Like an Elephant, Reminders Never Forgets

Dr. Mac’s Rants & Raves
Episode # 267

I remember my father saying, “the older you get, the more you forget,” when he forgot about something. He sometimes used a little calendar/notebook, but he often forgot to use it.

I’m no spring chicken. I’ve been doing what I do for the better part of three decades. I’m sad to say dad was probably right. As the years have passed, I’ve learned to use my Apple technology to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

Why Reminders Rocks…

There are several reasons the Reminders app on macOS, iOS, and watchOS is the near-perfect assistant to my ever more forgetful wetware. The biggest one is that it’s completely pervasive. Whenever I need to remember something, Reminders is a click (or tap) away, on my Mac, iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch, one of which is always close at hand (especially the watch).

And it’s not just that Reminders is available on multiple devices, it also synchronizes among those devices. So, no matter which device I pick up, it’s got all of my latest reminders, regardless of which device I used to create them.

But wait! There’s much more!

More Slick Reminders Tricks

In addition to being ubiquitous, the Reminders app has several additional slick tricks up its sleeve. For example, it offers options to:

• Remind you on a specific day and time.
• Repeat a reminder every day, week, month, or year.
• Remind you when you arrive at (or are close by) any location such as your home or office (requires a device with Internet access).
• Assign priorities (Low, Medium, High, or None) to reminders.
• Attach notes of any length to reminders.

And Siri Makes Reminders Even Better

And, if that’s not enough, Reminders and Siri go together better than peanut butter and jelly. I rarely type a reminder. Instead, I just ask Siri.

Here are just a few of the things I say to add a reminder to my default list in Reminders:

• Remind me to call Bryan when I get home.
• Remind me to call my sister when I get home.

Siri confirms that I want to call my sister (mobile) when I get home.

• Remind me to see if the huge check from _redacted_ has cleared tomorrow morning at 9.
• Remind me to pick up wood glue and 400 grit sandpaper at Home Depot.
• Remind me to get milk and eggs at HEB.

The beautiful part is that I rarely have to type a word in order to remember something. If I can say it, Siri will add it to Reminders.

Now, here’s something really cool: I’ve been testing a new Series 3 Apple Watch, which has its own cellular radio, so it works beautifully with both Siri and Reminders, even if my iPhone is elsewhere! So, now I can leave my iPhone behind to walk the dog or go for a jog (ha!); I merely summon Siri on my Apple Watch to create (and sync) reminders, regardless of whether my iPhone is nearby.

That’s so cool!