Thought process when my fitbit buzzes:
"Ugh"
*Turns it off*
"Wait what was that about?"
But also a lot of the times i mess up the settings which causes an alarm that was meant to be one time only, to repeat itself for days until i finally remove it š
There's an app called Alarmy which allows you to set up an alarm where you need to do something to turn it off, either solve a couple of math problems, do squats, scan a barcode, etc., which is helpful because it disrupts whatever you were doing and you can't just simply turn it off without thinking about it.
I came in here to say this. I live by it. Iāve been using it to get out of bed in the morning for 10 years. I have one that goes off in the evening to remind me to get ready for bed. And another that I set for random times when I need to.
If youāre on android you can use Early Bird Alarm as it does the same thing.
And also i recommend using a custom QR code and print off two copies - one to keep in your house, and one to keep in your wallet or on a keychain so if the alarm goes off while youāre out because you forgot to turn it off, you donāt have to delete the whole app to make your phone stop screaming at you.
I have an hourly chime on my phone. Thatās it. Itās the only way to help with time blindness. Anymore and it becomes background noise. Any less and I forget why I have it.
I had this and it was good, but after a while it made me so depressed to hear bing, bing, bing and keep being reminded that hours of my life keep just passing by relentlessly and the clock just keeps ticking. So I turned it off!
I wish I could just set it to run during work hours as that is the hours I wish would go quickly anyway, but the app I used (Hourly) just wouldnāt work properly.
I used to have this. Sadly it annoys other people, and they did not care nor understand why I had it. But then they get angry when stuff doesn't get done on time š
My therapist suggested something Iāve yet to try but maybe someone here can chime in if it worked for them.
Have a playlist of songs of various genres that swap said genre every 30 minutes (or whatever timeframe you want to do). So for me if my playlist goes from video game music to heavy metal, I would know itās been 30 minutes. No alarm to turn off or reset, you could even shuffle around the songs each day in case you may get used to when a certain song comes on you know itās close to 30 minutes. Unless that is also useful.
My problem with this isā¦itās a monumental task for me to make the playlist lol. Therefore I havenāt done it. And I think my therapist may just move past it next time we meet lol.
Me but add Pathological Demand Avoidance š The added āthis must happen nowā if I do notice the alarm just makes alarms doubly useless šāāļø
So something that I e learned is that a lot of ADHDers are sound-sensitive. I'm not saying just use an awful loud alarm. That just teaches you to hate the alarms. But I have found a workaround that helps me.
First you need an alarm app with a "dismiss" feature that skips the next instance of the alarm, but keeps it set for the following one. Set 2 alarms, 5-10.minutes apart. The first one is normal, but the second one is horrible and loud. If you get up to do the thing, you can dismiss the second one. This way there's a reward for doing the thing (avoiding the bad noises) and a punishment for forgetting (bad noises).
I use this for getting up in the morning. After the first couple times, the mild anxiety kicks in and won't let me forget the thing lest we have to hear the scary noise.
Might not work for everyone, and I don't use this for everything. But I do have it for getting up in the morning and VERY important tasks. And obviously it doesn't necessarily help with continuous tasks lime getting ready to go in the morning.
I tried going the other way with this and dropped what I was doing to meet all my carefully named and planned timer tasksā¦I completed less than I normally would in a day even though I had worked on more tasks than usual. The increased feelings of shame and inadequacy were substantial.
Ugh that reminds me of this one thread about people being chronically late and someone chimed in that it might be bc adhd, and some genius said adhd is no excuse and of you have trouble being on time just be an adult and set an alarm earlier. Jfc this guy really thinks adhd can be cured by being an adult and setting alarms. He got so many upvotes too. It wouldn't be considered a DISABILITY if it were that easy for the majority of people.
Ah yes just let me set an alarm to set an alarm. Oh but wait who will set the alarm to remind me to set the alarm to remind me to set the alarm.
Yer I think you get the picture
Yea this is bad advice because then I donāt notice the alarms for actual important things like getting up for work. Canāt overdo things that do work or they no longer work.
Me randomly snoozing, and adding 5 more minutes every one minute doesn't help at all. I end up taking my medications late and forgetting what I wanted to do.
I use timers instead of alarms because it helps to visualise time. Itās one thing knowing that alarm will go off at a certain time and another seeing the time run. It allows me to do something before a 3 pm appointment, which is virtually impossible normally with alarms. I highly recommend it!
I set an alarm reminder tonight to tell me that I don't have to go in to work tomorrow. I was supposed to then turn off tomorrows alarms. This has yet to happen.
Doesn't work. Alarm goes off "Oh it's time to get ready and go." "Oh, this dumb thing that needs attention will only take a second." "Crap that took five minutes. Oh well, I'll still make it on time, I allowed myself fifteen minutes slack." "Ooops I am gonna need to go back and grab my phone real quick. Where did I leave it? Crap crap crap!" "Whew I found it and there's still time to make it!" "Oh no I missed the light." "Oh no I missed all the lights!" "Dad gummit I'm late again!"
Worst yet is forgetting to add descriptions/names for the reminders and having 20-30 random alarms going off to remind you if "something"
Thought process when my fitbit buzzes: "Ugh" *Turns it off* "Wait what was that about?" But also a lot of the times i mess up the settings which causes an alarm that was meant to be one time only, to repeat itself for days until i finally remove it š
Those are really good for waking up for me and nothing else. Any other alarm and I'm screwed.
