APPs we need to help with ADD

[nellie]

I though it might be fun to start a thread related to APPs ( iPhone, iPad ) that are really handy for those of us with ADHD.

My first suggestion is find my iPhone. Used it the first time this morning. Found my phone in someone’s car a couple of miles away. VerVeryVery cool!!! Of course you need to have an iPhone but if you do this is truly the cat’s meow of APPs! This seems designed for us forgetful types!

Would love to hear about some other great apps out there.

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[Anonymous]

On my Android:

*Google Maps of course. I can never get lost, even when I am, with GPS.

*Kindle for all the books I am trying to read. Especially good if I wake early!

*Screen filter. A quick one-button app to turn the brightness down really low so I don’t wake up my partner reading in the middle of the night. I also find it is easier to go back to sleep without a really bright screen shining at me. And it reduces battery use. I know I can alter the brightness somewhere in the settings but this is way quicker and toggles on and off.

*Where’s my Droid? Lucky so far – but it is a fall back option.

*An app that shows me the nearest bus stop and the bus times in my City. I hate queuing and waiting. If I get it right I turn up just as the bus is going to arrive

*Sleep (with sleep stats) – Analyses my sleep and also tries to wake me up when I am lightly sleeping near my alarm time. Sort of a novelty but I find when I get it working it is very good. If I have to get up early I find I wake up way before the alarm in a panic. I am trying to train myself to use this and be confident it will wake me up on time. And hopefully refreshed.

Loads more that I use. I am addicted to my phone. I think that is a good thing (well I hope so). It helps me with my self organisation, I just wish i remembered to put more things in my phone calendar. If its not there it is not happening. I especially like that it integrates with Facebook and tells me all the brithdays that I should remember.

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[Amy]

On my ipod touch:

Remember the Milk – To Do list, can set alarms & reminders

Week Cal – like the calendar layouts better than the native calendar

Grocery Pal & Shop Shop – for all of my lists

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[Anonymous]

Motivated Moms is an app that gives you a daily list of tasks around the house to complete. Of course I mostly don’t finish the list, but it gives me that starting point I often need.

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[Amy]

Oh yeah, I use HomeRoutine as well! It ties in with Flylady which I kinda, sorta do. http://www.flylady.net/

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[Phil, Just Phil.]

Google calendar linked from my android to the wife’s iPhone seems to work pretty well. She puts things in hers and it reminds me.

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[nellie]

Interesting pjwalks, it never occurred to me to try and link a calendar with my husband. But can you control how much of each other’s calendar one sees? I would guess things could get really cluttered but I can see how this can be really useful for some things. I assume there are categories to control things?

By the way, while it’s not really an APP in the productivity sense, I find Kindle (I use the iPad version ) really useful. The e-books are cheaper and I don’t have as many piling up around the house. Great for travel especially with the luggage weight restrictions these days.

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[Rick Green – Founder of TotallyADD]

Linking calendars is very powerful. We talk about it in ADD & Mastering It!

What makes it cool is that it automatically updates everyone’s calendars, immediately, so everyone in the family, or involved in the project, or working for the company, can see what’s changed. Far less double booking. And they send out reminders.

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[Rick Green – Founder of TotallyADD]

Of course… you have to remember to actually enter stuff right away. Taking 1 minute to type in my next dental appointment as the secretary books it, rather than say, “Great. See you then,” and rush out the door, thinking I’ll enter it on my way to the car… or when I get to the car… or that evening when Ava asks, “Did they book your next dental appointment?” … Unless I do it right there, in six months I’ll get a call, “Rick, your hygienist is waiting to clean your teeth. Are you close to arriving?”

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[nellie]

I will have to look in to this syncing business. However, I’m still looking for the perfect calendar app for the ipad that looks like a traditional paper agenda and lets me write in my tasks and appointments with a stylus ( ie my handwriting).

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[Phil, Just Phil.]

Hi sorry forgot to check the forum again. Yes you can set up a couple of sub calendars in google and only allow them access to one of them. You can even get a linking app for iPhones so you can connect cross platform. I have a family one my wife sees and another one if I need to remember something I don’t want her to know ( like bday presses etc..)

Kindle is a bit like google books I guess, I like using it when on my own waiting, been getting a few books on it lately too.

Other than that I have used Evernote too. Still getting a handle on all this stuff though. Learning to accept

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[Bill]

I’m a big fan of MyLife Organized. It’s the only to-do list that I have stuck with. I use it mostly on my PC, but the actual to-do list synchs with my smartphone.

