Do you have trouble remembering to do everything that needs to get done? I’d say we all do. It’s why many of us keep lists of some sort, whether it be at work or home. Personally, I love writing out lists and checking things off when they are complete, but they aren’t very helpful if I don’t keep the list on me at all times and I’m not constantly re-checking the list. This is where technology comes in so you rarely forget something again.
Next week I’ll touch upon keeping track of things at work, but this week I wanted to focus on personal things. Most of us now own smartphones, and one of my most-used apps, after Facebook (I love this time-suck way too much), is called Alarmed. This free app has tons of scheduled items in it so I never forgot to do something. I have recurring reminders to take my vitamins, and one-time reminders as well. I find the app so useful that I purchased the $1.99 add-on to allow me to set the app to nag me if I don’t mark a particular item as complete.
Anytime I think of something I need to do that I can’t do immediately, I open the app and set up a reminder. When I forgot to put garland on my Christmas tree this past December, I immediately scheduled a reminder in the app for next year around Christmas time to remind me to do that because I’m just that anal retentive on top of things. When I get things in the mail, like reminders to take our vehicles in for an emission test, I check my calender to see what day is most likely going to be good for that, and I set a reminder.
Some people may prefer to use their phone’s calendar app for tasks but I don’t really care to use my calendar for that purpose. I like to keep it free for events to make it less cluttered. It also makes it easier to glance quickly at a date to see what I have going on.
If you don’t mind forking over $4.99, Todo by Appigo is a great reminder app too and is more robust than Alarmed, although last I checked it didn’t have the nag option that I’ve come to love and depend on. It does, however, have the ability to tie checklists to reminders to really add to the experience. I have the app installed, so I will use it for those things, and I even use it to keep general checklists that have no reminder. For instance, when I was looking for a job I had a checklist of things I wanted to find out before accepting an offer. I also keep a general packing list for when we go on vacation – actually I have two lists: one for things to pack and one for things to do before locking the house and leaving.
I don’t think I would remember even half of what I have to do if it wasn’t for these apps. What do you use to remember stuff?
