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Applied Quiz: Tools And Keeping Systems Alive

A second set of questions on this chapter, weighted toward applying the ideas rather than recalling them. Each one hands you a tool that has stopped working and asks what the chapter would change.

1. A sticky note has been on the fridge for three weeks and nobody sees it anymore. What does the chapter say has happened?

  1. Nothing — it will work again once the task becomes urgent
  2. It has become wallpaper, and a stale reminder isn't neutral: it trains the eyes to skip that spot
  3. The note is in the wrong medium and should be replaced by a digital reminder
  4. The household has stopped caring about the task it names
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. Visual reminders suffer the same novelty decay as everything else, which is why the chapter's second rule is to rotate their look — move it, change the color, rewrite it. The first rule matters just as much: put the reminder where the action happens or where the body will be at action time, since a note in the kitchen can't fire at the car. The training-the-eyes-to-skip point is the reason a stale reminder actively costs something.

Concept Tested: Visual Reminders

See: Chapter 10

2. A family tidies aggressively, filing every loose paper neatly away. Within a week, several deadlines have been missed. What went wrong?

  1. Out of sight is out of mind, so tidying deleted working systems — the papers "put away nicely" are functionally gone
  2. The filing system was not labeled clearly enough
  3. Tidying was done too infrequently to establish a habit
  4. The deadlines were unrealistic to begin with
Show Answer

The correct answer is A. Clutter and ADHD have a specific mechanical relationship: every visible object bids for the spotlight and loads the budget, yet aggressive tidying can delete the systems doing the remembering. The chapter's resolution is selective visibility rather than minimalism — clear active work surfaces to near-empty, keep action items visible on purpose, and give storage a low bar, since open bins beat lidded boxes beat labeled filing cabinets. The doom pile on the chair is a filing system with honest pricing.

Concept Tested: Decluttering For ADHD

See: Chapter 10

3. Keys are supposed to live on a hook in the bedroom, but they keep ending up on the kitchen counter. What is the fix?

  1. Practice the walk to the bedroom until it becomes automatic
  2. Add a reminder note at the front door about the hook
  3. Accept the counter as inevitable and check both places
  4. Move the home closer to the behavior — a designated place across the room from the habit it serves is a system with a commute, and systems with commutes die
Show Answer

The correct answer is D. The tool-level addendum to designated places is that the home must be at the point of use: keys live where you exit, medication lives where the morning coffee happens, the dog leash lives on the actual door. The chapter's instruction when an object keeps failing to come home is to move the home rather than re-commit to the walk — which is exactly what option A does.

Concept Tested: Designated Places

See: Chapter 10

4. Someone sets a calendar alert labeled "dentist" for 3:00 and is late anyway. What is the design error?

  1. The alert fires when they are already late — time blindness needs the departure cued, so the alert should read "leave for dentist" at 2:30
  2. One alert is never enough; three are needed
  3. The appointment should have been recorded on paper as a backup
  4. The alert tone was not distinctive enough to register
Show Answer

The correct answer is A. Digital calendars are the highest-value digital tool for this brain because they fire, but the usage rules matter: everything dated goes in at capture time, every entry gets an alert, and travel time gets its own alert before the event. The chapter is explicit that a 3:00 alert for a 3:00 appointment fires when you're already late. Option C adds a tool whose known failure mode is that paper doesn't fire at all.

Concept Tested: Digital Calendars

See: Chapter 10

5. Someone builds an elaborate illustrated bullet-journal system that thrives for a month and then dies. What is the lesson?

  1. Paper planners do not work for ADHD and should be abandoned
  2. Choose the format you'll maintain on a bad day, not the one that photographs well on a good one
  3. The system failed because it was not shared with anyone else
  4. Elaborate systems work if enough time is budgeted for upkeep
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. The chapter describes the elaborate spreads as craft projects with a planner attached — gorgeous for the novelty month and heavy forever after. Paper planners genuinely work for some people, with eyes open to their failure mode (they don't fire) and the fixes: one forced sightline, open on the desk rather than in a bag, and checked at a stacked moment. The test is behavioral, not ideological — whichever one you actually check daily for a month wins.

