Remember the Milk

It's been a few weeks since I did a technology review of something cool that makes my life easier. I have been meaning to write about my to-do list for some time now but just haven't gotten to it. Remember the Milk is an awesome to-do list that manages what projects and tasks that you have coming up. I have been using it for about six months and have just recently discovered some more of it's awesomeness that has led me to use it even more.

I don't do well with to-do lists that are written and I always lose them and in the end it just never works out. Enter Remember the Milk to the rescue. The basic flow of entering a task and setting due dates and times is pretty straight forward. On top of the basic setup, there is tons you can do.To start off, I created a "Honey Do" list that is basically the things that my wife asks me to do (obviously everything on this list has top priority). Once I have my list created, all I have to do is start adding tasks and setting dates for when they're due. If it is something that I need to do many times, then I can set the recurring date to basically anything I want.



Adding tasks and setting a date and recurring date.

One of the biggest problems that I was having with this site is that I was never checking it. I would create tasks, but would never stop by to see what was due and when. Then I stumbled across one of the best features that I have found - the reminder. You can of course set up a standard e-mail reminder, but that is no fun and I don't need any more e-mails than I get. Instead, you can set it up to IM you on basically any or every IM platform. With my recent discovery of Digsby, I could choose basically any of the messaging systems that I wanted. You can see the different options that are found under the "Settings" for reminders and can set up as many of them as you want. After setting up mine for Skype (and modifying the due dates so I could show the notifications), here is what I got in Skype:
And if you're a Google freak like me, you can add your tasks to your Google Calendar where they will be shown on the days they are due and you can add new tasks and everything else you want. In other words, an extrememly powerful to do list integrated into your Google Calendar. You can also add it to several other Google services as well.
So if you need a way to keep track of all your tasks that you do on a day to day basis or if you just need a way to remember all those things that your spouse asks you to do. Check out Remember the Milk.

Comments

tysqui said...

I tried using RTM when I started here at Spectrum, but it just seemed to be too cumbersome. I'm all about the to-do list, but I find that I can't tear myself away from the paper and pencil variety (that I can keep in my back pocket). I'll have to try it with the IM reminders, that may help. I think it would be more beneficial to me if I had a pda or phone with internet access.

JC's picture

JC said...

You can set up a mobile reminder as well (SMS). However, you can't mark the task as completed using SMS. All the same, that might be one option.

Bradwich said...

I've got an account with RTM, but haven't used it much. I end up just using paper and pen on a 3x5 card, or GCal to keep track of all of my homework assignments and such each semester. It seems like a great service for people (like you) who figure out how to best make it part of their workflow.

JC's picture

JC said...

The other thing that really helps is that I am behind a computer almost all day every day so I can easily access it.