Spotlight on app: Overdrive

My mother is a great reader and always has been. I've always admired that about her. She taught me a love of words that I tried hard to live up to. I found over and over again, however, that I left books unfinished. That or sped through them in a week, though this was far less frequent. It seemed as though if I wasn't totally in love with a narrative I was unable to finish the book. I reread books I already knew well but this never seemed “good enough” to me. I “should” be able to read book after book, just like Mom.

Then, one day, I shrugged to myself and more or less accepted that this would be the way things were. I wasn't a true reader and that was that. None of us can force ourselves to do things that are against our true natures, I thought to myself. No shame in that.

Recently my mom and sister had been talking about this app, Overdrive. It gives you access to your local library’s collection of ebooks and audiobooks. You borrow them, just like the physical library, and download the audio or text to the app so you have access to them anywhere, even offline.

I downloaded the app thinking I'd use it primarily for audiobooks, possibly for authors I already knew but didn't own a full collection. Boy was I surprised. The app has turned my reading life around. I now have the ability to read whenever and wherever I want to, in those odd in between moments in life when my ADHD gets bored waiting for anything for even a few minutes. I've come to love long lines because that means I get to read and I don't have to worry about the book being damaged as I drag it around with me.

I also discovered something else about myself and another prejudicial thought I was holding about myself. I always felt, though I didn't realize it until recently, that reading a book because you liked the movie was “cheating”. If I really liked a book, I told myself, I “should” be able to enjoy it alone, without the movie. The thing I neglected to take into consideration was the fact that I am very visual, but I have a difficult time with my mind’s eye and imagination. So when I read, others see the Lonely Mountain, Hogwarts Castle, the house with its green gables, but I struggle to see blurs. If I've seen the movie a book is based on, I can then call those images to mind as I read, giving me that visual experience.

If we allow judgments of ourselves to stand, we cut ourselves off from experiences. I strive everyday to tear down those judgments. Self forgiveness will very likely make forgiving others easier as well. Who cares if that person “only” reads comic books? Or doesn't read at all? Or only reads classics? Those judgments only harm.

What is your reading style?

App Spotlight: The Rock Clock

I have quite a wide variety of interests, I always have. I know a fair amount about several subjects you might not expect. I must say, however, that wrestling was never an interest of mine. So if someone mentioned Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, I would only have known him from his acting career.

More recently, a client put me onto a very unique alarm app. The concept seemed super cool and only grew more interesting as I investigated it further. At its core The Rock Clock (iOS or Android) is an alarm or wake-up app. It has several tones to “wake my @$$ up”, including my personal favourite “THE ROAR”. It begins with the noise of a crowd, then a chant of “Get up! Get up! Get up!” Highly motivating even though I’m not a pro wrestler trying to stand up from the mat.

It also incorporates goal awareness. You enter your current goal and the app keeps it in your face as you use it. When you mark the goal as completed you hear Dwayne say “Great job.” and a message appears: “PROJECT CRUSHED”.

My favourite part of the app is the fact that it is part of a bigger project by The Rock. The example goals on the app show that not everyone's goals are fitness related. ‘Learn a new language’ and ‘Finish screenplay’ are there alongside ‘Gain a pound of muscle’.

When I visited www.projectrockofficial.com I was even more impressed. Clearly Dwayne Johnson has untold depths of character and a desire to help his fellow man I never would have discovered if I hadn't looked further than his wrestling career or celebrity status.

So now I have a new goal: challenge every assumption I have about everything. And thanks to The Rock, I am one step closer to achieving it.

App Spotlight: Remindr

A lot of people with ADHD find conventional organizational systems unhelpful at best. This circumstance isn’t helped by the judgement we feel when we reject these systems. After all, ‘everyone else’ has no problem with it.

The best system I’ve found is to simply accept that we are different, that when it comes to a lot of things, we have to make our own systems. Sometimes this includes a few layers. For example, my memory requires three layers: I use Alarmed for most things, the proprietary Apple alarm app for other things, and for another few, I use Remindr.

Remindr has an Apple-only app (sorry Android users), but it is primarily a web-based service, so anyone can use it. You enter a message for yourself into the online dashboard, select the date, time, frequency of repeat, and mode of delivery. It will text message, email, and/or send you an automated call.

In addition to nuts and bolts reminders, I decided to put Remindr to a more whimsical use. I combed the internet for positive affirmations and entered one for every day of the month. Some days the words were exactly what I needed to hear. It’s like encouragement from me to me.

What layers does your organizational system have?

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.