App Spotlight: Alarmed by Yoctoville

I've told a lot of people about the reminder and timer app Alarmed. I've been using it every single day for almost two years and I can't imagine life without it.

A handful of years ago I learned that ADHD individuals have terrible memories. The advice to counteract this was if you ever find yourself thinking "Oh I'll remember that..." don't, under any circumstances, trust it. Always, always, always, write it down.

I took this advice to heart and began using the proprietary Apple reminders app 'Reminders'. It worked well. I began doing things, such as chores, more consistently, and I had a reliable place to record any requests made of me. It even made planning my wedding smoother.

The only drawback of the app (for my needs) was the set time intervals. Daily, weekly, every two weeks, monthly, and yearly.* I needed more flexibility.

I went looking for an app that would better meet my needs. A few pages into the search results (there are a lot of reminder apps out there) I found Alarmed, now called Alarmed ~ Reminders + Timers by Yoctoville. I downloaded it for free and began a road test.

It was a game changer and I cannot honestly say whether I would have continued using a reminder app if not for this program. Not only did it provide the flexibility in time intervals I needed, but it has a slew of other features that have come in incredibly handy.

One such ingenious aspect is the NagMe! feature. You can set the reminder to sound off repeatedly, until you interact with the app. This has proved invaluable for medication, public transport, and many other things.

Alarmed has recently received a complete overhaul for iOS 9. My iPhone 4S can't handle the newest software so I am sadly ignorant of all the new features. I'm certain however that the app continues to deliver nothing but the best.

I have only ever had one very minor glitch on this app, and that was from a time when I had kept the app open continuously for months on end. I now close it once a week and have not had any more trouble. I store an enormous amount of data in the app, and yet it does not crash and the reminders are never corrupted or incorrect or fail to activate.

From my experience, the app is user friendly. I am, however, aware that 'user friendly' is a very subjective term. The app includes a comprehensive operations manual, along with a FAQ page. The DayMinder feature is a bit complex, but incredibly useful once you get to know it.

The app is free to download, and offers a few additional features and sounds for an in-app purchase. In my opinion, the features are completely worth it, especially to support an individual attempting to live their dream of self-sustaining through ingenuity.

Unfortunately, the app is not available for Android.

The one complaint I had about this app was the lack of lists, and it looks like in the iOS 9 update that has been fixed. Also, the app now has categories you can apply to your reminders.

So, all in all, a truly amazing app for this ADHD brain. If you suffer from a poor memory, like me, this app might be just what you need.

*Footnote: Apple has since updated the app in, iOS 9, to include custom repeat intervals.

Tri-Con 2016

What. A. Weekend!

It's been months since my last geek con and I was so happy to be back among my people at Tri-Con in Kitchener/Waterloo, hosted by THEMUSEUM. I saw friends I see a couple times a year, made new friends, and got to try out some new cosplay.

First new cosplay in a long time was Mary Margaret/Snow White from Once Upon A Time. It was very gratifying to see people's reactions to it. I was told it looked very accurate.

Star Wars was a large part of the con. Where else can you see an Ewok hanging out with R2-D2, in real life?!

I was super excited to cosplay with my sister. We were Tadashi and Hiro Hamada from Big Hero 6. 

The Doctor would be appalled... I managed to grab a shot of a Dalek wearing the Fourth Doctor's scarf. This version is metal, made of chainmaille. It took me 19 hours.

My all-time favourite cosplay to wear was captured brilliantly by Very Frank Pictures. The quizzical Castiel, from Supernatural.

All in all, I had an amazing time. Be sure to check out Tri-Con next year!

Five Reasons You Want an ADHD Brain on Your Zombie Apocalypse Team (Part 1)

First installment of a 4 part series. Part 2 is here.

Disclaimer: Not every person with ADHD will have any or all of these. Displaying anything on this list doesn’t mean a person has ADHD. The things on this list aren’t unique to ADHD.

1. Built in alarm system

ADHD as a whole takes in a ton of information at all times. That’s why we can be prone to be Highly Sensitive Persons. This also means we will be the first to notice the footsteps of the approaching dead. In addition, our physical hyperactivity means we make fantastic perimeter guards. Just make sure to leave us with a buddy or we might get bored and wander off.

2. So. Incredibly. Useful.

Because boredom is our worst enemy, it’s likely we will continuously make ourselves useful around camp. We tend to be jacks of all trades and have random bits of knowledge and skills, at least some of which will have to come in handy during the apocalypse.

3. Intuition is off the charts

We will just know when something is off. Maybe the fauna around the camp stopped making noise, maybe one of our team is acting slightly off, maybe that water isn’t safe to drink. All these things will be evident to us without any explanation. Trust these random flashes of intuition, they might just save your life.

4. Fantastic in a crisis

The zombie apocalypse is just one crisis after another. This is good news for an ADHD brain which thrives under the instant adrenaline rush caused by a sudden emergency. We react and jump into action before other types of brains have even realized something is going down.

5. The nerd factor

Interest in a subject is key to ADHD success so when the end of times arrives, grab your nearest zombie apocalypse nerd with ADHD. They will be an expert in all things zombie and survival and remember everything they learned with perfect clarity.

Introduction or Nice to Meet You

Hello and welcome to my blog! Since this is day one I'll start off by giving you a rough (repeat: rough) idea of who I am and what this blog will consist of.

My name is Colleen, and I am training to be a coach, specializing in ADHD. I have ADHD myself, as well as anxiety. I am a giant geek who is unabashedly passionate and enthusiastic about all my fandoms. I also co-own a small chainmaille jewelry and armour business with my husband.

This blog is going to be about a wide variety of things. Topics such as coaching, mental health/illness, ADHD, geek/fandom, writing, and life in general are all likely to pop up. I'll also be writing posts about life or ADHD challenges I've overcome and the solutions I came up with, in case they might help anyone else.

A project that will also appear here are the geek meditations I’m planning. I'll go into detail about those when the first one goes live. For now, picture your favourite movie/book/show/game/comic combined with a meditation into one epic ball of self-care, geeky madness. That's what you have to look forward to.

Please shoot me an email at greendoorlifecoaching@gmail.com if there's a specific fandom you'd like to see a meditation themed on. I'll always be looking for ideas.

Additionally, if you've got a comment on anything I post, content you'd like to see me discuss in the future, or just feel the need to tell me what you had for breakfast this morning (good for you for eating breakfast, by the way), email, comment, leave me a tweet or post on Facebook.


My website is pretty cool.