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Worthless
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19 Sep 2022, 1:18 pm

I got a new phone recently (I haven't had one for a couple years...) and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions of apps that they use to help with ASD issues like executive functioning. Also, any app suggestions for other things like dyslexia would be welcome.



Worthless
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22 Sep 2022, 1:21 pm

So no one here has any suggestions on apps that they may use or know about to help with things like time management? I genuinely am looking for suggestions on any apps that people find helpful for ASD issues.



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22 Sep 2022, 1:36 pm

Well I had a look and then forgot to report.

Have you looked on the app thing. I don't think there is anything really


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Worthless
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22 Sep 2022, 2:18 pm

Well, thank you for replying. I tried looking in the app store while on wifi, but when I searched for autism apps, all the results seamed geared for young children. I also tried looking for time management apps, but the issue there is that there were like 50,000 results and I don't know what to try first. I was hoping there would be some apps geared towards autistic adults, but I guess that is too much to ask. Hopefully some other people on here have a few suggestions of things they use.



Fenn
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22 Sep 2022, 3:30 pm

TL;DR EpicWin, Apple Calendar, Apple Clock, Google Calendar and Siri

I have tried a lot of things to try to help my time management, calendars etc. Nothing much has helped - my feeling is that people with good EF are also good at using calendars and journals and such. I often use the “email my wife and ask her to help me remember or find a spot on the calendar” method.

I used a Palm OS Treo for years and still carry it in my pocket next to my iPhone. It will one day stop working, and buying old “new in box” ones is kind of expensive. I have replaced it many times.

I have an iPhone which i got to go with my apple watch. The apple watch needed it’s own phone. It didn’t work with my Apple laptop/MacBook - I even called Apple. Buy an iPhone or iPad they told me. So I got a used “refurbished” iPhone 8. Same as my wife had.

The builtin Calendar app is not as feature-full as the Palm OS Calendar. I find it harder to use, but I am forcing myself to learn the apple way. It can sync with gmail calendars, and you can get a google calendar app too and see which you like the best. I dislike both of them, so I mostly use the apple calendar app because when in Rome. I tried using EpicWin. Once it used to sync with google cal but google changed security and it just will not work now.
I tried using EpicWin every day for a few weeks and kind of liked it but one day I just forgot and haven’t looked at it in months.

There is also the builtin apple clock app. It has a “Timer” sub-app which I use when I am cooking (like put Shepard’s Pie in the oven for 30 minutes).

There are also “World Clock”, “Alarm”, and “Stopwatch” sub-apps in apple clock app.

Apple Watch works with Apple Calendar and Apple Clock. You can also use Siri with Apple Watch and Apple Calendar and Apple Clock.

For Siri, if you want something to end up in your Apple Calendar you have to call it an “Event”. “Alarm” and “Timer” are different things.

And Siri always wants to pick my family Calendar (from google calendar) as the default Calendar, which is shared with my wife and kids. But my 12 year old son didn’t get that at all so he would go in and delete my dentist appointments and haircuts. So that didn’t work well.

Finally I figured out what was happening, asked him not to delete stuff, and made sure to create new appointments in my personal Calendar by hand when I had time.

If you are a single super-organized young professional who works for Apple i bet you love Siri.

As an adult with ADHD and ASD i am not sure if Siri works for me or if I work for Siri.

I still think Palm OS did most stuff better.

One trick that does work.

If I have an appointment later in the day I can set an Apple Clock Alarm first, say 3:30 pm. Then I pull out Calculator and subtract the current time (10:15 AM) from the target time (3:30 AM) then divide by two. ( ( 15 * 60 ) + 30 ) - ( ( 10 * 60 ) + 15 ) = 315

315 / 2 = 157.5 = 2 hours and 37.5 minutes

Then I set a timer for 2 hours and 37 minutes. Now I have an Apple Clock Alarm for 3:30 PM and a Apple Clock Timer Bell (song really) that will go off in 2 hours and 37 minutes.

When the Timer goes off I reset the Timer to half the remaining time: 1 hour and 18 minutes.

When it goes off i reset the Timer to half the remaining time: 39 minutes.

Then 19 minutes.

Then 9 minutes.

Then 4 minutes.

Then 2 minutes.

Then 1 minute.

This really works.


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Fenn
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22 Sep 2022, 3:33 pm

P.S. I also paid hard cash for Textastic to take notes and I LOVE IT.
(It may not be for you).


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Worthless
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22 Sep 2022, 6:14 pm

Thank you very much for your response. I have android, not apple, so I don't think it will complete translate over, but I can certainly try some of your suggestions like with timers and trying to use my google calendar. It's interesting that you still carry and use a palm pilot. My parents bought one for my brother when we we kids (I think he was in middle school then, but maybe high school). I have never had one though and barely ever used one. One an off topic but related to that note, my parents also bought my brother a gameboy color, but they never got me any sort of handheld game thing. I did get an extremely chincy thing from selling wrapping paper or magazine subscriptions or whatever in elementary school.

