Over the last few years, I have experimented with non-Apple calendars, mail, notes, to-do, and read-later apps, such as Microsoft, Evernote, Trello, To Doist, and Goodlinks.
Living in the Apple ecosystem, I sooner or later return to the included Apple apps. They just work, integrate with Siri, and have improved considerably in recent years. Further, new features appear to be a priority for Apple.
One such app is Reminders, and if you take the time to go beyond the basics, it is fantastic. Indeed, much of my life organisation now occurs in this app, which plays an important role in my personal, financial, and home-running workflows and reminds me to pick up groceries on the way home.
A few things above the basics that I use are:
Saving bookmarks: Instead of saving links to “read later” in Safari or Good Links, I save them as reminders. I have specific lists for different interest areas.
Projects: I like using the Kanban methodology for projects where I move tasks along or through columns as they get done. This can be done in reminders. https://au.lifehacker.com/apple/9705/hack/apple-reminders-has-a-hidden-kanban-feature
Groups: You can group your lists into Groups. I have Personal, Business, Projects, Household, and Interests. If you click on the Group header, it lists all of the various reminders in those lists. Or, if you want to see just the reminders in the list rather than the group, click on the list.
Tags: You can tag notes to group them across various lists. For example, you could tag people’s names and, by clicking on their names, see everything related to them.
Repeating: This is a fundamental feature that genuinely assists in keeping you focused on your tasks.
Setting location: I always assign tasks a date, time, and/ or location; otherwise, they get lost in a sea of reminders.
Shopping list: It has a built-in template for grocery shopping.
Siri: Siri is awesome with reminders… Hey Siri, when I get home, remind me to… Hey Siri, at midday today, remind me to call…. Hey Siri, on Thursday, remind me to…. Hey Siri, every Wednesday, remind me to… Hey Siri, add to the shopping list… It works.
I am sure there are many other great features, but I use these to make my life easier.
PS: Apple Guide: https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/reminders/welcome/mac
Note to MacGeekGab
Further to my note about reminder and your response, I’ve had another thought about something you said.
You said on the pod that (with you) some reminders go into a black hole that never get attended to. I had a few like that. Your comment got me thinking.
In response, I have changed my workflow…
* Any new reminder goes into a new default folder for new reminders called “New”. This is like triage. It’s in on my iPhone, iPad and Macs.
* Any new reminder in the New folder that’s important, and or it has to get done one day (irrespective of its importance) gets a date. This avoids a black hole.
* Reminders for reading, wish lists, good ideas, etc, that can be attended to anytime, don’t get dates but I know they’re there (or at least they have been put on a list).
And… I forgot to mention: In Mac, you can drag emails to Reminders and create a reminder with a mail icon that you can click to be taken to the original email in mail.
A few weeks ago you mentioned that you have tasks that go into the black hole because they don’t have dates.,
Here’s the fix, without having to spend time looking through all of your lists.
Go:
- Add list
- Choose “Smart List” from the drop-down of “List Type”
- Name it “Undated” or whatever (and choose your emoji – I went for exclamation marks)
- First column “Date”
- Second column “No date”
- OK
ENDS