My Reminder System

Remembering something is usually a case of you did or you didn’t. I’ve often found it amusing for things like birthdays when people will say that they remembered, but they just didn’t say anything about it. Really…well that’s hard to imagine.

The thing is, some people have better memories than others. Everyone is different and is able to remember things in different ways. Laugh if you must, but I remember wanting a photographic memory like Cam Jansen when I was a kid. Then I could rapidly flip through books and not need to study! How wonderful that would have been! But alas, my dreams did not come true. Even now I often wish for a better memory.

But just as remembering something is pretty binary (i.e. you did or you didn’t), those of us lacking in the memory department have to make do with what we have. Otherwise we will be mocked. Who will mock, I do not know. All I know is that mocking will occur.

3 Memory Aids That I Use:

1. Remember The Milk

(RTM for short)

Besides having a pretty amusing name, this is a website whose sole purpose is to create TODO lists. It’s refreshing for a website to be so singular in its purpose in this day of do-everything-until-we-take-over-your-life websites. In any case, I initially signed up for an account on the site, thought it was cool, and promptly did not hardly ever use it because visiting another site everyday wasn’t too practical.

But then they developed a Firefox extension that changed that up! They developed an extension for placing an RTM pane whenever a Gmail tab is opened! It maintains the overall look and feel of gmail so you (or at least I) don’t feel like it’s out of place at all. Since I much more often have a browser tab open for Gmail, I was much more able to use the service. And I have. And it’s great!

The concept is nothing new, you just put in due dates. But since it’s in front of my face at least once a day (since I check my e-mail once a day), it’s actually useful. And it’s on a remote server so I don’t need to worry about losing it or keeping different lists in sync.

So there are 2 ways to use this baby:

* [Gmail for RTM extension](http://www.rememberthemilk.com/services/gmail/)


* [RTM website](http://www.rememberthemilk.com)

Either will do, just do.

1. Phone calendar

Okay so I don’t have a smart phone. But that doesn’t mean that my phone is dumb! (Ha…ha…)

But almost all phones nowadays have some sort of calendar feature. And that’s fine and dandy for checking what the date is. But there is often also the ability to schedule events. So I use my phone (a Motorola, by the way) and put in reminders for certain things that I need to get done.

This is especially useful when I’m out and about. Often my phone is one of the few things that I’ll carry with me. I could actually text message a reminder to RTM which is cool. But I’ll be honest, I’m cheap when it comes to text messaging. And Verizon charges $.15 per message. For the amount of reminders that I put in for myself, that could get pricey. Haha laugh if you want, but the calendar reminders are free.

Google Calendar

Calendars have been around for ages. The print versions are still quite popular and understandably so. But as computer usage becomes more and more prevalent, we are transferring much of the things that we do in tangible form to things that we can do through using the computer.

Personally I use the Google calendar, but really there are many such applications floating around. I figure that I already have a Gmail account, so why not. (Of course, this line of reasoning sounds that in my post Google’s Taking Over The World…And I Don’t Like It.)

Anyways, a nice feature of Google calendar is that I can have it e-mail me before the event occurs. I don’t use the application everyday, but awhile back I input all of my friends’ birthdays. Now it will e-mail me the day before someone’s birthday, so I’ll never egregiously forget a friend’s birthday!

Granted, it’d be better if I just remembered. It would show that I care more. It’s not that I don’t care. It’s just that I don’t want to make a mistake! It’s my failsafe, if you will.

* [Google Calendar website](http://www.google.com/calendar)

Do you have other tips for fellow forgetful fellows (or gals)?