January 10, 2021

The Internet has thousands of ideas to help autistic people thrive – also known as coping strategies, accommodations, or life hacks.

If I see a good idea but then keep scrolling, I usually forget to try it. If I make a list of every good idea I see, then I get overwhelmed and ignore the list.

After some trial and error, I got around those problems by organizing ideas into four lists:

1) Ones I’m currently trying – no more than five.

2) Ones that work well, and have become habit.

3) Ones that didn’t help much, so I stopped them.

4) Ones that I’d like to try someday, when there’s room on the first list.

When you find ideas that could help support your brain (or your child’s brain), do you have a way to organize them? If you decide to try these four lists, I’d love to hear how it goes!

P.S. I write from my personal experience as an autistic. What I share is not a substitute for advice from an autistic medical professional. Also, some of my opinions have changed since I first wrote them.