Hello, my name’s Tom and this is Proper Honest Tech.
Let’s face it, life in the digital age is tough. We all get bombarded with information
every single day, and keeping track of everything that we need to do, and remembering all of
the things that we need to remember can be difficult. There are countless organisation
apps available on your iPhone, Mac, iPad and even your Watch which will help you to keep
track of your responsibilities, but I reckon one of the most overlooked and under-appreciated
apps is right there already on your iOS device, in the form of Reminders.
And I think there are two key reasons why the app is so overlooked. Firstly, I think
that most people have no idea just what the app is capable of, and secondly, I think people
are using it incorrectly.
So, in this deep-dive video, I’m going to walk you through everything that the Reminders
app can do, right now in July of 2021. I’ll show you tips and tricks to help you get the
most out of it, and show you how you can integrate the Reminders app with all of your Apple devices
- so if you’re like me, and you own things like an iPhone and iPad, but also a Mac, Watch,
HomePod and even Apple CarPlay, you can really level up your productivity.
Let’s begin by agreeing what the Reminders app is. As the name would suggest, it’s
an app to help remind you of things to do, but these reminders can take a number of forms,
and vary based on the way that you use them. For example, a reminder might be a timed event,
for example reminding you to take the bins out on a Tuesday morning. Or, a reminder might
be a reminder to buy something, like a shopping list. Or, a reminder might be linked to a
person, so for example when you’re messaging someone, the reminder pops up to remind you
to make them aware of something. All of these different examples are all examples of reminders,
and they all function in pretty much the same way, with the only difference being how you
set them up and how you interact with them.
Just so you’re aware, throughout this video, I’m going to be using Reminders on my Mac,
but I’ll also be jumping over to Reminders on both my iPhone and iPad where applicable,
to show you what it’s like there as well. I’ll also demo some usage of Reminders using
things like the HomePod, CarPlay and Apple Watch. I’m running iOS and iPadOS 14.6 on
the iPhone and ipad respectively, and I’m running MacOS 11.4 Big Sur on the Mac. I’m
aware that there will be some changes to Reminders when the new software drops in a couple of
month’s time, and I’ll make a video with an update to the changes then.
OK, let’s start by looking at Reminders here on the Mac, and just confirming that
we’re all clear about how everything works. Thankfully, Reminders on Mac and iPad are
almost carbon copies of one another, the iPhone version is almost identical with the exception
that a few things are in different places, so once you’ve learnt how to use one, you’ll
be able to apply the same logic to the others.
Here in the upper left of the screen we’ve got a search bar, which does exactly what
it says on the tin. If you’re unsure as to whether you’ve created a specific reminder
or not, you can search for it here.
Underneath, we’ve got some filters, which Apple call Smart Lists. They allow you to
filter out your reminders based on criteria that you would have set with them when you
created them. For example, pressing the ‘All’ button will of course show you all of your
reminders, although it’s still broken down into your different lists. Flagged will show
you only the reminders which you’ve flagged. To flag a reminder, if you’re on the Mac,
just right-click on the reminder and choose Flag. If you’re on an iPhone or an iPad,
tap on the Reminder, then on the Info button, and then toggle Flag to ‘on’, and choose
Done when you’re finished.
Scheduled will show you any reminders with a deadline attached to them, giving you a
schedule view of what you’ve got coming up. To set a deadline, on the Mac, right click
on a reminder and go to Deadline, where you can choose from Today, Tomorrow or Next Weekend.
If these dates aren’t specific enough for you, and use the ‘Remind Me’ function
to choose a specific date, and then a specific time. Note that the Deadline shortcut is only
available on Mac. If you’re on iPhone or iPad, you’ll need to choose the reminder,
choose Info and then toggle on Date and Time reminders, choosing the specifics as you go.
Oh and by the way, if you’re more of a swipe person, you can just swipe left on any reminder,
and then select details, which is the same as tapping on a reminder, and then choosing
the Info button.
Finally, Today, which will show you only the reminders which are due today. This is based
on date and time information just like the scheduled filter, but will of course only
filter to show the tasks or reminders which are due today. This can be helpful if you’re
the kind of person who likes to work off of a daily to do list, as the app will essentially
create a new one for you each day, based on whatever is due.