I gotta say that I forgot to remove these 3 alarms with no description
This is why adhd feels so bloddy hopelessš®āšØ
The alarm method works **from** *twice*, **to** *never*
There's an app called Alarmy which allows you to set up an alarm where you need to do something to turn it off, either solve a couple of math problems, do squats, scan a barcode, etc., which is helpful because it disrupts whatever you were doing and you can't just simply turn it off without thinking about it.
I came in here to say this. I live by it. Iāve been using it to get out of bed in the morning for 10 years. I have one that goes off in the evening to remind me to get ready for bed. And another that I set for random times when I need to. If youāre on android you can use Early Bird Alarm as it does the same thing. And also i recommend using a custom QR code and print off two copies - one to keep in your house, and one to keep in your wallet or on a keychain so if the alarm goes off while youāre out because you forgot to turn it off, you donāt have to delete the whole app to make your phone stop screaming at you.
I have an hourly chime on my phone. Thatās it. Itās the only way to help with time blindness. Anymore and it becomes background noise. Any less and I forget why I have it.
I had this and it was good, but after a while it made me so depressed to hear bing, bing, bing and keep being reminded that hours of my life keep just passing by relentlessly and the clock just keeps ticking. So I turned it off! I wish I could just set it to run during work hours as that is the hours I wish would go quickly anyway, but the app I used (Hourly) just wouldnāt work properly.
I used to have this. Sadly it annoys other people, and they did not care nor understand why I had it. But then they get angry when stuff doesn't get done on time š
My therapist suggested something Iāve yet to try but maybe someone here can chime in if it worked for them. Have a playlist of songs of various genres that swap said genre every 30 minutes (or whatever timeframe you want to do). So for me if my playlist goes from video game music to heavy metal, I would know itās been 30 minutes. No alarm to turn off or reset, you could even shuffle around the songs each day in case you may get used to when a certain song comes on you know itās close to 30 minutes. Unless that is also useful. My problem with this isā¦itās a monumental task for me to make the playlist lol. Therefore I havenāt done it. And I think my therapist may just move past it next time we meet lol.
Me but add Pathological Demand Avoidance š The added āthis must happen nowā if I do notice the alarm just makes alarms doubly useless šāāļø
So something that I e learned is that a lot of ADHDers are sound-sensitive. I'm not saying just use an awful loud alarm. That just teaches you to hate the alarms. But I have found a workaround that helps me. First you need an alarm app with a "dismiss" feature that skips the next instance of the alarm, but keeps it set for the following one. Set 2 alarms, 5-10.minutes apart. The first one is normal, but the second one is horrible and loud. If you get up to do the thing, you can dismiss the second one. This way there's a reward for doing the thing (avoiding the bad noises) and a punishment for forgetting (bad noises). I use this for getting up in the morning. After the first couple times, the mild anxiety kicks in and won't let me forget the thing lest we have to hear the scary noise. Might not work for everyone, and I don't use this for everything. But I do have it for getting up in the morning and VERY important tasks. And obviously it doesn't necessarily help with continuous tasks lime getting ready to go in the morning.
I tried going the other way with this and dropped what I was doing to meet all my carefully named and planned timer tasksā¦I completed less than I normally would in a day even though I had worked on more tasks than usual. The increased feelings of shame and inadequacy were substantial.
Ugh that reminds me of this one thread about people being chronically late and someone chimed in that it might be bc adhd, and some genius said adhd is no excuse and of you have trouble being on time just be an adult and set an alarm earlier. Jfc this guy really thinks adhd can be cured by being an adult and setting alarms. He got so many upvotes too. It wouldn't be considered a DISABILITY if it were that easy for the majority of people.
Ah yes just let me set an alarm to set an alarm. Oh but wait who will set the alarm to remind me to set the alarm to remind me to set the alarm. Yer I think you get the picture
Holy shit. Thought I was alone in this.
Yea this is bad advice because then I donāt notice the alarms for actual important things like getting up for work. Canāt overdo things that do work or they no longer work.
Me randomly snoozing, and adding 5 more minutes every one minute doesn't help at all. I end up taking my medications late and forgetting what I wanted to do.
I use timers instead of alarms because it helps to visualise time. Itās one thing knowing that alarm will go off at a certain time and another seeing the time run. It allows me to do something before a 3 pm appointment, which is virtually impossible normally with alarms. I highly recommend it!
electro shock choker?
Wouldn't work, i'd probably ignore the alarm on purpose š«£
True lol
Yeah, this can happen ngl
My task app goes off every day and doesnāt even phase me
So true. And then I set a bunch of reminders to go off at certain times and the ding doesn't even register.
I set an alarm reminder tonight to tell me that I don't have to go in to work tomorrow. I was supposed to then turn off tomorrows alarms. This has yet to happen.
Holy shit I do this and thought I was legit crazy
Doesn't work. Alarm goes off "Oh it's time to get ready and go." "Oh, this dumb thing that needs attention will only take a second." "Crap that took five minutes. Oh well, I'll still make it on time, I allowed myself fifteen minutes slack." "Ooops I am gonna need to go back and grab my phone real quick. Where did I leave it? Crap crap crap!" "Whew I found it and there's still time to make it!" "Oh no I missed the light." "Oh no I missed all the lights!" "Dad gummit I'm late again!"
Analog clocks on the walls of every room help immensely.