iDid: Optimize my time

If you are looking for an application that will help you monitor your daily activities, then iDid is the perfect app for you. Its simplistic interface and superior design allow plenty of customization for the active lifestyle.

I decided to use iDid over a 5 day period to really identify all that it could do for me. I kept the categories and headings the same, and just operated within the guidelines available without any additions or adjustments. What I found was that the ability to customize is extremely useful. Take Thursday for instance. I came home, fired up Final Fantasy XIII, used the step machine while playing FF13, cooked dinner for my wife and me, and then headed to a buddies house for my weekly geek-gasm of Dungeons and Dragons. iDid could have categorized each of these items, and without that customization you cannot hope to effectively utilize the full potential of this app.

iDid allows you to input the different amounts of time spent on any individual category, and feeds that information into a line chart. Switching to view the line chart shows you a week long summary of activities by category, neatly differentiated by different colors. If you’re looking to take a more in-depth look at your current habits, there are criteria that you can input that change the length of time analyzed, which categories are displayed, and what time period you want the program to review.

I immensely appreciate this apps effectiveness at monitoring activities on a day to day basis. It’s extremely effective for those individuals looking to commit to a vigorous workout routine, and want to monitor progress over a large period of time. Additionally, those busy individuals trying to budget time for their families can see how they’ve been doing lately using this app.

While I do enjoy this app, I find myself having difficulties with the upkeep that something like this takes. Additionally, I have offered a couple suggestions on ways to possibly use it, but I am also having trouble figuring out a reason to spend the extra time keeping up with this app. Maybe if you are a student trying to ensure equal amounts of study time, or a multiple sport athlete trying to condition for all of your sports equally, but again, I feel like I am stretching to offer a real reason to use this app.

iDid really is a well designed app, and I encourage those of you that are big into time management apps to share some uses with myself and the readers here at 148apps.com. My narrow focus tells me that the little time I do have would be better used NOT monitoring how I spend all my non-free time, but then again I might be unique case. If you’ve been looking for a way to monitor patterns in your daily activities, iDid is a sure fire way to do so. If you’re like me however, you may find that it doesn’t last long on your iDevice before it’s deleted for good.