So, one of the core things to get your head around with Reminders is the idea of creating
and managing lists. Reminders is created by default, and it’s where your device will
store reminders for you by default. But, beyond that, it’s really up to you how you decide
to organise your reminders. Perhaps you could have a list for keeping track of books that
you want to read, or movies or TV series that you want to watch? Perhaps you could have
a list for a project that you’re working on, renovating a room in your house or planning
a trip. You could have a list of things that you know you need to pack before you go on
holiday, or a list related to the different members of your family. The choice really
is yours.
So, with that in mind, let’s create a couple of lists. My fiancé and I are moving house
in a couple of months, so let’s create a couple of lists related to that. I’ll create
one and call it ‘moving in’, and then I’m going to create another one called ‘first
two weeks’. Now, because these two lists are quite similar, I’m going to group them
together. To do that, just grab one of the lists and drop it onto the other list. A group
will be automatically created, and you can give it a name. I’m going to call it ‘house
move’.
So, you can see how easy it is to create lists, and how you’ve got some powerful editing
options for managing those lists. I guess now we need to create some reminders to go
in those lists. You’ve got various different options for doing this, with the most obvious
being creating a reminder manually.
Let me grab my iphone for this, and then I’m going to jump into the Moving In list, and
tap anywhere in the list to create a new reminder. I’m going to call the reminder ‘book removals
company’, and then tap on the ‘i’ to look at my options.
In ‘Notes’, I can add a bit more meat to the bones of my reminder. So maybe I’ve
got some specific furniture that I need to remember to discuss with the moving company,
I could make a little note of that in here.
In URL, I could add the website link to the company we’re using, as that might help
me if I quickly need to grab a phone number or some information about them at a later
date. Date and Time, we’ve already discussed those, and I’m not going to use them on
this occasion, but that would allow me to set a deadline for the reminder. Location
probably isn’t helpful for this particular reminder, but it can be super helpful in the
right situation. You would use this to have your devices remind you to do something when
you’re at a certain location. An obvious usage case here is when Siri knows where you
live and where you work, you can use this function to have a reminder trigger when you
leave work, or when you arrive home. It’s seriously clever stuff, although I’m not
going to use it on this occasion.
When Messaging is also super helpful, and could be helpful in this instance actually.
This basically means that, if you’re messaging someone, the reminder will pop up on your
screen while you’re messaging that person. So for me, I could put my fiancé in here,
and when I’m next messaging her, the reminder will pop up. Do note that this only applies
to Apple Messages, not to WhatsApp or Facebook messenger or anything like that I’m afraid.
I could flag the reminder if I wanted to, but I’m not going to on this occasion.
I can set the priority of this reminder, choosing either None, Low, Medium or High. This can
be helpful if you’re managing a project, and you’ve got lots of spinning plates,
perhaps you want to ensure that you’re focusing on clearing the most important stuff first.
I’ll use this, I think this is a high priority task, so we’ll choose that.
I can then change the list that this is in if I need to, but I’m happy where it is.
Sub tasks is really useful. If this particular task is essentially made up of a number of
other tasks, you can include those in here. So, for this example, I might make some sub
tasks called ‘obtain 3 quotes’, and then ‘choose the best option’, and then ‘book
a company’. So there we go, we’ve now got 3 sub tasks, and I know I’ve got to
complete all of those in order for the entire task to be completed.
Finally, I can add an image if I want to. I can choose one from my photo library, or
I can scan a document, maybe the leaflet of a company I want to enquire about or a receipt,
or I can take a photo using the camera on my phone.
OK, let’s choose Done. Notice how the task is shown, both on my phone, and on my iPad
and on my Mac. I’ve got the task itself, Book removals company, and then the 3 sub
tasks showing underneath that, each with their own tick box.
Let’s look at some of the options available now that I’ve created a list. To access
this on the Mac, you would right click on the list, or to do this on iPhone or iPad,
you’re going to choose the ellipsis button here.
You can edit the name and appearance of the list. I’m gonna choose an icon of a house,
and I’m going to make the list red.
