ADHD Toolkit: Practical Strategies for Object Recognition Memory in Business
It's not a character flaw; it’s a personal difference in how our brain encodes information.
In the last article, we discussed the research on object recognition memory as a documented struggle for people with ADHD symptoms. Today I want to get practical. If this is something you experience, what does it actually look like in your business, and what can you do about it?
Where Object Recognition Memory Shows Up in Business
Networking. Recognising faces is important when you’re meeting people professionally. We already know working memory makes remembering names harder, but if you also can’t reliably recognise that you’ve met someone before, that’s a compounding problem. Not just their name, but their face, the context, which event you saw them at, and what you talked about. All of that makes the important job of building your network, or even just making friends with others in your industry, a lot harder.
Digital systems. This one doesn’t get talked about enough. Most of our workplaces are now almost entirely digital, which means we’re surrounded by exactly the kind of abstract, random-looking stimuli that the studies used to test object memory.
Folders, buttons, file names, dashboards, they’re all essentially arbitrary symbols that are supposed to mean something specific. Knowing that if you go here and click this, you’ll get that is a form of object memory recognition. And it’s one that takes time to build, especially when everything looks vaguely similar.
So what does that mean?
It means it could take us a bit longer to learn where things live, and we’re more likely to make errors in the short term. That’s not a character flaw; it’s a personal difference in how our brain encodes information.
What To Actually Do About It
Slow down onboarding.
If someone is training you on a new system and walks you through it once and says, “Got it?” the answer is probably no, even if you say yes. If you’re in the position to set requirements for how your team builds systems, make video walkthroughs or diagrammatic instructions a non-negotiable. Something you can go back to.
Because you will forget, and that’s expected, not embarrassing.
Rethink the conference model.
This is a big one. VIP days, intensive training days, and full-day conferences. These formats download a large amount of new information, including significant object recognition, in one hit.
And the experience is familiar: you leave buzzing, feeling like you’ve got it, maybe a little overwhelmed, and then two weeks later, you’ve retained almost none of it. It doesn’t matter if you paid $2,000 or $10,000. That format works against you.
If you struggle with working memory and object recognition, you are better served by something that allows you to meet for an hour or so, repeatedly, over a couple of months. Every Thursday at 3 pm for six weeks beats a full day every time because it gives you more chances to better encode everything into your long-term memory.
It also gives you the chance to actually use what you’ve learned between sessions and come back with real questions.
So when you’re choosing a coach, a consultant, or a course, asking “Can we break this into shorter sessions over a longer period?” is a completely reasonable request, and it will serve you far better than the intensive alternative.
This is one of the reasons I find ADHD research so useful, even when the topic seems obscure.
Object recognition memory doesn’t sound like a business problem. But when you look at where it actually shows up, in networking, learning new software, and navigating the systems that run your business, it matters a lot. And knowing that it’s a real, documented pattern rather than you being disorganised or not caring as much changes how you approach it.
So what changes are you making to your business processes to better incorporate object memory struggles? Comment below and let me know.
Chat soon,
Skye
Business owner with ADHD wanting operational clarity and focus?
Click here to book an operational clarity session with Skye.