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[Anonymous]

Apps that I’ve found helpful for organizing/task management:

iPod/iPhone:

ShopShop- great list app, use it for all sorts of things, you can swipe items and it draws a red line through it, but it stays on the list.

AppBox Lite- all kinds of tools so I don’t have to convert meters to feet and figures out percentages, plus has a bunch of other conversions built in.

Read It Later- allows you to check off articles for later reading, provides a list, use it for show prep, I can rattle through all the news without getting too deep down any “rabbit trails” and then do my detailed reading after.

Reading Apps- I use Kindle, Nook, iBooks, and Aldiko. I use a program called “Calibre” (free) to organize my huge gaggle of e-books. Don’t usually read on a small device, but nice to have something to read while I’m waiting somewhere.

Flashlight- other than the alarm, I use this app daily (nightly?) more than any other. I spend a lot of time in the dark, not sleeping, so having a non-obnoxious light in-hand is great. I have mine set to green.

Binaural Beats- I also have Misophonia, so reading or trying to concentrate in a room where there are people eating, etc. sends me into a tizzy- BB is a great way to have relaxing sounds that don’t distract, like music or radio. Not sure if it has any real effect on brain waves, but it does help me to relax. You can create your own “tracks” with different background noises and binaural frequencies.

Android Apps:

RedLaser- use for scanning barcodes/QR codes and saving them for later. Good for grocery shopping, and marking books in the library that I might want to read later. Will look up prices for scanned UPC codes, plus stores “loyalty cards” from lots of stores, so I don’t lose them as often.

Evernote and widget- Trying to work this into my “process” more, the widget really helps as you can quickly add a note/picture/audio recording. Use it during the day when things “pop” into my head that I really want to remember, such as an idea for a show topic, character info for a book, or just a picture of something interesting. I use Evernote Desktop and the Chrome App, everything syncs together, so I have my notes when I want them. I’m building the habit of sitting down after dinner and sorting/organizing my notes from the day.

TripLog- use it to log business mileage, exports to an “IRS-acceptable” format, plus tracks fuel costs. Can use for multiple vehicles.

Calendar- Everyone in the family has a Google calendar, plus I have one set up for holidays, birthdays, etc. We can add things to our shared calendars, updated automatically on my phone, computer, wife’s phone, son’s Galaxy player, etc. I also use Google for my tasks, as I really like having all my scheduling in one place.

Llama- Location-based app, uses cell sectors, not GPS, so while you don’t use battery with GPS, it’s not quite as accurate. You can set “Conditons” and “Actions”, to change your phone profile, run apps, reminders, turn Bluetooth/WiFi/GPS on/off, it’s kind of crazy but easier than Tasker. Basically you “train” the phone to recognize when you’re home, at work, at school- you then set the events or actions you want for that location and time. For example, you can set your phone to “Quiet” between 11pm and 7am when you’re at home, then when you leave home, it sets the phone to “Normal”. When you get to work you can set it to vibrate-only and to run your tasks or calendar app. Good way to get out of fiddling with your phone 10 times a day. Still learning this app, will update on any more uses I find for it.

MotoBlur- came with the phone, can locate and remotely wipe your phone in the worst case. Many apps to do this, although if the phone is stolen, it is a trivial matter to disable/reset the locator apps. Still good for finding it when you leave it sitting on top of a gas pump somewhere.

Music and GPS are two things I NEED with me at all times. I don’t carry my iPod since I got the Android phone, so I have everything in one device. I’m a map geek, so I have numerous mapping and GPS apps for various purposes. I listen to music to keep me on task, it really helps with “staring at the trees in the garden when you have 200 tomato plants to put in” syndrome!

Hope this helps, have already looked into a few of the apps others have mentioned.

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[Anonymous]

My wife is a huge help when i forgot my phone….it just happened Friday…I was at the docs and when I made next appt i asked my wife to put it in her calendar and “invite” me so it shows up on my phone. I also invite her on items I put in my calendar that I feel are important and she puts it on the wall calendar for me.

Other stuff:

Shop savy

Google maps

Key ring- keeps all my key ring store cards in one place. Some stores can even scan barcode from phone display.

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[Fabulous]

How about habit trackers? I am currently testing out Routinely, Habit Goal Monitor, Habit Streak, AndHabits, Fail Log …

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[Author]

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