I can share the list if I want to. I could share this with my fiancé, as it’s all
relevant to her as well. To do that, select share, and then choose how you’d like to
send the share link. Anyone who then clicks that link will be able to join the list as
a participant as well, which is awesome if you’re working on something like this, or
perhaps using reminders as part of a family group or a work project. The main list which
I share with my fiancé in real life is our shopping list. We’ve got one constantly
on the go, and whenever we think of anything that needs adding to the list, we just add
it. That way, whichever one of us is at the supermarket, even if it’s an unexpected
trip, we’ve got the latest list and can grab whatever we need.
Select Reminders is good if you want to clean a list up, and maybe select some reminders
to complete or to delete.
You can choose Sort By, and then sort manually, or by deadline, creation date, priority or
the title of the reminder.
Show Completed is helpful because by default, when you complete a task, it gets removed
from the list. This allows you to bring it back. Let me show you. We’ll complete the
first subtask, obtain 3 quotes. Notice that it’s now gone? If I jump back into the menu,
and choose Show Hidden, it comes back.
Finally, you can print your list, or you can delete the list.
I mentioned sharing lists, and said that I share a shopping list with my fiancé. Let
me show you that quickly, to show you what happens in a shared list. If I choose the
info/options for one of these items here in the list, I can assign it to anybody who the
list is shared with. Obviously, in this example, it’s not that helpful, but you can imagine
that if you were planning a trip, and you’d shared the list with multiple people, this
could be a really helpful way to ensure that people know who’s responsible for what.
You just tap on Assign Reminder, and then choose the person that the reminder is going
to be assigned to.
Now, manually creating a reminder like that is super powerful, but it’s a bit laborious.
A much easier way is to let Siri do it for you. This is straightforward, but you do need
to understand a little about context, and how it works with regard to reminders. For
example, if you wanted to add bread to your shopping list, your natural instinct might
be to say “remind me to buy bread”. The issue with this is that by saying “remind
me”, you’ve told Siri that this is a reminder, when in actuality, you want to add something
to a specific list. So, you’d actually say, “add bread to my shopping list”. That
way, Siri knows what you want to add, and where you want to add it.
You could even say something like “Add organise Sky TV to my moving in list”, and Siri will
again know exactly what you want to add, and where you want to add it.
If you want an actual reminder of something, with perhaps a date or time attached to it,
just say it when you ask Siri. So for example, you might say “remind me to pick up milk
when I leave home tomorrow morning”, and again, Siri will understand all of the context
of what you’re saying. If Siri knows where you work, the same context would work for
that as well.
You could say something like “remind me to change my toothbrush head on the first
of each month”, and this will not only setup a reminder, but a recurring reminder on whatever
frequency you’ve selected. This is obviously really helpful if you’ve got something that
happens regularly, and you want to ensure you don’t forget to do it.
Of course, it’s not just long-term reminders that you can use the app for. Let’s say
that Tina calls you, but you can’t talk at that moment, and you promise to call her
back in half an hour. Why take the risk of forgetting? Just say “remind me to call
Tina back in half an hour”, and let your device keep a track of it for you.
And of course, because this is Siri, you can set reminders from all your devices, including
your Watch, your HomePod or even CarPlay. So if you’re driving, and you suddenly remember
that you need to put a wash on when you get home, you can use Siri to remind you of just
that.
So, all pretty powerful stuff, but there’s more. Reminders has functionality within other
apps too. So if you’re browsing on safari, and you want to be reminded of something related
to the page you’re on, go to the share menu and make a reminder about it. The same works
in maps, which can be really helpful if you’re planning a trip, and perhaps want a reminder
to research further.
So, there you go, a deep-dive into Apple Reminders. As you can hopefully see, it’s a super powerful
app, and I think covers the functionality that most of us need when using a Reminders
app. What do you think? Do you like Apple Reminders? Or do you not use it? Drop me a
comment and let me know.
Oh, and if you liked this video, do check out my similar video where I take a deep dive
into Apple Notes. I’ll include a link to it in the description of this video.
But, as ever, if you found this video helpful, do please consider leaving me a like, and
subscribing to my channel for more content like this in the future.
See you on the next video.