macOS: Setting Up Custom Reminders

Delete all reminders in a list

One of the features of the Reminders app that I use most frequently is customized repeating events. With this I can, for example, set a reminder for myself that repeats on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Or configure one that pops up on the first weekend day of every month, whenever that happens to fall. Come check this out with me! Maybe you can become as organized as I am.

That’s obviously a self-deprecating joke. Did I need to point that out? I really hope you guys know me better than that by now.

Anyway, you can do this on either macOS or iOS, but I’m going to be covering how to do it on the Mac (the steps are very similar, though). To get started, you’ll open the Reminders app and click on a blank line to type in the title of your item. Hover your cursor over your new reminder afterward, and you should see a small “i.” Click there…

The Info icon next to Reminders tasks lets you set custom schedules

…and you’ll see the options for how you’ll be reminded. To set up a custom repeat, select “On a Day,” and then click next to the “Repeat” section.

Use the Repeat option in Reminders to set your custom schedule

When you do that, the drop-down menu will offer you a “Custom” choice.

Custom Repeats opens the view to create your schedule for Reminders tasks

Under “Custom” is where the magic happens. This is how you’ll set a frequency for your repeated reminder—daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly. Every frequency type has its own options; for example, “weekly” will let you pick multiple days of the week on which to get your notifications.

This is a Weekly Repeat schedule that puts a Reminders task on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday

You can do the same thing with “Monthly”; choose many specific days for reminders…

Reminders tasks can be set to repeat on specific days every month in Monthly Options

…or use the drop-down menus at the bottom to get reminded on, say, the first weekend day of every month.

Monthly Reminders schedules can be more general like First Weekend Day Reminder

Spend some time going through all of your choices! There’s a ton of ways to use this. But once you’re satisfied, click the “OK” button, and Reminders will put what you selected into plain text so you can be sure things are set up correctly.

Completed custom Reminders schedule shown in easy to read words like Repeats Every Week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday

Then you can just click “Done” and move on with your life. In my case, now I know I’ll at least eat three vegetables a week! Whoo! My mom would be so proud.

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