The Tech

Let’s talk briefly about my latest adult ADHD hyperfixation: NFC Tags. For a quick intro on what NFC is, check here, but as a quick primer, we’re talking about a simple technology that allows two NFC-compliant readers to send data to each other via a simple proximity “tap”. It is so convenient for things like phone/watch payments and small file transfers, but that’s not why I took interest in it today.

Organisational issues

As a freshly 30 male learning how to Adult, it won’t come as a surprise that my work/life/hobbies/whatever balance is very much out of whack: I have gadgets and everyday-use tools/items scattered in random places around a house I’m renting, to the point where I easily end up losing important documents or even my cards and passes just by virtue of the chaotic order I had setup in my brain and house was thrown the tiniest bit out by forgetting to replace said item in its exact old position.

The Random Chaotic Order works pretty well though, sadly..

In the adult world, this kind of approximated Order cannot fly. If I want to ever let another adult into my life, I have to get my life in order, figuratively but most importantly literally. There are a few cool systems out there for universal organization of items, physical or digital, and while I’m sure they do work for a lot of people, I am not “most people”. I’ve learned the hard way that unless chores are gamified and made into a convenient bite-sized meal, the only way I would ever put in extra effort would be because of an over-engineered gimmick.

Your brain on ADHD

Introducing: NFC Tags

This is where NFC Tags have a very appealing proposal in my view: through very basic scripting of smartphone tasks, you can place a bunch of small cheap pills in key locations of your house, which will each have their own script associated with recurring tasks in that specific location. For example, a Tag in the egg basket to start an egg boiling timer; or a tag under my work laptop that starts relaxing jazz music and mutes notifications. The possibilities are near-endless, and the whole thing is low-tech and simple enough to not introduce security risks IoT devices are most famous for.

Wut da Tag doin