And here is the screen after the giant reminder:
This section covers the basic features and terminology of ADD Planner:
If you are new to ADD Planner, it includes these features specifically to help ADD people:
Let's face it - getting places on time is a challenge because life is full of distractions! And Time is so inconsistent: one minute there's plenty of it and the next minute – late again! (As the old song says: "Who knows where the time goes?")
When you're distracted or bored or just plain harried, a single reminder (or two) is NOT enough. ADD Planner lets you set as many reminders as you want for any task or appointment, starting as far ahead of the due date as you need.
What about when you're not in front of the computer? With ADD Planner, you can make the computer speak reminders - using either a computer-generated voice or messages recorded in your own voice. (See the next topic ("Launch other programs") for how to hear your own messages.) And if you put in some wireless speakers, you can hear the reminders all over the house!
When we get involved in something on the computer, it can be hard to switch focus to another activity. And the basic pop-up reminder is small enough to ignore.
To deal with this, ADD Planner will launch (start up) other programs for you. You can link a file or program to a task reminder so that the file is either launched automatically or when you click the reminder pop-up. This lets you make GIANT full-screen reminders that cannot be overlooked! (Make the "reminder" in a program like Word, and then link the Word file to your reminder.) This is also how you play those vocal messages you recorded! And you can use it to launch music or bring up a webpage or ...
Here is an example of a GIANT reminder - the "before" screen
(surfing the net):
And here is the screen after the giant reminder:
We creative, right-brained people prefer to see "the big picture" view of a project - but we also need to know about the details which we might otherwise overlook. ADD Planner uses a tree view for project planning that makes it easy to put in all the branches (subtasks) involved in a project. And project trees are great for making detailed checklists which you can save and reuse.
And when you add a task to ADD Planner, you can include information about the task in the Notes field, such as a phone number, directions to the place, etc. The task name and notes (if there are any) are shown in a yellow "tooltip" popup when you mouse-over a task.
All the software planning programs that we know of have an underlying monolithic design which is fundamentally different from ADD Planner. In the other programs, all of a person's data is in one file, and it is not intended to be shared.
In contrast, ADD Planner has a modular design. There are several advantages to this approach:
You can have separate ADD Planner (.apf) files for different aspects of your life. For example, you might have all your work projects in a file called Work.apf, and keep your home stuff in Home.apf.
You can run more than one instance of ADD Planner concurrently. This means you can have Work.apf in one instance of ADD Planner, and Home.apf running in another - both running at the same time, each with its own reminders!
While all these features are great, it can take a lot of time to enter everything into the Planner. ADD Planner offers two ways to speed things up: First, ADD Planner lets you import scheduled tasks from Outlook, and export ADD Planner scheduled tasks to Outlook.
Second, you can save a project (the whole thing or an individual section) as a "template task." Template tasks can reused (added to) any ADD Planner .apf file on your computer. An example is a master shopping list that includes everything you normally keep on hand, with the exact brands and sizes you prefer. You can bring up the list, delete what you don't need today, and give the list (as a printout or on a PDA) to your spouse/offspring to take to the store.
Most non-ADD people can maintain a steady level of focus throughout the day. In contrast, ADD people may swing from focused to distracted to hyper-focused all in an afternoon!
One way for ADD people to be productive is to work with the changes in focus instead of fighting it. Awareness is the first step in managing focus. ADD Planner helps you become mindful with the On-Track Reminder.
The On-Track Reminder has two purposes: First, it is a message to remind you what you want to be doing and to help you get back on track if you've gotten distracted. (Example messages: "Are you on track right now?" or "It doesn't have to be perfect - it just has to be there".)
Second, it provides a time check to help you be aware of the passage of time because the reminder pops up at set intervals. You can use this as a timer to help you do boring tasks like filing paper: Set the On-Track Reminder to come up every 10 minutes. Tell yourself "I will do this activity until the next reminder comes up." It's often easier to do something you don't enjoy if you know it's only for a short time.
Add/Edit
Task Dialog - Reminder
Perform Task and View Add'l Info
Scheduling and Ordering Tasks
Add Template Task and Save Template Task
Configuring Options
Return to top of help system
These are some terms used in ADD Planner:
|
Appointment |
An appointment is a scheduled task with an assigned time to be done. It can be created in any view (with an assigned time), be created in the Appointment grid, or drag-and-dropped from another view to the Appointment grid. |
|
Dialog |
A window in which you enter information, such as the Add/Edit Task dialog. |
|
Drag-and-drop, copy-drag |
A standard Windows technique in which you select an item and move it to a new location while holding down the left mouse button. Copy-drag is the same thing but with the Ctrl key also held down during the move - the selected item is copied to the new location instead of moved. These methods are one way to schedule tasks. |
|
Generic
Task, |
A generic task is created in the Project View and does not have an assigned date or time to do the task. If it is drag-and-dropped from the Project View to the Daily, Weekly, or Monthly Views, it becomes a scheduled task. |
|
Linked files or programs |
A linked file or program can be launched by the Perform Task or View Add'l Info commands, or from a reminder. |
|
Performing a task |
A task that can launch another program "performs" the launch on the specified file or program. The file or program is specified ("linked") in the Add/Edit Task dialog, either on the Perform/Add'l Info tab or when adding a reminder on the Reminder tab. When using a reminder, you can choose to "Perform without waiting" which means the file or program is launched without user intervention (clicking OK on the reminder popup). |
|
Project (goal) |
A project (also called a goal) is a top-level task in the Project View. It often includes subtasks but it doesn't have to. A project is always viewed in the Project View. A top level task is usually not scheduled, though individual tasks in a project may be. |
|
Scheduled Task |
A scheduled task has an assigned day (or days) on which to do the task. It can be drag-and-dropped from the Project View, or be created in the Daily, Weekly, or Monthly Views. If it has a time associated with it, it will also appear in the Appointment grid. |
|
Task, Subtask |
A task is a defined goal or action. (It can also be an item in a checklist.) Unscheduled (generic) tasks created in the Project View can have multiple subtasks (branches). A task defined in (or dragged into) the Daily View, Weekly View, or Monthly View is a scheduled task which normally cannot have subtasks. Tasks can be repeated, have reminders, include notes, be able to launch other programs, and have custom colors and icons. |
|
Template task |
A template task is a saved project. It can be a single task, a branch on a project tree, or an entire project. A template is saved in the ADD Planner Template subdirectory, and can be reused in any ADD Planner .apf file on this computer. |
|
Views |
The areas of the ADD Planner display where you work with tasks are called "views." Two views are displayed when the program is first started: the Daily View on the left and the Project View on the right. There is also a Weekly View and a Monthly View. See The ADD Planner Display for more information. |
|
|
|