When trying to stay on top of our workload, it’s easy to fall into the trap of over-complicating things. Lots of the task management apps you’ll find have functionality and complexity you’ll never need. Maybe – just maybe – Apple Reminders is all you need…
We’ve discussed how to manage tasks on our podcast several times, as it’s a regular source of frustration for our clients. They quickly get overwhelmed with the volume of tasks, or keep tasks in different places (think post-it notes, scraps of papers, notebooks). Sometimes, they miss deadlines or remember things just in time. They struggle to record a task as soon as it becomes obvious. Or they trust their memory, believing the inspiration that strikes while away from their will stay with them hours later.
Apple’s built-in Reminders app is a solution to all of these problems, and best of all: it’s completely free!
Is it really that good?
In a recent YouTube video, I outlined eight of the key reasons I use Apple Reminders daily – for work and personal projects. Reminders represents a great balance of being easy to use, ubiquitous and only as complicated as you want it to be.
It’s already built in to all Apple devices, allows you to dictate your tasks, organise them into separate projects and receive reminders at a time, date and/or location. You can keep it super-simple, with a single reminders list. Or up your task management game with separate list for different projects and areas of life.
Top tip: Colour-coding your lists makes it much easier to find what you’re looking for!
Apple Reminders’ simplicity is really its superpower. A quick request of Siri places a task in a given list, with a reminder set for a specific time. When you share the URL of an interesting online article, Apple Reminders turns it into a task for later. And it automatically includes a link back to the page in question.
You can turn a scribbled note on a post-it into something more actionable by taking a photo with your phone and adding it to a task. You can drag an email from Apple’s Mail app into Reminders and it turns it into a task – with a link back to the original email.
What are we trying to achieve?
Being intentional about task management is really about getting ideas and workload out of your mind and into a system that works for you. As workload comes your way – via email, conversations or conversation – you need to note what needs to be done and get back to the task in hand. Ideally, as quickly as possible . Apple Reminders does all of this, and much more.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed with all you have to do (or feel you have to remember) this could be an excellent starting point for being more intentional about how you organise your workload. Check out the video above for some inspiration and then start dictating your tasks with the help of Siri.
You’ll have a neat, prioritised and accurate lists of tasks in no time.
