Wearable alarm/reminder systems?

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Uhh... wow, that was tl;dr. No wonder nobody replied. Let me summarize. Original post is in the tiny text below and you needn't read if you don't want unnecessary details.

Basically, I have a lot of problems with transitions. I get stuck on the same thing, and can't stop doing it to do something else. This extends to bedtimes, which despite my best efforts are still extremely erratic. I realized that I needed something to actually remind me--and not just once, because I'd ignore the reminder if it was just once, but repeatedly until I actually did it.

My solution was to program alarms into my cell phone, which remind me to go to bed, and ring every five minutes for an hour. Then, to stop from just leaving the cell phone somewhere, I made a belt pouch for it and now wear it all day, every day.

However, the cell phone has limitations on the number and kind of alarms it will let me set. I want to look into a different sort of alarm system, maybe a PDA or a program that will run on a relatively unsophisticated cell phone, which I can wear that will remind me--and keep reminding me--of things like eating, sleeping, and getting to school/work/etc.

Does anybody know where I could find something like that?

Okay, so I've been trying to increase my skills in living my daily life, but I've had a serious problem with transitions. If I'm doing something, I want to keep doing it; and that stretches things into hours and hours longer than they ought to be. It's why my sleeping and eating are hopelessly irregular.

Over the last month, I've done my absolute best to at the very least regulate my sleep cycle. I took pills, I studied sleep hygiene, I tried setting alarms... But I just forgot to take the pills; and since my problem is getting to bed, not getting to sleep, sleep hygiene didn't help much (mine wasn't bad to begin with anyway). The alarms got turned off, and if I got sidetracked before I got to bed, didn't ring again.

With my best efforts, I had about a six-hour timespan within which I could be fairly sure I would be going to bed, with occasional forays outside it. I was supposed to go to bed at eleven; I could count on anything from twelve to six.

So I kept getting stuck on whatever I was doing, or ignoring alarms, or getting sidetracked doing something else before I ever got to bed. Executive dysfunction at its finest.

Eventually, i just thought to myself, "This isn't working. What am I supposed to do--hire somebody to stand over me and tell me to go to bed until I finally do it?" This is what people who have really bad executive dysfunction have to do, actually. Mine's not that bad, has never been really life-threatening (I'll get hungry, but won't starve; I'll get exhausted, but won't get sleep deprived to the point of hallucinations; the house might get dirty, but not to the point of health hazard...)

Two days ago, though, I programmed my cell phone to ring at bedtime, then half an hour before, then an hour before, and I made a rule to myself that I wasn't allowed to push the "off" button unless I had completed whatever task it was that I had to do at that time. The alarm on the cell phone is set so that it rings for thirty seconds every five minutes for an hour--essentially, constant reminders that keep coming if I don't shut off the alarm.

Then I made a belt pouch for the cell phone, and put it with the other things that I put on in the mornings, and wore it all day, only taking it off at night, so that I could not misplace the cell phone or leave it behind or forget to wear it.

The first day, I got to bed within forty-five minutes of bedtime--unprecedented. Second day was not so good; an hour and a half. Third day, an hour. This means, basically, that instead of getting to bed within six hours of my bedtime, I can practically count on getting there within two hours! If it keeps going, this is practically a breakthrough. Constant reminders every five minutes, and apparently, I eventually break through the inertia and get myself moving. Maybe I can use this to get myself eating at regular intervals, or to stop being late to everything, too.

The cell phone has limitations though. You have to set the alarm for weekdays or weekends or every day, instead of a flexible daily schedule. You can't set a lot of the alarm options on it. It's not meant to be an alarm/reminder system, really.

Does a program exist that can do this kind of thing--not just ring an alarm, but keep ringing it at specified intervals until I've indicated I've finished whatever it is I had to do? It would have to handle dozens of alarms a day, but I wouldn't need it to actually say anything because I can memorize different alarm tones pretty much effortlessly.

Anybody used anything like this? got info? ideas?

BTW--my phone's actually ringing a bedtime alarm now, and has been for fifteen minutes. If you don't get any more posts from me tonight you'll know I've been successful in getting myself off the computer and to bed.

Bump to see if anybody has any ideas.

My mother recently gave me an audio-book called Torn Apart. It's about a boy who has a combination of Tourette Syndrome, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Anxiety Disorder and a bunch of other stuff. Eventually, his family sent him to a wilderness survival camp in Utah.

For the record, I haven't actually listened to it yet (all the information I have given is from the case description!), but it seems an interesting story.

Yes, I do. Palm PDAs and smartphones will do the best job of alarms and schedules in my opinion. I use mine for the use that you describe and a lot more. I have used other PDAs and databank watches, and electronic organizers. My favorite is the Palm Tungsten C. The best support web site for this sort of thing is called Brighthand. A good one to help you choose the one best for you is called the-gadgeteer. Send me a pm if you want further advice.

I have an 'iPod touch.' I can have multiple alarms and set them to make different sounds, or no sound at all just a screen message. You can set them to off only on certain days of the week, have a 'snooze' button or not. So every day it tells me to take my meds. It wakes me up at different times on different days of the week, it reminds me to wind my mechanical clock once a week. One can also use the calendar app to have it chirp a warning at you for events, and you can set the events to be one time only, or repeat daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly or yearly. You can have it give you a warning the day before, or five minutes before, or at other intervals in between.

