Neurodivergent Life Hacks

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A place to discuss home organisation, keeping tidy, cooking, general organisation etc. with a view to making our lives easier.

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Juju

Using phone as an organisational dashboard (self.neurodivergentlifehacks)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Juju to c/neurodivergentlifehacks

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I have tried many, many ways to stay organised and to capture my thoughts. One of my main issues is getting myself to actually look at what I've written down. I have a tendency to let things disappear into the background and click off reminders without even realising. I also love s physical notebook but it takes a lot to get into the habit of checking it daily.

One of the things I am trying is making my phone itself a dashboard for organisation using widgets. On my front page here I have a todoist widget and a small view of calendar. On the next homepage I have just one big Google keep note widget which I'm using as a brain dump for when I get random stressy thoughts in my head/ things I need to remember and deal with later. I also have a full monthly view of calendar as another widget on another home screen.

I really like it, especially the calendar but it is not foolproof. I am finding that im already ignoring the todoist list and still going back to Google keep which is one of my favourite apps for thought capturing.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I like the Finch app, but you need to use it with at least one other person.

It gamifies to-do items and self-help by growing a little bird friend who goes on adventures. You give the bird energy via completing to-do items, writing reflections on how you feel, and generally following a simple self-help regime.

It has some nice features like it doesn't berate you if all you can manage is "survive the day" and "just be". It is paid, but for those who can't afford it you can apply for a free subscription.

The devs seem to be good people. There's no ads, and you can delete any goals that might be upsetting or irrelevant. I deleted "talk to mum/dad" more because I'm no contact with her, and he's dead.

I recommend it. If you want a buddy, reply here and I'll give you my friend code. (If like 5 people use it I get a free micro pet in the app, just to be completely transparent)

[–] spankinspinach 6 points 1 year ago

Agreed on this app. I found it helpful during a rough time in my life - just a little pick me up cute friend. I no longer use the app but do recommend :)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

+1 for Lemmy Connect I like this idea. Physical Bullet Journaling has been my go to, but the phone is in front of my face far more often than the journal

[–] Juju 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I had a lot of success with bullet journalling for a long while but as usually happens I fell off the habit. I've come to accept that I have to constantly think of novel ways to organise and change them around as that's the way my brain works. I do love bullet journalling though, it's really effective when used consistently and in a way to fit your use case.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's the thing. It works when you keep up with it. When I need it the most is when life gets hard, but I'm most likely to not keep up because of the stress of it all, but if I'd kept it up, it would relieve some of that stress. Ugh!

[–] Juju 4 points 1 year ago

Yeh I know. I think the core functionality of a bullet journal (minimalist, mostly just doing dailies with an index) is the most useful thing to get right and if developed as a habit can work even when you're overwhelmed and have less time. I just find even getting myself to open a notebook is a challenge when I'm all frantic and all over the place.

I consistently use a notebook for work (sort of) but find that I have a tendency to lose it everywhere if I carry it around too much also. I started using Google keep so I could have access to my thoughts everywhere and didnt have to keep walking around with a notebook I was likely to put down and forget.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I used to do the same with widgets and found having a calendar in particular really helpful. My todo list widget though... uhm... it just ended up accumulating stuff that wouldn't get done 😅

Nowadays I use a minimalist launcher (Niagara) that shows me the next event for the day, and tapping it opens a list view of the full day.

I wish there was something similar available for my desktop and laptop - at the moment I make do with having my calendar logged in on another tab

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You could try something like Phone Link so you can access all your phone apps on your computer.

I also use Dark Notes (a free app for Windows). It's basically just a grid of post-it notes. I have one for "today" which lists the tasks I really should be getting on with right now, plus one with more detailed notes for every project, and one for things that need to be ticked off eventually. That and a glance at the calendar helps keep me on track. Obviously it needs updating regularly enough to be useful but that in itself is a handy task to kickstart the day.

The thing that really helps is having a laptop with a small screen next to the keyboard (big phone, small tablet sized). Not cheap but I don't need a separate desktop (because that is just asking for trouble, for me anyway). I use it like a dashboard so that this stuff is always in front of me.

[–] Juju 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah I just have Google keep and calendar pinned to every browser on ever computer / laptop I use (personal laptop, work laptop, computer in my classroom (teacher), office computer).

I'm also ATM having fun with obsidian. I want to open it whenever I go on laptop because it's currently a novelty and I want to look at it. I've got periodic notes plug in, some kind of to do list plug in and another to do list plug in to make them roll over to the next day. I open up a daily note, check my to do and then check Google keep (where I dump thoughts) to see whether I need to add anything else to my to do.

I still need to set up s way to sync to phone as at the moment I can only use on laptop. I've read his to do it I just...can't be bothered.