I've never heard of Textastic, is that a dictation app/program?



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27 Sep 2022, 8:38 am

Tiimo is great



Fenn
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28 Sep 2022, 11:37 am

Worthless wrote:
I've never heard of Textastic, is that a dictation app/program?


Textastic for me is "the missing app" for the iPhone. It is a text editor. Not a "word processor" or a "wysiwyg Notepad" or anything like that. It does text. It has become my FAVORITE app.

Because of the way my Executive Function works the more knobs on an app the more distracted I get and the more I tend to get off on a tangent and get lost. Also cutting and pasting an address from the internet into "something else" on the iPhone drives me absolutely bonkers. Don't get me started on iPhone Contacts app.

It does have some additional features that I really like. It can share a doc from itself to Google Docs. It can share a doc from itself to email (as the email body). It can share a doc from itself to email (as an attachment).

It has more features too, but those are the ones I like the best.

It is here:

https://www.textasticapp.com/

I see it is Apple (iPhone, iPad, Mac) only. Sorry no Android. If I had an android I would look for something like it.


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Last edited by Fenn on 28 Sep 2022, 11:42 am, edited 1 time in total.

IsabellaLinton
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28 Sep 2022, 11:42 am

Because of ADHD I can never FIND my phone, let alone use it for anything constructive.

I'd say it's lost about 95% of the time, in my own house.

Most of the time when I find it it's dead.

Then I forget to charge it.

I use it to play music in the car. That's about it.

You guys all sound so smart with phones.



Fenn
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28 Sep 2022, 11:45 am

Low Tech to-do lists: (I guess you could use an app if you wanted - like Textastic).

https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/pen-and-paper-to-do-list
Effective To-Do List Techniques
1. Write the date on top.
2. List all tasks for the day.
3. Write meeting times.
4. Keep track of your hours.
5. Create a daily summary.
6. Make the to-do list the night before.
7. Be specific.

Android alternatives to Textastic:

alternativeto.net - Textastic - Platform = Android


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Fenn
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28 Sep 2022, 11:52 am

IsabellaLinton wrote:
Because of ADHD I can never FIND my phone, let alone use it for anything constructive.

I'd say it's lost about 95% of the time, in my own house.

Most of the time when I find it it's dead.

Then I forget to charge it.

I use it to play music in the car. That's about it.

You guys all sound so smart with phones.


My iPhone is a productivity tool and a huge time waster.

Which is why today I turned it off and started googling "paper to do lists" on my laptop.

Which is still not the same as actually making a to do list.

Or using it.

You know, the "do" part.

My EF has been almost killing me lately - trying to get my head back together.


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IsabellaLinton
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28 Sep 2022, 11:56 am

I only find to-do lists satisfying or useful if I do them with pen and paper.
I need to write all over the page like a mind map, rather than a linear digital list.
I need to cross things off with pen.

Somehow typing a list with my thumbs doesn't connect to my brain.

I have formal agendas and dayplanners.
I also use plain notebooks and scraps of paper.
They still don't help.
I keep losing them, or don't look at them, or don't update them.
For instance right now I have about five different lists of the same thing.
I can't find any of them.

I'm useless.



IsabellaLinton
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28 Sep 2022, 12:01 pm

Fenn wrote:



My iPhone is a productivity tool and a huge time waster.

Which is why today I turned it off and started googling "paper to do lists" on my laptop.

Which is still not the same as actually making a to do list.

Or using it.

You know, the "do" part.

My EF has been almost killing me lately - trying to get my head back together.



Yup - The "do" part sucks.

My brain breaks every task into 1000 micro-steps of before / during / after, so then I get overwhelmed and don't do the thing at all.

Nothing is one step, ever.

On the off-chance that I ever start something, I get sidetracked by something else and don't finish either one.



Fenn
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28 Sep 2022, 12:25 pm

I used to tell my boss "I have been falling off my horse and getting back on over and over again" when he asked me what was taking so long. He told the things I did were really really good, but he needed me to get more things done faster.
(Then I was "let go").


Android Clocks
https://alternativeto.net/software/free ... sort=likes
https://alternativeto.net/software/mode ... sort=likes

Android Siri Alternatives
https://alternativeto.net/software/siri ... sort=likes

iPhone To-Do (Epic-Win alternatives)
https://alternativeto.net/software/epic ... sort=likes

Android To-Do (Epic-Win alternatives)
https://alternativeto.net/software/epic ... sort=likes


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Fenn
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28 Sep 2022, 12:43 pm

Ask me sometime about my collection of blank books that each have something on the first three pages only (or are completely blank). Or the very expensive Franklin Covey Planner I bought which collected dust for several years before I found it again.

I used to keep pictures of bosses/co-workers stuck to the walls of my cubical, so when I looked at the "people" who needed the stuff I was supposed to do it would remind me that I needed/wanted to get it done (or started).


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ADHD-I(diagnosed) ASD-HF(diagnosed)
RDOS scores - Aspie score 131/200 - neurotypical score 69/200 - very likely Aspie