ADHD iphone apps (1st installment)

I promised in an earlier post I would present some iphone apps that I found made my life easier with ADHD.

Here is the first of probably many reviews to come:

Evernote Cost: Free
This app is an iphone interface for the evernote website: http://www.evernote.com. The evernote website is the real miracle here, as it allows you to store notes from text, photos and webpage clippings and index them here so you can later pull them up in a web browser, or on your iphone. It's cross platform, so I can take notes at work on the windows machine, bring them up on my mac at home and vice versa.

What I like to do with it most is take photos of the post-it notes I make for myself during the day and then tag them by topic so I can retrieve them later. I also find myself typing small blurbs from magazines that I want to remember, since the iphone isn't exactly great about photographing small text clearly.

Now there is a polycarb shell for the iphone advertised on evernote's site ($35 retail) that promises to bring the focal point for the phone's camera from 18 inches to 4, which should solve most of those text clarity problems. I plan to invest in it sometime this year. I'll post my results.

But Evernote has cleaned up my desk and ended my other habit of taping those post-it-notes inside of a large binder and organizing them by month. Organizing by subject, and having it in my pocket, is a huge improvement.

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Things Cost: $9.99
I looked at several free and $1-2 to do lists before settling on this one, which I think is totally worth the price and more.

Things allows me to create project lists and group my things to do either into those projects or just in my inbox, if I'm in a hurry.

It also keeps a record log of things I've done, so I can look back and see when I got something turned in, or when my last activity on something took place.

It also has a "today" box which prompts you with a little number on the iphone app icon to let you know how many items are in your today box -- not the total number of items on your to-do list.

I like that feature because I can plan for things ahead of time and build lists of steps to get a project done, and it will only pester me when I have things due or overdue. Also, you can tell the app when you want something moved to your today box, so if you need it to show up there a day or a week early, you have that option. Very friendly to your own schedule.

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Balance Cost: Free
This little app simply allows you to keep a checkbook ledger on your iphone. It isn't connected to any websites or accounts, like say Mint.com, which I have downloaded the app for but am reluctant to use the service (call me paranoid, I can live with that). It does require you to remember to put things in, like that app you bought at lunch from iTunes or the gas or groceries you picked up on your way home, BUT... if you are like me and have a lot of your monthly bills set to auto pay, this app is a great way to know how much you will have left ahead of time by subtracting all those bills the moment you deposit your check. You can set each entry with a date, so it will put them in order them for you. Just make sure to check now and again to make sure you didn't forget somthing.

Having this in my pocket as a reminder is great when I'm away from wifi and I need to decide whether I really can afford those extra items I'm always distracted into thinking I need.

iphone as life organizer

I have been using an iphone since last summer as a personal organizer, and I highly recommend it for fellow ADD/ADHD'ers.

Admittedly it can be a HUGE distraction device. There are thousands of games -- let alone other apps -- available, and I probably spend about $10 a month trying new apps, plus looking at free ones.

With that in mind, I still say this tool is designed for distractable people in a good way, and here's why:

It's easy
(It's intuitive and cross referenced.)
When you fill in contact information, the device gives you a keypad for a phone number or buttons with [.com] for one-touch pushing for email addresses. Once you have your contacts put in, it auto links the phone field to the phone, the email address to your email, and the address field to google maps. It's so smart it's easy to use.

It's fun
(It's kinesthetic.)
Even if you're a notebook freak like me, there are limitations to any paper-based organizer. All the neon-colored ink, stickers, tabs and color-coded cross references in the world can't beat five minutes with the iphone's sliders and buttons.

Sliders bounce when they get to the end. You zoom in on pages by a movement so simple it will blow you away. You can't actually feel movement on the slick screen, but your brain fills in the gaps and you get the experience of using a three-dimensional device. Set it up for sound or no sound, it's just fun to use. Fun means I'm more likely to use it and want to use it.

It's small but huge
(It's portable and adaptable)
This can go with you anywhere and as long as you keep track of this ONE THING... you have a phone, phone directory, day planner, to-do list, etc. There are also lots of apps out there -- and websites with app connections -- to help improve your organization. I'll review my favorites in upcoming posts.

I have a mac, and I sync my iphone with my native mac programs, ical, and the apple address book for instance. I can't speak as to how well it works with a PC. I suppose if I were a PC user I would be really intrigued by the blackberry storm, which has a lot of iphone-like qualities.

But I think I'm a mac person in part because of my ADD, and therefore an iphone person for the same reason. Apple's design is really top notch, setting standards other organizers are trying to catch up to. There is no indication this will change any time soon.

One of the biggest challenge for ADD/ADHD'ers is our breakdown in organizational skills. By that I don't mean that we don't have them. Actually, our systems are quite complex and often amaze non add'ers. However, while most people limit their information intake, we do not. Further, because of our distractability, we face gaps in the process and end up storing huge amounts of information with poor processing.

A device that allows me to write (or photo tag) it all down and keep it in my pocket is just the thing.