“....often I am thinking of saying or doing something and it totally vanishes from my mind like in a POOF! I need to carry a notepad and jot things down!!!!”
I call that “poof” thingy “losing the bubble”. Notepads helped for awhile but increasingly found myself trying to de cypher either my handwriting or 2-3 three word shorthand.
I have a stylus on my phone and try to write things down as I think of them. More than a few times the soap bubble pops between me taking the stylus out and opening up my To Do list ... the thought is just gone ... and it's not coming back.