What would make a perfect organiser for life?

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Hi everyone,

I'm wondering what you all think would be the perfect way to help you organise your workload, personal life and domestic life.

I am a designer from Sydney Australia (BDes Industrial Design) currently studying my Master of Design. I have a nephew who is on the spectrum and will be moving into high school soon and I am doing a project right now in which I aim to develop a service or product that supports adolescents and young adults to self-manage. I've found that there are a lot of support resources for parents and carers of young children on the spectrum but there seems to be less information and resources for those in that transitional period to young adulthood.

Being neurotypical I can speculate on what I think might help (from research done so far) and I thought it would be more valuable to ask you what you would like to see in my design solution.

The idea:
An iPad or portable device app that helps plan and coordinate time to achieve tasks relating to work, school, social and domestic life. This may be done through calendars, schedules, reminders, task prioritisation. This is the area where I'd love your input. I know that I would find it helpful to combine my Notability app with my calendar and reminders to help me keep track (that would work for me) but I need first hand advice on what would work for you.

Give your input:
Is there any system (digital or otherwise) that you currently find really useful? What would make this "good" system perfect?
Are there any particularly annoying functionality deficits of calendars and scheduling resources right now that we should aim to rectify?

Any suggestion or comment would be really valuable and greatly appreciated. By sharing your suggestions please know that I may quote your response in my research paper and attribute it to you using your screen name, date of post and a link to this thread. If you'd prefer I didn't, just let me know. I'll keep you updated on progress and will share any results that I produce.

Thanks in advance and I look forward to hearing your ideas.

D

The problem the Squid runs into (More often than not) is remembering to organize yourself. We suspect that if an application, or device, were to turn on each day and ask if you wish to put in a new date, or event, and would not leave you alone, unless you specifically told it you had no events in which to organize.

Voice recognition would be a must, if it were an electronic device. If I DO remember to schedule an appointment to be reminded of it later, I don't want to use up five minutes trying to leave that reminder.

Phone alarm clock goes off at 8:00. When you open your eyes, your phone then starts talking to you, "Good morning [Squid in Host Body] How are you today? I would groggily spout "Tired!" The phone would reply. "It is 8:01, and it is time for work." I would slide out of the bed, and sit on the side. "Fine, I'm up." "You must be at work at 9:00 PM, Would you like me to remind you again 30 minutes prior?" "No, I've got it," I would reply. As I stand up on the side of the bed, the phone pipes up again. "Is there anything else you would like to schedule?"

This is the integral time. I've had a dialogue with a machine, and I am awake (Possibly annoyed) I would likely say, "Oh yeah, at 12:01 PM, on the 27th, I have a doctors appointment, will you remind me 24 prior?" The phone responds "Appointment saved!"

I've never had any trouble organizing my life, in fact I excel at it. However, an issue for me, at that age and onward, has been putting off things like homework and chores in order to work on special interests. If the app could somehow motivate putting required stuff before special interests, that would be great.

Thanks for your quick replies guys!

So I've got a couple of ideas so far - a prompt from a device for you to spend time recording tasks and the ability to input information verbally.

Motivation to put necessary tasks before special interests.
What kind of reward or motivating factor would make you put aside a special interest activity to begin and complete a necessary task? Could it be rewarding yourself with the special interest for completing a chore?

For example, you set yourself the goal to register 20 minutes of chores before you can reward yourself with 20 minutes of special interest activity.

What if the app could search for webpages or articles related to a special interest and then, upon registering 30 minutes of homework the app could reward the user with a certain number of webpages/articles. This depends on the nature of the interest area.

I'm just going through rough ideas. Any ideas?

Cheers
D

I like the idea of a background search going on while I'm getting the 'less pleasant, but necessary' tasks done. Nice positive reward! Another one is only gained over time - simply knowing that you have your act together!

But for me, another gadget or app to keep track of is an organizational problem in itself

For me vis a vis organizing, I find the main issues to be:

my distractability
a tendency to 'internally hide' stuff I don't want to deal with (I just forget about it)
confusion when assignments are given - how to break things into do-able tasks - like where to start, how to map through a big job like writing a term paper, or getting the bills paidon time when there's all these different demand dates, or saving for a goal that wants to shift over time...and then STAYING on track once I begin.

Knowing when to adjust a goal...

Some of the 'cures' I found for some of the above issues...

Simple is Best-Less is more effective.
Keep to the KISS rule (Keep It Simple Sweetheart - or Stupid, depending on your point of view)

Know what you are obligated to do...don't let oneself be talked into nonsense and learn how to say no.

Have ONE and only ONE organizing tool that is flexible enough to deal with my issues of time and space...
what is due, when it's due ...day by day long term task assignments - that will keep reminding me if they are not accomplished. Right now, my tool of choice is a pencil and a calendar with large enought squares that is held on the side of the refrigerator with magnets. It is simple, can't get lost, but can be moved about if necessary.

I'm not in school anymore, and I work from home.
I write down what I need to do in the right square and check it off when it's done, or move it forward if it has to be adjusted.

For bills, when they come in, I open them next to a trashcan - toss any irrelevant papercrap inserted like ads etc...and then place the important stuff in a daily slotted file. All the bills due after the first of the month are put in the number one slot...other slots get used for various long term issues - like taxes. On the second or third day of the month, I pay all the bills, either through the online bank site or with stamps and envelopes. And yep, the word BILLS in CAPS in on the second day of every month on the calendar...I clear and reorganize the slot file on bill day.

I know my solutions are all low tech and don't involve creating a program, but I found having to keep track of a tablet and remembering to keep it charged was too much for me...for a younger person, doing this might be more second nature.

I would also prefer my username not be used, but you are welcome to use my comments as anonymous.

I totally need the Squids device idea! I usually describe needing an "outside brain" for organisation but struggle with gadgets or paper based systems because theyre reliant on me to organise the organiser before it can organise me, and I dont have those skills. Something that would interact with me would be hugely hugely helpful. As in "change my life" helpful. Basically along the lines of science fictions sentient ship computers, all the usefulness of an NT's executive functioning and processing abilities, without having the emotional component that makes that human help uber stressful for both sides.

And I agree with BornThisWay that the reward would come from being organised in itself. The amount of time and stress reduction I'd gain through that would mean lots more time for doing things I want instead of need to do, which I'd also be able to do better and get more from if I could compensate for my organisational deficits.

Hi all,

Thanks so much for your input. It's been really great. Sorry that I have not been involved for a few days but have been concentrating on another subject for a few days (I need an organiser too!).

I'll go through your suggestions and let you know how it all turns out.

Thank you again. I have noted which comments are to be anonymous.

D

I love iThoughtsHD, it's a $10 mind-mapping program that has paid for itself if you ask me.

Pros:
Control of node colors and shapes
In-app feature allows you to take a picture of something and instantly put it on the node
Adding internet links to nodes
A research option allows instant googling of content in a node.
Option of different node structures (fishbone, vertical, centralized)
Ability to modify connector lines themselves (angle, taper)
In-app e-mail option
Ability to collapse node branches that aren't in use

Cons:
Limited number of shapes
No font selection (other than the standard bold vs italic)
Although you can definitely import pictures, it won't allow you to import PDF (although this might be too much to expect from a tablet app)
No ability to enter mathematical formulas or symbols (or import them from word)


This app actually makes it fun to study, I can go at a textbook hierarchically and fill in discrete concepts that I pick up from chapters, make as many subgroups within a chapter as I need, and take pictures of things that I don't feel like writing down.

I was also able to re-assure the people I was dog sitting for by sending them periodic e-mails of the picture branch I made of their dogs. I'm surprised this app doesn't get mentioned more often.