Hey all,
I've looked around at a LOT of different software solutions for managing life with ADD. I haven't found something that really works great. I'm sure most of it's OK for 'norms' but, besides being consistantly cludgey to use, most of them don't offer tools that are ADD friendly.

I've been tinkering around with programming my own solution. I'm a computer geek but not a organized programmer so it'd be a [i]long process but I guess what I'm proposing is we compile a list of features that we all think would really help manage our ADD then see if we can either figure out how to make it ourselves or if a professional company can make it for us.

-Maybe we can just discuss what'd be the most important features and what we like most/least about competing products.
-Maybe make a list of required, useful, cool features in order.
-Maybe even a group of us slap something together for the community to evaluate...

I'm not thinking of profit-margin so much as I just keep wishing I had something that would feel duct-taped together like my current system is... Or maybe there's the perfect system already out there I just missed it while perusing this forum.

If something already does everything you need, please share it with me. Otherwise, any thoughts?

I have thought about how much I need an ADD organizer on my computer too, one with a LOUD alarm (I'm hard to wake when I sleep and I sleep next to my comp). Mostly I need one to remind me loudly and numerous times of an upcoming task. Also it would be nice if there could be an area to fill in with the daily chores that should be done daily. That might motivate me a little to priorities and not OCD on shining a tea pot for 5 hours.
It would have to pop up the reminders and alarms whether the program is opened and running or not.
I don't know much about organizers and what they have to offer, but one thing I learned about getting things done with my ADHD is that if I set a time limit for the job it helps. Say I set 10 minutes to straighten up the living room, when those 10 minutes are up I have to stop no matter if I'm done or not. That's incentive to hurry, not get stuck on little things, and move on to the next chore without having used up all your energy on that one. If the organizer could have an aree to fill in with chores that would pop up in order and time limit alarms.....jeeze....I don't know if I'd like being bossed around that much. But you could just turn on the Bossy Chore Commander when you were ready to clean (or whatever tasks you put in there).
Another must for me would be a medicine and dosage reminder.
How about a self improvement area where you can fill in what you want to work on and your progress, your little cognitive therapy area.

Great ideas, chameleon. I've been thinking I need it to be able to sort priorities then bug me periodically to make sure I haven't wandered. I definitely need continual reminding...

Is it just me or does anyone else constantly come up with things I want to do? I need somewhere I can quickly write down and have it prompt me if the task is more important that the current highest (or let me sort on my own) that way, I can quickly get my ideas down without forgetting but have something still keep me on track.

Also, I have a huge list of goals. Mostly astronomical but I want to be able to easily order them and only show me some when I've completed others. Ie, finish SCUBA certification before I even contemplate looking into culinary school. (I don't even want it to show me until I've completed the other) Maybe make a task option 'hide until these tasks complete:' type thing?

More ideas?

I use my yahoo calander & messenger a lot. I have upcoming events posted with several allerts from my calander...and now it will send you a text message on your cell phone. I generally set the message for one day before the event and then depending on where it is about thirly minutes before I need to leave to get there on time. Again it is not a perfect solution, but it does help me to remember all those little things.

But I haven't seen anything that really works well for day to day things. I've never taken the time to set it up for chores ect althought since it will sechedule in 15 min increments it might work.

Prioritizing is an individual skill and not something that a system is going to do well unless the person can set preferences, and even those will change from day to day. I had a hard time with this until I started teaching my students how to do it and then it just clicked for me. I still need time reminders but have no trouble prioritizing.

