Step 1: Complete Brain Dump! “Write Down” everything you need to remember!
This is the essential starting point! Take 10-20 minutes to write down everything that’s lingering in your mind, things you want to do but haven’t, things that are about to expire.
💡 How to write? You can use your phone’s built-in notes, to-do apps, or the most basic paper and pen. The key is to not miss anything! From work to life, from important meetings to picking up express deliveries downstairs, even including things like “go to bed early tonight” or “remember to put on a face mask” – if you think you might forget it, write it down! Write! Write! Write!
💡 The purpose of this step: Turn your brain into a list, visualizing those chaotic thoughts. You’ll be amazed at how much trivial stuff you have to remember!
Step 2: Find Your “Reminder Hub”! Choose a tool that works for YOU!
There are so many apps out there, feeling overwhelmed by choices? Don’t worry! Finding the one that suits you best is enough!
- Native Phone Apps (iPhone Reminders/Calendar, Android built-in Notes/To-Do): Most convenient, fast sync, seamless system integration. Suitable for daily use by most people.
- Professional To-Do Apps (Todoist, TickTick, Microsoft To Do, etc.): Powerful features, supports project management, habit tracking, multi-platform sync. Suitable for people with many work/study tasks or those who like detailed management.
- Calendar Apps (Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, etc.): Suitable for managing events, meetings, and appointments with specific time points. Can be used in conjunction with reminder apps.
- Note-Taking Apps (Notion, Evernote, etc.): If your tasks are strongly linked to your notes, you can also set reminders within them.
- Most Primitive but Effective (Sticky notes, Whiteboards): Suitable for places you can see them constantly, like next to your computer or on the fridge. It’s super convenient for certain specific short-term tasks!
💡 My advice: Start with your phone’s built-in apps! They are simple to use and can meet 80% of your needs. Centralize most of your reminders in one tool to avoid information silos. Personally, I highly recommend using a combination of “Reminder/To-Do App” + “Calendar App” ! The former handles scattered tasks, the latter handles fixed events.
Step 3: Setting Reminders: Be Specific, Set Early!
This step is crucial for deciding if your reminder will be useful!
- Specificity is King: Never just write “Meeting,” “Submit Report”! Please write “[Important] Sales Department Meeting Friday 3 PM, bring Q3 report hard copy,” “Submit this month’s social media data analysis report to boss’s email before 10 AM next Tuesday.” Include time, place, people, specific content, or even the purpose! This way, when the reminder pops up, you immediately know what needs to be done!
- The Importance of Lead Time: Setting reminders is not to scare you at the last second! Please leave enough buffered time!
- Submitting a report: Set it 1-2 days before the deadline.
- Important meeting: Set it 15-30 minutes before it starts.
- Paying bills: Set it 3-5 days before the due date, you can even set one right after you get paid!
- Friend’s birthday: Set it the day before to remind you to prepare a gift or message.
- Bringing something when leaving home: Set it half an hour before you leave or when you leave a certain area (using location reminders!)
Step 4: Master “Recurring Reminders” and “Location Reminders”! Automate Your Life!
These two functions are incredibly powerful!
- Recurring Reminder: For things you need to do weekly, monthly, or yearly, set it once and save yourself the trouble forever!
- Submit weekly work report every Friday afternoon!
- Call elderly parents on the 15th of every month!
- Get a health check/dental cleaning every three months!
- Wedding anniversary every year!
- Location-Based Reminder: This is magical! Triggers a reminder when you arrive at or leave a certain location!
- “When I arrive at the office, remind me to clock in!”
- “When I leave home, remind me to bring my keys/lunch!”
- “When I pass by the supermarket, remind me to buy milk and eggs!”
- “When I arrive at my parents’ house, remind me to ask how they’re doing!”
It helps you turn those things you “only remember when you get there” into things you “get reminded of as soon as you arrive”! 👍🏻
Step 5: Develop the Habit of “Acting on or Rescheduling” a Reminder When It Pops Up!
After the reminder pops up, the next step is crucial!
- If you can handle it immediately: Do it immediately! Like picking up a delivery, sending a message, replying to an email. Solve it instantly!
- If you cannot handle it immediately: Absolutely DO NOT just swipe it away! Immediately reschedule the reminder, setting it for a time when you are certain you can handle it! For example, if you’re in a meeting and get a reminder to make a phone call, immediately postpone the reminder to after the meeting.
- Let reminders be your action signals: View reminders as a “gentle nudge” to take action, not just a pop-up that can be dismissed casually.
Step 6: Regularly Review and Optimize Your Reminder System!
It’s not enough to just set them and forget about the system itself!
- Weekly or Monthly: Spend 10 minutes looking over your important reminders for the coming week/month to ensure nothing is missing and the timings are reasonable.
- Clean Up Useless Reminders: Promptly remove tasks that are outdated or no longer needed. Keep your reminder list clean and efficient.
- Adjust Your Strategy: Which reminders do you always ignore? Is the setting not specific enough? Is the timing unreasonable? Constantly adjust your reminder strategy based on your actual usage.
My Personal “Life-Saving” Experience and Review:
Honestly, when I first started using reminders, I didn’t think it was that amazing. Just seemed like a small tool. But when I truly started systematically and strategically outsourcing all the things I needed and wanted to remember to the “reminder” function… Oh my god! My life felt like it got an upgrade!
I never miss a friend’s birthday anymore; I get a reminder the day before and have plenty of time to prepare greetings or even a small gift.
I never get charged late fees for credit card bills anymore (don’t ask me how I know! It’s tearful history!). Now I set two reminders a month, one after getting paid, and one three days before
the due date – double protection!
I never find out I forgot my access card only when I’m leaving home, because the location reminder accurately goes off when I “leave home.”
My brain truly feels “liberated”! Before, there were always a bunch of trivial things circling in my mind, afraid of forgetting this and that, unconsciously consuming huge amounts of energy and carrying a sense of underlying anxiety. Now, these things are handled by reminders, and my brain is like a clean desk, allowing me to focus wholeheartedly on my current work or enjoy the present moment.
This feeling is amazing! It’s not about turning into a super-efficient machine by using reminders, but about automating the most error-prone part – “memory” – thereby freeing up your energy, reducing mistakes, and enhancing your sense of control over life.
Sisters, seriously, if you’re also a forgetful person, or always feel like your life is in chaos, try turning “setting reminders” into one of your core habits! Start today by setting a reminder for the first thing that’s hanging in your mind! You’ll find that this trick, seemingly simple, is a universal key to instantly solving forgetfulness, boosting life efficiency, and enhancing happiness! 🔑
Trust me, once you get used to emptying your brain’s “RAM” and handing over the tedious memory work to reminders, you’ll be like me, shouting: “OMG! Who invented the reminder function?! I can’t live without it after using it!”
Go try it! Your new “never forget” life starts with setting the first specific, early, and unforgettable reminder! ✨