Other. I sometimes, but rarely, need an alarm clock to wake up. I do set the alarm on my BlackBerry for workdays only. I also get “alarm” messages, reminders of meetings and other appointments I set in my Outlook (Gmail) Calendar. I will miss meetings and other events if I don’t get a reminder. Not sure which category that would fit exactly in your survey.
As someone with ADHD, alarms and alerts are crucial for me to not forget things! I use a noise alarm only for waking up, but anything that needs doing by a specific time goes into my Outlook calendar with pop-up alerts at 15 and 5 minutes. This includes “Go to Boots to pick up prescriptions at lunch”, “Post card to mother-in-law” and “Annual review meeting with manager”.
I also set myself email alerts for things that don’t need done by a specific time other than “in the next few weeks”, and make myself do them as soon as I get the alerts. Otherwise they would fall off my plate and never get done.
I tend to be absent minded, I don’t always keep track of time well, and I hate waking up in the morning. An alarm clock has always been essential and cellphones with calendar/planners have been a godsend, I use them all the time.
I set one every day that I have to get up in time to do something – which is every working day, plus every non working day where I have some other morning appointment.
But in fact I wake up before the alarm goes off at least a third of the time.
Are we including Outlook calendar reminders, oven timers and the like? Or just alarm clocks?
When I started the thread, my intent was for alarms on your clock or phone. But since I didn’t specify that and many others have commented about much more beyond that, I’m not going to restrict you!
But for voting purposes, try to think along the lines of clock/phone lines.
I’m one of the few people that never uses an alarm clock. I get up early even on days off. I’ll set an alarm for the first time in years on Monday since I have a very early flight and I figure I’ll have a few beers on Sunday.
If I need an alarm to wake me up, either I have a before-sunrise plane to take or I’m sick; I use one M-F to tell me when to leave for work.
Crud. I used my computer for a medicine alarm. I wrote a script. It actually took some work, since I wanted to have a reminder, an actual alarm, and a scolding if I didn’t listen to the first two. Since the scripts all pause everytime you display a message, I had to figure out how to make it multitask.
But, anyways, you probably don’t care about that. My point is that I voted that I use an alarm for appointments everyday for a daily activitiy, but, apparently, you don’t count the alarm if it’s on the computer.
And, no, I haven’t used an alarm to wake up in a long time–though I will if I have to be on time, since I don’t trust my body clock. I have to be very, very exact in my scheduling if I want to be on time.
I HAVE to to wake up in the morning, otherwise I might get 10 hours a night some times (especially like now, in the winter). I also occasionally set one to remind me to do something that I would otherwise forget (Pay a bill, call for an appointment, pick up food on the way home)
Eh. My bad for a poorly crafted poll. Unfortunately, I’ve been wait-listed at Skald University for now, but someday, I’ll take the classes I need!