adhd calendar appointments

I require no external alerts.
My brain is constantly: "You know that's happening, right? It's tomorrow, OK? You better get in the shower soon."

@roonie omg the luxury of a brain that LETS you shower! Mine is like “you should shower. No. Ok now you NEED to shower. No. It’s a lot. So much things. It’s ok you like showering. Go! No. Ugh. Clothes and water and temp and curtain and towels and drying and dressing but also different clothes because OOO! LOOK! A COFFEE!”

@roonie But also, “you should feel guilty and anxious because you need to shower and maybe even WANT to shower and have TIME to shower but instead you’re sitting on the sofa thinking about how you are not showering.”

When I finally started doing this, almost every part of my life seemed easier. My only regret is that I waited so long after this calendar feature was available.

And it's not just my medical appointments! I get a few alerts every single day, and it's been life-changing, bathing me in a sense of "yeah, that IS coming up" and "ah, good, time to [set up some staging that will make that future day go smoothly]."

I have a watch that gives me "stress readings" all day based on heart-rate variability. Alerts help me get things done without frantic rushes and actually show up to things, sometimes even a little early(!?!?!). I've gone from 5-6 high-stress days per week to an average of 2, and it's wonderful.

I get annoyed with all the alerts I've had to set up for myself but there's no denying that they've also changed the entire rest of my life for the better. It's just those moments of fumbling around with an alarm going off that bug me, mostly because it somehow always happens while my hands are dirty from cooking, dishwashing, painting...

One way to get less annoyed at your own alerts is to phrase some of them as questions and use a wide variety of verbs. They come off as more helpful. "Did you remember to take the trash to the curb?" "Look into doing laundry this evening." "Have you called X?" "Spend a minute on checking spam."

@jer Have you tried just setting them as alerts that give you banner messages, without an alarm that requires handling the phone? Not having the break to touch the alerting screen has proved to be a helpful aspect of doing this - it's literally just a reminder.

@wombatman70 Clearly I have a different set of issues.
My brain says, "Eat by this time, shower and dress by then, driving will take X minutes, must leave by Y. Now count all of that backwards just to check on your calculations. C'mon, get moving, eat.".
And I will always, ALWAYS, be 5-15 minutes early, for any appointment or the anxiety demon starts jabbing at my chest.
AND my brain is already worrying about tomorrows jobs and will do so through the rest of the day and most of the night.

@caitlinburke It's a good idea but unlikely to work for me. If I'm distracted by something other than my phone, I'm not going to get that alert. I need to be barked at, even if it makes me a little crazy =)

@jer annoyingly expensive but I’ve found the Apple Watch good for this. It vibrates my wrist and I see the alert. But I suspect for some I should probably also have the mandatory extra steps just to really break me out of the flow or I’ll even ignore the wrist.