Concept Tested: Planner Systems

See: Chapter 10

6. A student installs an absolute website blocker with no override. On day four, he uninstalls it. What do the engineering rules predict and prescribe?

  1. Absolute walls get uninstalled — make unblocking slow but possible, since a 30-second friction delay outperforms a wall
  2. He lacked the commitment to make the tool work
  3. Blockers are ineffective for ADHD and should be skipped
  4. A stricter blocker with a password held by someone else would have solved it
Show Answer

The correct answer is A. The rules come from a decade of this population using these tools: schedule blocks in advance, since the decision made calmly at breakfast beats the same decision attempted mid-doomscroll; make unblocking slow but possible; pair the block with physical distance; and treat defeats as data rather than verdicts. Omar's layered stack — phone on the kitchen charger, blocker on the laptop, notifications off, timer visible — fails rarely even though any single layer fails weekly.

Concept Tested: Distraction Blockers

See: Chapter 10

7. Someone keeps every notification enabled because each one seems individually harmless. What arithmetic does the chapter offer?

  1. Notifications are harmless if responded to promptly
  2. The cost is only the seconds spent reading each one
  3. Each buzz costs the working-memory rebuild afterward, not five seconds — so twenty authorized interruptions can hollow an afternoon
  4. The cost depends entirely on which apps are involved
Show Answer

The correct answer is C. The chapter applies Chapter 3's re-entry toll to notifications and adds the framing that makes the audit stick: every notification is an interruption you pre-authorized — a stranger's claim on your working memory, sold to you as convenience. The audit takes ten minutes: turn off everything, re-enable only what genuinely warrants an interruption (the list is shorter than it feels), batch the rest, and keep badges off the apps that farm compulsive checking.

Concept Tested: Notification Management

See: Chapter 10

8. A reply has gone unanswered for two weeks and now feels impossible to send. What is the mechanical fix?

  1. Wait until there is time to compose a properly thorough response
  2. Send "sorry for the delay, short answer below" today — the imperfect reply sent now beats the perfect reply that never ships
  3. Let it go, since a reply this late will not be welcome
  4. Move it to a dedicated overdue folder for a weekly review
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. The chapter names the pattern — a reply gets harder every day it ages until avoidance is total, and Chapter 11 will name the feeling — then gives it one mechanical fix. The surrounding triage rules apply too: process in batches at chosen times rather than monitoring continuously, use the two-minute rule at the moment of reading, and grant inbox amnesty when the backlog runs to thousands. Option A is the perfectionism the fix is designed to bypass.

Concept Tested: Email And Message Triage

See: Chapter 10

9. A student sets private mini-deadlines for a term paper and blows through every one of them. What is missing?

  1. The mini-deadlines were set too close together
  2. Stronger self-discipline at each checkpoint
  3. A witness or audience at each mini-deadline — a self-imposed date with no witness is just the far deadline wearing a costume
  4. A single firm deadline instead of several soft ones
Show Answer

The correct answer is C. Deadline scaffolding manufactures near deadlines because distant ones are motivationally invisible, but the design detail separating working scaffolds from decorative ones is that each mini-deadline needs consequence or audience, however friendly — the accountability partner, the study group, the boss cc'd on the plan. The chapter's closing line on it is blunt: the reward system knows the difference.

Concept Tested: Deadline Scaffolding

See: Chapter 10

10. A person promises themselves a weekend treat for finishing a week of hard tasks, then skips collecting it because it feels indulgent. What does the chapter say?

  1. Skipping is fine, since the work was completed either way
  2. Rewards should be larger and less frequent to carry more weight
  3. Rewards work best when kept private and unannounced
  4. Pay immediately and small, make the payment visible in advance, and actually collect — skipped rewards teach the system the currency is fake
Show Answer

The correct answer is D. Distant rewards don't motivate, because the discount curve applies to payoffs as much as to deadlines, so the redesign is immediate and small, bundled with long tasks rather than sequenced after them, written next to the task it's wired to, and collected — collecting is maintenance, not indulgence. The chapter adds a note for families: rewards you offer an adult are wages from a boss, while rewards they design and you help defend are infrastructure, which is Chapter 14's whole subject.

Concept Tested: Reward Systems

See: Chapter 10