Help my computer become strict and overbearing.

November 11, 2009 11:56 AM

I'm looking for special task-scheduling software, and am looking for suggestions.

Lately I've been setting small daily goals for myself - twenty minutes to study Esperanto, twenty minutes to learn a song on guitar, twenty minutes to perform a discrete work task, etc., and am really starting to believe that the less time I give myself for a task the better I perform.

I remember studying for the GRE, and the software I used included a "virtual proctor", instructing me at different points to end or begin a section. Does something like that exist for everyday life?

As such, I'm looking for a program which I can use to micro-schedule my day, with special alarms at specific times (1:10, 1:20, 1:50), etc. Ideally, the alarms would also display the task to be performed. Even better, I'd like something that reads aloud the text I've entered for that alarm. That way, a computer voice could cue me for my next task!

I've seen a few examples of this sort of thing online, but I thought I'd ask you all if you have a particular program you like, isn't very demanding on system resources, and (possibly) has the extra functions I've mentioned above.

Thanks!

posted by mammary16 to computers & internet (4 comments total)

Oh, and also - if a program also allows you to micro-schedule like this for an entire week / month, etc., even better!
posted by mammary16 at 12:30 PM on November 11

Sounds like you want a slightly-enlarged version of the Getting Things Done technique.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 1:34 PM on November 11

Lifehacker is full of goal / todo / organizing software recommendations, so I would look there first. I've seen this today.
posted by leigh1 at 2:08 PM on November 11

I asked a very similar question, but I never found anything from the recommendations that really helped me. I'm still searching. Hope you find something, though. Maybe one of the suggestions I got would help you!
posted by metalheart at 6:49 PM on November 16