I have found to-do lists to be so helpful in maintaining struture from day to day, which is so important for me as both an alcoholic and a depressive. At the end of each day, seeing everything checked off gives me a sense of accomplishment, which in turn motivates me to be more productive. If I get up in the morning with just an idea in my head of what I’m going to get done, I’m likely to either get sidetracked or make excuses, and in the end, very little gets done. But if I have a list staring me in the face that I can check off, I tend to actually do what’s on it.
I just started using an app called HabitNow (I was using another one before, but this one suits my purposes better). For each habit or task, you can specify frequency and which days of the week, month or year you want to do it on and at what time of day. Every morning, I open it up, and there’s the day’s to-do list all ready for me. It also has a category for quiting bad habits, so you can add things you don’t want to do (like, say, drinking or drugging). You can even personalize the colors and icons to make it look pretty. It is $5.99 to unlock all features, but their free features are good, and premium is a one-time purchase, no subscriptions needed. On the appstore, it’s called HabitNow Daily Routine Planner (icon is red with a white checkmark). If you don’t like that one, there are many others to choose from to suit your individual needs.
I’m getting up around the same time each morning and going to bed around the same time each night, taking my meds on time, doing housework more consistently, and working around the same times each day. Structure has been a godsend for me.
This looks like a great little app! Im very much a routine, to do list, kind of gal. I usually do my to do list for the day, the night before. My morning routine is almost always the same. But this app i think would be perfect since u can set the task to a specific date and time. Very cool! Thank u for sharing
@ErinLeigh Hi! How are you? Oh I think it’s so wonderful that you bring this up. I am with you, structure can be really helpful. I am perhaps overly structured, or so I have been told. There’s nothing I love more than making a to do list for whatever. Having a clear overview in your mind what your day will be like and what needs to be done can in my mind at least help prevent relapse. Healthy structure, not the unhealthy structure I had that “drinking time” would always start 4.30 PM sharp. Thank you for sharing this idea and the tool that structure perhaps could benefit others as well.
Thanks for sharing this app,a very, very good friend of mine had been going through some very dark times the past six or so months. Whilst she is doing better by the day she is now at the point where she is wanting to get more structure in to her life so I will suggest using this to her.
Thank you for sharing @ErinLeigh, didn’t know there’s such a useful app! I’m very much goal and task oriented person, find the basic idea of establishing goals, planning tasks and process of accomplishing them very fulfilling. Was using for that purpose Google Calendar, it’s like I have there 4 daily routines and some other items as per need. However from what you explained about the app it seems it’s more useful for those routines etc, will give it a try. Love that you share this info, I’m big fan of sharing good stuff too, have a great day
I love this idea. Ive been looking for something to kinda occupy my time or make it feel like I’m actually still accomplishing things. It’s hard not to get complacent sometimes.
