What Is Working Memory? (ADHD Glossary)
ADHD.lk Team · Aug 28, 2026 · 1 min read
Working memory is the brain's scratchpad: the small, temporary store where you hold information while using it — a phone number while dialling, the start of a sentence while reading its end, why you walked into the kitchen. In ADHD, this scratchpad is smaller and more easily wiped.
Everyday evidence
- Walking into a room and losing the reason on the threshold
- Losing your point mid-sentence when interrupted
- Reading a paragraph four times because the start evaporates by the end
- Forgetting instruction two while executing instruction one
- The "out of sight, out of mind" effect with objects and people (full guide)
Design around it, don't fight it
Working memory does not improve much with training — but life improves enormously when you stop renting space in it: capture every thought the second it appears (the 🧠 button here works from any page), keep today's plan visible in the planner instead of your head, ask people to send requests in writing, and write the "next step" before pausing any task so re-entry costs nothing.