OttScott--try using the recorder on your cell phone to take down ideas as they come up then sit down and go trhough what you had. Decide if it was an impulse or something you really want to do. Our lives get cluttered with impulse things and then nothing seems to get done.

here's a link to an older thread: http://www.addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6655&page=1&pp=15

info. on the ADDPlanning software is in that thread and other suggestions you might find helpful.

my palm pilot has an alarm system ... so, i use that a lot. the alarms can be set to ring minutes or days (i choose) before the appt. time. when i'm getting used to a new schedule ... like at the beginning of the school year ... i write "8am -- School Starts" on m-f and set the alarm to ring 15 minutes before i need to leave the house ... i also schedule "school ends" and set the alarm for 40 minutes before i need to leave to pick the kids up.

for awhile there the alarm on my palm pilot was ringing periodically throughout the day. the bonus to that is ... when i misplaced my palm pilot, i jsut needed to wait an hour or so, then i could find it when it started ringing ... :D after i'm used to the schedule, i don't have to have the alarm ringing all the time anymore.

I use Outlook at work extensively which is synched to my Palm which is then synched to my Outlook at home. I have daily reminders (such as turn off coffeepot before going home), weekly reminders, monthly reminders, etc. I just set them up with the right occurance and I am done. Between that and auto-bill paying I can stay on top of most things. Most important thing for me to do is remember to put it into Outlook. Right now I am looking around for a small digital voice recorder so I can make notes to myself instead of trying to remember something till I can write it down. I wish my Palm had that feature.

I have left a similar post under general discussion, but this idea might be helpful to you.
Would it be possible to create a hybrid between an organizer-planner-diary and a strategy game (like The Sims for instant). I have no problem concentrating while playing those games, but when I have to do similar tasks in the real life (like planning, prioritizing, etc), then it all seems rather boring, and I can't concentrate. So, some software that will make your life seem like a strategy game may be a perfect solution.

I found Yahoo planner ineffective for those reasons:
1. To-do list is very simple, and tasks can't be categorized. For example, if I have two projects (p1 and p2), and A, B and C needs to be done for project p1, and C and D for project p2, there is no way of recording it, it's all a one big pile.
2. There is poor coordination between the calendar and to-do list; you have to manually pick items from the list and put them into the calendar.

BUT, someone at Linux Links forum suggested to use this product: http://korganizer.org/ , or see if anything here helps:
http://linuxlinks.com/Software/ProductivityTools/

I didn't those yet, but korganizer seems useful.

A note about the Sims... It's amazing how a game whose main objectives are to make breakfast, go to work, clean the house, take a shower and go to bed-- and try to find time for friends, entertainment, etc... can be so @#($ addictive! It sounds like it would be such a bore to play, yet it's so hard to stop! :D

Hello,

I have a smartphone and Outlook. I synchronized my diary beetween them.
But for many reasons ( in short Mycro$oft DRM ) i would like to switch from Outlook to Mozilla Sundird. Does anyone know how to synchronise a smartphone with sunbird ?

In addition i make very often small web page wich consist of a list of item ( to do, to remember ... ) in xml format.
And i select the item, organise them wih a few lines of xsl like this :

"<maison>
<mois nom="1-4 nov" >
<electricité>alimentation chaudiere</electricité>
<chauffage>Etagere ventilation chaudiere</chauffage>
<peinture>haut cheminée cuisine</peinture>
<maconnerie>plafond chaudiere</maconnerie>
<voitures>RAS</voitures>
<velo>feu robin</velo>
</mois>
<mois nom="7-11 nov" >
<electricité>prise ventilation chaudiere</electricité>
<chauffage>ventilation chaudiere</chauffage>
<peinture>terrasse salle à manger</peinture>
<maconnerie>pleintes salle à manger</maconnerie>
<voitures>RAS</voitures>
<velo>RAS</velo>
</mois"
>"
and for xsl :
"<tbody>
<xsl:for-each select="mois">
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#FFFF00"><xsl:value-of select="@nom"/></td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="electricité"/></td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="chauffage"/></td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="peinture"/></td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="maconnerie"/></td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="voitures"/></td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="velo"/></td>
</tr>
</xsl:for-each>"

So far it's the most adaptative solution that i have found to
put on the same document two or more sets of item of different signification ( eg the furniture to buy for the house, and the sequence of work to repair something in the house ).

HELLO

I would like to show some XML and XSL tags in my previous message, but i can't turn off the automated parsing by this forum, how can i make the XMS/XSL tab visible ?

thanks