-pressure front coming in and my body really hurts. Having a full day of all my meds (there are four pills per day) means I never have to worry — and the ibuprofen and breath mints are necessary when living in a cold climate and having a love of garlic and jalapeños.
• I forgot my wallet:$10 is enough for my basic food needs, and having the $5/5 $1’s means I can usually leave tips in cash. This is a habit I cultivated after finding out that many restaurants and cafés take the processing fee out of the extra “tip” you leave on that oh-so-convenient screen — shifting the burden of paying for credit card processing to the staff.
• I forgot to bring a book:Between the phone’s reading, podcast, and audiobook app, I’ve got plenty of entertainment — but in reality I’m much more likely to pull out the pens and art cards and make something. It’s strange how having the bare basics in my sac will be more motivating than my over-furnished workshop at home.
• I forgot to charge my device:Between the battery pack and the cable/adapter, I’m pretty set for power (the phone is also a model that, when charged, lasts a couple of days).
• I forgot to put sweetener in my coffee. Seems like a little thing, but I can’t stand the taste of plain coffee. I’m not proud of that fact…but it helps.

Likewise, the list of things I used to carry but no longer do grew from noticing that there were some things I thought would be useful but that I never used. I carried around that Cliff Bar for six months; the knife felt necessary because of the cultural masculinity socialization I was raised with, but never actually seemed necessary. Likewise “sewing kit” and “band-aids” — sure, I’m supposed to “be prepared” my inner Boy Scout says, but when was the last time I actually sewed on a button that popped off?

Your ADHD EDC will be different, but one thing will be the same.

I’m going to tell you something you’re going to do, and I hope I’m wrong.

I hope that your Oppositional Defiant Disorder kicks in, and you say I’ll show you, Gray! You’re not the boss of me!

But I’m pretty sure that you will do what did — what I still, occasionally, do, in spite of having proven to myself, over and over, that it’s a very poor choice:

You will leave your ADHD EDC at home, because you’ll think “Oh, I won’t need it.

It may be because you’re just running a short errand — but that’s when you’ll get the call from your daughter and have to go spend the night at her house to help with the grandkids. It may be because you’re just going to the movies — but that’s when you’ll stop on the way for a double cheese curd jalapeno burger. It may be because you want to feel rough and independent in some kind of Jack Reacher/Jack London kind of way, or because you feel like it’s less of a “nutsac speed sling” and more of an “Erkle fanny pack” you’re carrying around. Everybody else just has their keys and wallet and other stuff they need in various pockets, and most of the time they don’t lose them.

Resist the urge to go anywhere without your ADHD EDC. For two reasons:

You have ADHD. You’re not “everybody else”, and for you, “most of the time” you will lose or forget or misplace them. And you know this, which is why you will compulsively check and worry and try really hard not to — but I’m sorry, that’s not how your brain works. Mine either. It’s really inconvenient, I know, but you can compensate for it by having literally everything you need in one place.

But there’s only one way that’s going to actually help you — if you remember the second reason:

“Every day carry” means every day, every time, every where. Not a “once in a while” carry, not a “when you think you can predict the future” carry, but every day.

If you’re not going to use the thing, why did you bother putting it together in the first place?

I have paid attention, in the weeks since I started this article, to the times when I’ve chosen not to bring my EDC with me. Usually it’s because I am carrying my laptop or other materials in another bag, and it seems silly to carry that much. I’ll try to just move the things I think I’ll need into the other bag, planning on moving it back later.

This way lies chaos. Every time — yes, every time — there’s something that I need or wish I had that did not make it into the bag. Or the next time I do remember my EDC, I realize I didn’t put everything back into it.

I’ve also paid attention to the times I’ve had it with me, and something has gone wrong, or off-schedule, or someone else has a drained battery or a headache — and for a change, I’m the one who remembered their meds, who has power to spare, who knows exactly where his keys are.

After a lifetime of ADHD? That’s a really good feeling. Which is why, if you struggle with remembering things, I urge you:

Take your time. Build your ADHD EDC.

And then, for god’s sake, take it with you.

* My preferred Everyday Carry bag is from a company called “Nutsac” because, as I mentioned, EDC stuff is primarily marketed to men. However, since my daughters bought me my first Nutsac for Father’s Day, it’s entirely appropriate to reference it.

** Or create a company making EDC gear called Nutsac.