Well I have been meaning to write this article for a while now but guess what?
I keep forgetting! Lol well now I am writing it so that's all that matters, I think, unless I forgot about some other important factor related to this endeavor. Man! Cognitive fog and memory loss are so frustrating! Well aside from all my sticky notes and calendar marking I have found one invaluable tool to fight the memory loss associated with Multiple Sclerosis, my phone! How can you use your phone to help your memory? Well Let me explain!
First of all I just want to point out that I am on an Android phone but I am sure just about any phone should come with this extremely high tech, futuristic, application so you should be fine either way. Now please be careful, this tool may give you some technology shock if you are over the age of 12! Remember,
we are in the future! OK, so, what I want you to look for on your phone is called an “
Alarm Clock”.
That's right, the alarm clock feature on my phone is what helps be battle one of my
worst mental MS symptoms! I am going to show you how I use the Android alarm clock in particular to remember to take care of those "one things" throughout the day! If you don't have an android phone experiment with the alarm feature on what ever you
do have and see how it is similar because like any
rocket ship out there on Earth, they are all pretty much the same!
Step 1: Find Your Alarm Clock App!
I have a shortcut to mine on my desktop but if it's not there for you than you can find it in your application menue!
Step 2: Open Your Alarm!
I hope I'm not moving to fast for you! Once you click your alarm icon you should see a similar screen to this one. Click the time of the first alarm, it may or may not be checked already but that doesnt matter right now.
Step 3: Set Up The Basics
You should now see the details for this alarm and you will want to make sure that the box next to “Turn on alarm” is checked.
Now click on “Alarm Name” and a box should pop up. I use this to type in a brief description of my alarm or in other words,
what I need to remember! Let's say I want to remember to take my medication, at this point then, I would type in something like “Take You Medication!”.
Step 4: Adjust Settings
After you hit “OK” you will return to your alarm's menu. Now just select which features you would like to turn on such as “Vibrate” which will cause your phone to vibrate when the alarm goes of in addition to playing what ever ringtone you should choose!
You can also choose which days the alarm will repeat so if you want it to go off every day you can choose to check the little box next to every day of the week or maybe you just want it to go off on Mondays or maybe Mondays
and Thursdays? What ever you want!
Now click “Done" and you will be taken back to your alarm clock home. Here you can add more alarms! Maybe you need 2 or 3 or 7! Just add em' up!
Step 5: Remember
Now your just walking around the house going about your daily routine of forgetting something unbelievably important when all of a sudden BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ! You whip your phone out of your pocket an see this:
Oh yeah! It's time to take my medication! Slide the bar across your screen as indicated to turn off your alarm or tap it elsewhere to set it to snooze. At this point you
should go do what ever it is you were trying to remember to do!
Using The “Timer” Feature
You may have noticed while checing out your alarm's awesome home page that on the very top there are two tabs that read “Alarm" and “Timer”. Let's click the “Timer" tab and see what that is all about”.
Oh it's a countdown timer! This could be useful! Let's say you just threw a load of laundry in the wash and you don't want to forget to switch it over into the dryer when it's done! Well that is when you use the simple timer feature!
Step 1: Set The Amount of Time
Easy, adjust the dial to how ever many minutes or hours you want to pass before your alarm goes off.
Step 2: Hit “Start”
I know we live in a world where we are required to include step by step directions on the back of a Pop Tart box but umm... No... Not going to do it.
Step 3: Remember
BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ! Simple huh? Now go switch the laundry or water the cat or what ever it is you have to do!
