Have you ever wished you had some kind of timer that you could set once and it would alert you every 30 minutes, 4 hours, or whatever interval you choose, to take your meds or stand up from your desk or whatever else you might need?
In the past I’ve wished occasionally that I had something to remind me to do something at regular intervals throughout the day. Finally, after my sister mentioned an app that reminded her to stand up every 30 minutes so that her joints wouldn’t stiffen too much, I started looking.
A lot of “interval timer” apps are geared to athletes in training, with warmups, interval workouts, and cool downs. Many more are designed for meditation, with periods for getting ready, meditating for x minutes, and then stopping. Lots of features I didn’t want or need and couldn’t figure out how to adapt to my needs.
I literally downloaded, installed, and tried about six different apps before I found one called “Repeat Alarm.” You choose the time frame, say 10 am to 10 pm, and the interval length, say, every 4 hours. Then your choice of notification sounds will chime, ring, or gong every 4 hours between 10 am and 10 pm.
Currently I’m using it to remind me to get off the couch and move around for a few minutes (I can get lost in blogging or gaming for hours at a time) every 45 minutes. (If only getting up didn’t make it even easier to wander into the kitchen … ) There have been times when I could have used such a timer to remind me to take meds 4 times a day, or whatever. Or I could have set different alarms and sounds for different meds. That would have been so helpful!
You can set more than one timer. One that sounds every hour and another that sounds every three hours, with different sounds for each. You can title each and the title will show on the screen when the alarm sounds.
I know, I know. Everyone else already knew about and uses such a timer, but I thought I’d mention it anyway.
‘Scuse me. Timer just chimed.
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P.S. No doubt there are other similar apps available. This just happened to be the first one I found that did exactly what I wanted without a lot of extraneous stuff I’d never use.
Yep. iPhone has a “Reminder” app that you can set for one-time only or for any kind of recurring pattern. I count on mine for:
Clear browser history (ea. 2 weeks)
Give dog flea dip and heartworm meds (monthly)
B-12 shots (monthly)
Replace refrigerator filters (180 days)
Noon meds
Bedtime meds
I also use it for a grocery list. I just tell Seri what to add whenever I think of it. It has been a real convenience.
My Google Assistant will give me one time reminders, but my new phone, a Pixel 3 XL, doesn’t seem to have a mechanism for recurring alarms. (It will do grocery lists for me, but I find I’m more confident using my old standby written list.)
This app will chime every 45 minutes between 10 and 10 every day forever, or until I change or cancel it. Monthly or other such events are on my Google calendar and send me reminders. I really needed this back when I was using one eye drop twice a day, a different one three times a day, some pills twice a day and others three or four times a day, some with meals and some on an emplty stomach, and some only when certain side effects occurred. Nevertheless, I’m glad to have it now.
I use my cell phone exclusively and really like it. Currently I have seven alarms for each day, seven days a week. All are for medications. I find the difficult part is getting up off your lazy butt after the alarm goes off and tending to the task…. 🙂
Currently, as noted above,. my only alarm, every 45 minutes, tells me to get up off my lazy butt and move. It wouldn’t be a big deal except that in the last month my knees have started bothering me. Keeping them functional is kind of important if I’m to continue living independently.
All sounds too complicated to me PT; think I’ll give it a miss and continue living on hope and prayer, neither of which has worked so far!
It’s just an alarm that will go off at regular intervals instead of only once. But if you’ve no need for that, then of course you don’t need it. I need reminders to do certain things.
My old (VERY OLD) android phones calendar function can do most of what I need. Trouble is, I HATE the effort to set them up, and having the alarms go off when I’m not inclined to hear the damn things. So… my attention to commitments tends to be randomized.
This little Android app is quick and easy to use for recurring time intervals during the day. Also good to remind me to leave for appt. on the day of. Doesn’t look like you can specify an alarm for a future date, though. Like you, I use my calendar to schedule and remind me of appointments, service calls, etc. I have it send me an email the day before. (I run my calendar primarily from my laptop, but it syncs with my phone.) Also, I can set audidble reminders on my Google Home Assistant, which I really love.
This would come in handy for a tablet farming game I play, HayDay. There are derbies, and you take tasks, like harvest 300 lavender plants in 18 hours. Well, lavender plants only sprout every 2 hours and 38 minutes or some such. I have 100 plots so I could do that in an afternoon, but sometimes I get wrapped up in other things and forget.
Sounds like the perfect task for it.