Organisational tools?

[Wayward]

Hi guys, I'm hoping you can help me

I'm looking into designing some things to help people organise day to day life. They would be sheets you can print out at home (and maybe spreadsheets for the computer too) to help you plan tasks for the day, organise your time, keep track of housework etc.There are lots of 'to do' list type things out there but I feel like there might be a better way of doing things to be dyspraxic/dyslexic friendly.

I'm interested to know if any of you think this might be especially helpful for dyspraxics, dyslexics, neurodiverse people in general?
And can anyone offer any suggestions on areas that I could cover? I've got a pretty long list already but I'm not sure if my ideas might be a bit off the mark.

The end goal would be to sell the files for printing at home, but I don't want to be spamming anyone on here or using this forum for promotional purposes...just wanting a bit of feedback. This is in very early days so far.

[Tom fod]

Hi Wayward

I do like a good working aid especially if it panders to my OCD side or where I can pull it apart and put it back together to suit myself.

When I'm going on a trip I often like to produce an itinerary so I can remind myself of what coach/ train what platform where I should be at a certain time etc. Forearmed is forewarned though I did get a bit lost at Gatwick last September, info I used was as confusing as airport itself. I tend to like to build my own but there no doubt would be a market for such a product to help people grow in confidence and tackle things they might ordinarily find at best daunting..

Are you thinking flow charts, decision trees or mind maps or a variety of options at different levels? To what degree will people be able to preview the product without being able to just take it. Please don't feel you have go into detail in how you answer this here as I appreciate you need and want to preserve and protect your ideas.

[Wayward]

Thanks for the reply Tom.
See this is interesting, because I hadn't considered flow charts, decision trees or mind maps at all! I'm intrigued to know more about types of flow charts etc that people might find helpful.

I like this itinerary idea. I struggle with reading times etc off train timetables and making sense of them so for my commute to work I wrote out the list of different shifts I have, what time the train leaves and what time I need to leave the house to get to the train station on time. Maybe that's something other people would find helpful too. I'd just need to suss out a way to make it usable for different people, different needs.

Thanks, yes I do want to protect my ideas but a large part of it could be my way of designing things and how I'd make it...well, pretty to look at.
There are ways of making the product viewable but not too readily pinchable (low resolution product pictures, showing only part of the whole image, that kind of thing)

[Tom fod]

I wonder if mobile/tablet apps might be a potential idea too. Could you market to people directly or to organisations/agencies committed to helping people with different needs beyond dyspraxia/dyslexia.

How about guides that help people to go about finding out what they need to know about something e.g.

Job searches: How to research/locate potential employers
Apply for a job or create and upload a CV
Ideas for Disclosing/educating your employer or colleagues about dyspraxia and reasonable adjustments
Journey planning/organising a trip away and how to build in measures to reassure/save sanity if delays or other unforeseen circumstances befall.
Planning/arranging a meal out (or in) for a small group of people.
What to do/how to cope if you lose your purse/wallet/phone etc
How to research purchase of items/services
Where to go to sort out housing issues/find accommodation.

Mind maps are also sometime known as spider diagrams. There are apps such as Freemind to help you create them.
Flow charts/decision trees are either v closely related or one and the same now I think about it

[Wayward]

Thanks for the suggestions Tom. It's a different angle to how I'd been thinking, so interesting to read.
The app idea has been suggested before but I think that would have to be further down the line, if and when I have the skills and resources for that.

[Wayward]

Hello again.
I just wanted to add that I've got some ideas in the works and many thanks to Tom for the feedback and thoughts.

I've set up a facebook page and hope to eventually open an online shop selling the tools. I'm not sure if it's spammy to mention this, so please delete if it's inappropriate, but otherwise anyone interested in what I'm doing can find me on:

https://www.facebook.com/stormclearsolutions

[clumsy_clara]

I find my smartphone is essential to me. I use evernote, calendar, diary apps. On the computer I have a spreadsheet to deal with budget, shopping lists are saved on tescos website.

I scan all my household paperwork as filing is my most difficult of tasks using a programme called paperport which came as a freebie with my printer. Needless to say I still have to keep some physical papers such as the vehicle log book, tax and pension stuff but it drastically reduces the need to keep mounds of physical paper. You can add keywords which make it easy to recall them if you forget which directory they are in. You can also use this program to store anything printed to a pdf just change the printer to the pdf output which is something you can do with a facility that comes for free with paperport.

Finally I bought a £5 internet password organiser from Amazon which I use constantly as it removes the stress of trying to remember them, only problem is it has to be put back in the same place every time you use it else you forget where you have put it!

Hope this helps.