In 2015, Tiimo was founded by Helene Lassen Nørlem and Melissa Würtz Azari (About Tiimo I Our Team and Mission, n.d.). The app serves as a digital planner with exciting visuals and customization. Helene and Melissa came up with the idea for Tiimo as part of a research project with neurodivergent adolescents that investigated how technology can help support them. The goal was to create an app that could help people with ADHD, Autism, dyslexia, and anyone else who needs help to get stuff done. Today, Tiimo has accumulated over one million downloads and is an award-winning digital planner.
Quote from Co-Founder of Tiimo, Melissa Würtz Azari
According to Easterseals: Crossroads indata project (Medcalf, 2020), some of the best features of Tiimo are the following:
The app allows you to upload your own photos to assign to a task in order to help visualize it.
You can customize and personalize the planner to you with numerous different icons, emojis, and colours to choose from.
The app emphasizes the importance of positive communication by celebrating small successes with you by sending you motivating reminders to inform you of your progress within a task and it "celebrates" with you when you have completed a task.
The web-portal provides a whole overview of your schedule by week.
There is a family sharing option that allows you to use the Tiimo app with your whole family.
Available on IOS devices which includes Apple Watch and available to download from Google Play.
The app can benefit those with ADHD. ADD, autism, aspergers, PTSD, bipolar disorder, and more.
Please note that Tiimo does have a subscription that allows for more features like the notes, checklists, and more personalization options. Since we are using the free version, we will not be going over the features included in the subscription, but to learn more about these features you can visit their website.
Sounds great right? So, let's get started!
After downloading the app on your phone, tablet or laptop, spend some time familiarizing yourself with the app. When you first log in you should see a home page like this (see photo below):
At the bottom you will have your navigation tabs:
Right now is for all your activities, routines, and checklists that are currently in motion. To add your acitivity click the top button or to start visual timer for a new acitivity you can click the bottom black button where it will give you the option of a 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 25 minutes, 45 minutes, 1 hour, or custom timer.
My day is where you will find all your activities and routines that are scheduled for that current day. In addition, you are also able to change the day if needed by using the navigation at the top (see below). From this page, you can add your activity or start visual timer like on the right now page. You can also add an activity by using the puple plus icon in the lower right corner. The Notes feature in the top right corner is subscription only.
Explore allows you to view premade activities and routines to add to your schedule.
Lastly, the Me tab provides you with video tutorials, Tiimo Coaching courses (not included in free or subscription version, you will have to pay a separate charge for the course), your settings, blog posts, account and subscription details, and more.
While familiarizing yourself with Tiimo, think about some of the things you might want in your planner, such as...
Daily personal hygiene routine
Medication reminders
Weekly obligations
Reminders to pay bills
Tiimo's scheduling revolves around activities and routines.
An activity is a block of time to carry out a task, like eating breakfast or a commute to work.
A routine is a collection of activities in a particular order that take a longer amount of time such as a morning routine.
Having routines is helpful in Tiimo because you can save multiple routines and then you can easily add them to your schedule. Whereas if you had a schedule of only activities you would have to add each individually everytime.
To create an activity, follow these steps:
Click/tap on "add your activity" on the Right now or My day page
Fill in the following to create your activity (see photo below):
Within an acitivity you can set the time it takes you to do it, what date you are doing the activity, make it reoccuring, and add tags (see photo below).
The tags above are included in the free version and will become the icon beside the activity. If you buy the subscription, you are able to make new tags and edit the tags.
After you have filled all this out, click/tap on the Add button.
To create a routine, click/tap on the Explore tab.
Within the search function at the top, search "Routine".
A slider bar will appear below the search where you can toggle on to Routine.
From there, a window will pop up allowing you to see Tiimo's suggested routines and your already made routines. Click/tap on the top right button labeled "Create routine".
Name your routine and then add already made activities or search up new activities to add.
After all your activities are added and edited to the way you like them, click/tap "Create routine".
This routine will automatically be added to your schedule depending on the fequency and occurence you chose for the routine.
To save time, you can use Tiimo's premade content to create activities and routines. The best thing about this premade content is that you can tweak and personalize the activities within a routine to your liking.
To add pre-made content...
Click/Tap on "Explore"
To add an activity, click/tap on any activities within the explore tab to add to your schedule.
Once you have added the activity to your schedule, you can hold down/click on the particular activity to edit it.
To add a routine, use the search function at the top and search "Routine".
A slider bar will appear below the search where you can toggle on to Routine.
From there, a window will pop up allowing you to see Tiimo's pre-made routines.
Add the routine to your schedule and to edit the routine you can hold down/click on the particular activity to edit it.
To delete or edit any activity or routine, just swipe left to see these options.
You can import an existing appointments into Tiimo from iCal.
If you only have calendar systems like Google Calendar or Outlook, you will have to sync these to iCal prior to importing.
To import, follow these steps:
Go to Me tab.
Select Calendar Import.
Enable Calendar Import.
Pick your calendars that you want to import.
Overall, Tiimo has helped me immensely with planning and organizing my days. I love that it syncs with my Apple Watch so that I can start a timer and then it lets me know when my task is done. If my task takes longer than what I initially put in Tiimo, then I can easily go in to adjust it so that I can properly time block for the future. If you have any further questions about Tiimo or want to learn more, here are some helpful and interesting links for you:
References:
About Tiimo I Our team and mission. (n.d.). https://www.tiimoapp.com/about
Medcalf, L. (2020, July 24). Tiimo App for ADHD, autism, and more - Assistive Technology at Easter Seals Crossroads. Assistive Technology at Easter Seals Crossroads - Indiana’s leader in assistive technology and the home of the INDATA Project. https://www.eastersealstech.com/2020/07/23/tiimo-app-for-adhd-autism-and-more/
Hi Kristi,
I love the design of your app. I also really like the name and logo. The colour palette is very soothing, no doubt this has someting to do with your ADHD. I had no idea there was an app like this. I will definitely recommend it to a friend who I know also has ADHD. My only suggestion is to change the darkness or the actual font for the body text. It is quite faint even at the brightest setting on my laptop and I would have trouble reading this on a phone screen.
Thank you for sharing this detailed and informative blog post about Tiimo! It is clear that the app offers plenty of features designed to assist individuals with ADHD, Autism, dyslexia, and various other challenges in their daily lives. I appreciate the step-by-step guide you provided on how to use Tiimo, especially the instructions about creating activities and routines, importing appointments, and personalizing the app according to individual needs. The integration with Apple Watch and the ability to adjust task timings on the go are particularly impressive features.