Found a New System for Reminders I Like

potentialeight

potentialeight

Expert Gambling Writer
Oct 30, 2010
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I use a really chopped up and modified version of GTD, but one of the biggest things I've always had a problem with was having a decent way to record my ideas and things I need to remember without it turning into a pain in the ass. This pretty much solved my problem:

System #5: Reminders

Without even joking, handling reminders in an efficient way will completely change your life and drastically kick up your levels of productivity. The basic idea is that you want to be able to save any ideas or other pieces of information that you see or think of no matter where you are. I have a really easy way to do this that I’m going to show you here.

It seems like everybody has a cell phone these days. If you have text messaging, then you can use this system of reminders even if you don’t have a smartphone. You’ll have a free Google Drive account and an IFTTT account after you set up your Google+ profile from System #3 above.

What you want to do is set up a recipe that receives an SMS and adds it to a line in a Google Drive document. It’s really easy to set up that recipe, and it’s actually a pre-formatted recipe that’s available to just add to your account.
All you do next is add a shortcut on your desktop or in your browser’s bookmarks toolbar that goes straight to the document that has a list of all of your reminders. Now you can send a text to the IFTTT number to have it automatically added to this list.

Note: An alternative to this idea is having it automatically add an entry in a specific section of your OneNote notebook. To each his own. -Source
Click to expand...

I already have shit in place for the other four systems that it gives that are just as good, if not better, than what they recommend, but this setup for reminders is fucking sweet.

Now you can't go bitch and say you didn't read anything worth a shit on WF today.
 


Macbook + iPhone = just text myself a note and it's sitting there in Messages on my desktop when I get back to the office (or wherever my laptop is).
 
I don't really understand the need for such an elaborate system is there somethig I'm missing?

If you maintain inbox zero then just email yourself ideas, notes, etc and process them into your organizational system from there. For me it's iphone's default notepad -> email to myself -> process into system (task, someday maybe, reminder, idea, etc) when i'm back at my work desk.

GTD is interesting in that way though, everyone finds their own way.
 
If you use gmail and the G apps...

Nothing beats this - gQueues for GTD productivity.

Hands down best fucking biz/life tool I have ever used. I have like 10+ IFTTT recipes going into it too... IFTTT & GQ interact seemlessly.
 
Oh, I forgot for personal checklists and projects I typically use a combination of org-mode and onenote. Both have mobile versions so they're somewhat convenient although the mobile versions aren't as good as the desktop versions.
 
TheRedBaron said:
I don't really understand the need for such an elaborate system is there somethig I'm missing?

If you maintain inbox zero then just email yourself ideas, notes, etc and process them into your organizational system from there. For me it's iphone's default notepad -> email to myself -> process into system (task, someday maybe, reminder, idea, etc) when i'm back at my work desk.

GTD is interesting in that way though, everyone finds their own way.
Click to expand...

In its final form, it's really just sending text messages that pile up in a file on your desktop. I think it's on par with the difficulty of sending an email, but it probably works out better for people who don't have a smartphone since sending an email is often a little more complicated and doesn't format well even if you send it via SMS.

I've previously been sending myself an email, but I like this format better since I can hit up Siri and be like "text reminders buy more cones at walmart" and it's just there when I get home waiting to be processed. This is life-changing for me (lol that sounds so lame) since I find myself wanting to remind myself of a lot of stuff while I'm driving, but I really suck at typing on a touch screen when I'm trying to drive too.

I'm also finding it easier for me to have my email inbox separate from my reminders inbox, but that's probably a personal preference and has to do more with how I compartmentalize my thinking.

blank_czech said:
Oh, I forgot for personal checklists and projects I typically use a combination of org-mode and onenote. Both have mobile versions so they're somewhat convenient although the mobile versions aren't as good as the desktop versions.
Click to expand...

I used OneNote previously and absolutely love it.

I recently switched to lubuntu thinking it would help me to limit my distractions (which it has to a large degree), and I don't really like the web-based OneNote as much. I've been using CherryTree instead. It's a bit different with a hierarchy system much like Treepad if anyone has ever used that, but you can customize a lot more about it, include images, rich text formatting, etc.
 
Org-mode doesn't do too well with pictures, but has the structure that onenote tends to lack.

Onenote is great for handing multimedia (especially nice if you have a stylus to draw/write with, really easy to annotate images).

Evernote is okay, has a better web clipper than onenote, but kind of fails if you try to use it outside of a browser. I've read that evernote is more of a filing cabinent whereas onenote acts like a notebook and have found that to be true in my case too.

Some inspiring org-mode videos:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgizHHd7nOo[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJTwQvgfgMM[/ame]

As far as working with other people on the same outline/checklist, I've used workflowy and trello and both are fine.

In all honesty, most of these tools work about the same for me, I just like messing around with them.

Also apparently some of you actually delete emails. I haven't deleted an email in literal years. I have 3-4000 unread emails and it doesn't bother me at all.

For my daily todo list I still use paper actually. It's easier than messing with my phone especially if I'm in the middle of a task. I can write something down and the likelihood of me getting distracted after/while doing it is a lot smaller.

Edit: Forgot about mindmaps as some people like using them

I've tried a few programs (currently use freeplane), but I feel mindmapping works best on paper. It's fun to mess around with, but I don't really 'get it' so to speak. Every few months I check it out again.
 
blank_czech said:
For my daily todo list I still use paper actually. It's easier than messing with my phone especially if I'm in the middle of a task. I can write something down and the likelihood of me getting distracted after/while doing it is a lot smaller.

Edit: Forgot about mindmaps as some people like using them

I've tried a few programs (currently use freeplane), but I feel mindmapping works best on paper. It's fun to mess around with, but I don't really 'get it' so to speak. Every few months I check it out again.
Click to expand...

+1 for mapping out thoughts on paper. I have a hard time doing it in any other way.
 
potentialeight said:
In its final form, it's really just sending text messages that pile up in a file on your desktop. I think it's on par with the difficulty of sending an email, but it probably works out better for people who don't have a smartphone since sending an email is often a little more complicated and doesn't format well even if you send it via SMS.

I've previously been sending myself an email, but I like this format better since I can hit up Siri and be like "text reminders buy more cones at walmart" and it's just there when I get home waiting to be processed. This is life-changing for me (lol that sounds so lame) since I find myself wanting to remind myself of a lot of stuff while I'm driving, but I really suck at typing on a touch screen when I'm trying to drive too.

I'm also finding it easier for me to have my email inbox separate from my reminders inbox, but that's probably a personal preference and has to do more with how I compartmentalize my thinking.
Click to expand...

Right on man, that makes more sense now. Definitely interesting to see how people implement the GTD principles in their own way.
 
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