Sensory Noticing
Journal

ADHD EXECUTIVE FUNCTION TOOLS

A structured sensory check-in to anchor attention
to the present moment

Where This Tool Helps

This journal offers optional prompts for noticing sight, sound, smell, and touch in the present environment. Sensory attention helps some people pause or reorient, but it is not guaranteed to ground, calm, or reset attention.

Choose accessible senses, keep eyes open, and adapt or stop for sensory sensitivity, dizziness, trauma, pain, or distress. A quick indoor check-in is distinct from the longer outdoor Mindful Senses Walk.

How to Use This Journal

  1. Pick any environment. This works at your desk, on a walk, in a waiting room, at home. The setting does not need to be quiet or calm.
  2. Start with whichever sense is easiest to access in your current location. If you are indoors, sight and touch are usually the most available. Outdoors, sound and smell tend to surface more.
  3. Spend at least 30 seconds on each sense before writing. The goal is noticing, not narrating. Let the sensation register before you describe it.
  4. Write brief, concrete descriptions. "Hum of the air vent, low and steady" is more specific than "I hear a sound." Specificity keeps you in the moment.
  5. Use the quick version (one observation per sense, 60 seconds total) when a short check-in feels useful during a meeting or task switch. Use the full version (three or more per sense, 10 minutes) as a standalone practice.

Coaching and Health Scope

This is a coaching reflection aid, not therapy, diagnosis, medical care, or a validated clinical instrument. Use it to record your own observations and prepare questions, not to identify a condition or choose treatment. Adapt or stop any prompt that feels unsafe or distressing. Bring persistent sleep, mood, anxiety, medication, physical-symptom, or safety concerns to a licensed health professional; use emergency or local crisis services for immediate danger.

1

Sensory Noticing Journal

Quick (1 min)
Full (10 min)
Sight

Look around and observe the colors, shapes, and patterns in your environment. Write down at least three things you see and briefly describe what catches your eye.

Sound

Keep your eyes open or closed, whichever feels safer, and listen. Write down at least three distinct sounds you hear and note whether each is close or far, constant or intermittent.

Smell

Take a few slow breaths through your nose and identify what you can detect in the air. Describe at least three scents and their qualities - sharp, faint, warm, chemical, organic.

Touch

Reach out and feel the nearest surface, object, or texture. Describe what you notice - temperature, roughness, weight, give. Try at least three different surfaces.

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