It has a bunch of other useful and fun things one can do with it. I have a dictionary, a weather-station, an e-book reader and a bunch of other stuff on it and have never actually bought an application, I just get the free ones.

The only problem with it is it doesn't let you load your own sounds, so you might run out. And it's really expensive. I got mine when I bought my lap-top as part of a package deal. I wouldn't have bought it otherwise. I had no idea how useful it would be.

I use a smartphone for this kind of thing - it really almost does everything but make my coffee for me!
If you want a phone as well as a PDA function, the older Palm Treo series come higly recommended - I am lost without my 650!
A lot of programs are avaliable free, and carry cases to attach the thing to you (and keep it there all day!) are fairly easy to find.
These machines are quite reasonably priced in the States - higher prices internationally - and are pretty good to use. The Palm OS versions are stable ( for that, read "hard to crash") and the kind of stuff avaliable seems geared towards serious organisation!

Ok, enough of the sales pitch, I have no idea if this will help!
Best of luck!

I used to have a "calculator watch" that had multiple alarms - the associated reminder messages were limited to about 14 characters each, but it worked pretty well for me, for a while. I noticed that the Casio one was inferior to a cheaper one by an obscure maker, in terms of ease of use.

The main limitations and problems were:

1. The strap always broke after a few months of use, and if the battery was near to the end of its life, the watch would malfunction. I became concerned that I might become too dependent on the hardware, so that if it ever broke down, I'd have no way of accessing my tasks. There was no way of copying the contents to another device as a backup, apart from manually writing it all down.

2. As I got older I couldn't see the characters without using reading glasses, which slowed me down a lot. If there'd been a bright backlight, I'd have been fine.

3. Although useful, I found that using a time basis for reminders didn't always work very well. The alarm would often go off at times when I was otherwise engaged (I hate being interrupted), and there was no easy "ring again in a few minutes" button. What I really wanted was something that would (e.g.) know when a particular person was around, or where I was, so it could use that kind of info to trigger reminders.

4. I often used to wonder whether it was really such a good thing to remove my capacity to forget things. Even with a simple "to do" list, loads of tasks would just accumulate, making the list too long to work with, and I'd just get depressed reading through all the things I'd failed to do. I found it difficult to discern between tasks that were suitable for "setting up" and tasks that were better left to fate and memory, I couldn't easily "project forward" and work out what it would be like for me when the alarms actually went off, I couldn't decide how much detail I'd need to type in for a given task and how much I could just trust myself to remember - for a while I behaved like one of those inept bosses who just dish out orders without the slightest regard for the worker's capacity to cope. I got better at it, but it was still difficult.

I use Exchange, Outlook, and a mobile phone (iPhone at the moment but any Smartphone would work). My schedule is in the Outlook calendar which then synchs wirelessly to my phone. (Also my address book and e-mail as well.) The calendar can have any number of alarms programmed to remind me of events or chores. It is really nice.

Whichever choice you make, be sure to back up your data, and keep in mind the question of portability. Get something you won't mind carrying around (or at least within earshot) during your waking hours. Many people aren't willing to carry both a wireless phone and another device. I personally don't mind doing so. I always have my PDA with me, but not always my mobile phone. If you do get a Palm OS device, I would also download the free application called Handy Shopper. Many use it for checklists for things you do periodically. The list shortens as you do each item. Then the full list is available later to re-use.

It needs to be something I can actually wear at all times except when I'm in bed or in the shower--this goes past appointment reminds, into reminders to eat or sleep or do other relatively basic things. I'm hoping to get some kind of a grip on self-care stuff before I go back to school in January; it's been pretty haphazard and unreliable in the past.

My counselor today mentioned that there exist programs that can be downloaded for cell phones, which might include an alarm application. Does anybody know about that? I can't pay too much; but I do need at least twenty or thirty separate alarms, which should ring periodically (think "snooze button") for several hours before giving up. I don't need anything else hugely customizable; don't care if it's all the same uninteresting beep.

If you post the specifics of your cell phone, someone here might know. Otherwise I would check with your cell service provider how to check which apps are available and how to get them.

I personally use a camera case with a shoulder strap for my PDA when I am around the house, since I don't always have pockets. When I am away from home, I keep it in my pocket. If you get a device with a large screen (more than 3 inches) I learned the hard way to use a good sturdy case to protect the screen. I bumped into something which cracked it. Now with my Tungsten C, I just use a layer of foam packing material and a piece of hard leather to protect it. I used cases before but they were more hassle to access my PDA then my current arrangement.

When choosing a device, factor in battery life. That can vary a lot, especially if it is a smartphone, because dual use drains the battery faster than using 2 separate devices. Decide about other things you want to use it for too. Some devices are better than others for different uses.

If you get a Palm device, don't bother looking in the stores- they are basically only available on EBay or other online venders. I bought my last one from an EBay vender who is in the business of refurbishing and selling older devices like mine.