5 Unique Ways I Use Apple Reminders & What Needs To Improve
Apple Reminders despite being a simple go-to reminders app for many lacks in many ways. Does simplicity really take a toll on utility? Let’s find out…
Apple Reminders is one of the many stock apps that sits on your home screen when you set up your new iPhone or iPad. You may explore the App Store for more options such as Things3 or ToDo but there is always a time or scenario where you just fall back on the stock app for the sake of its simplicity and convenience.
I call this the stock-app syndrome. We all experience it with some or the other first-party app. For me, it started with Apple Notes, a few weeks ago:
But recently, the Reminders app has caught me in the trap of stock-app syndrome. While I love using Reminders, I still can’t digest how primitive the app is at first sight.
👉INDEX👈
1. Apple's focus on Simplicity
2. How I Use It
3. When to use Calendars and when to use Reminders?
4. What I want from Reminders
5. ConclusionJust a quick detour… if you like such kind of tech stories, consider signing up for my email newsletter. It’s 100% FREE and will remain for all my lovely audience.
🙂 Apple’s focus on Simplicity
At the core, it all comes down to this. Apple’s focus on simplicity is paramount for them as well as their users. They try their best to keep things simple so that anyone and everyone can use their app or service. This was my beef while using the Notes app too.
But over time, I have come to respect this notion of simplicity because I realized Apple cares for their nerdy users just as much as their newbie ones by hiding some advanced features under some miscellaneous menu or keyboard shortcut.
Which is why I am here to talk about it. I want to share how I uniquely use Reminders — as in baring the normal checklist convention. Then I shall rant about what is still missing in Reminders and how it should improve.
☑️ How I Use It
Below, I have tried to summarise the way I use Reminders in different and unique ways. I have sparred the normal checklist convention way of using Reminders.
1. Reading List 📖
With iOS 17, Reminders got a much-needed update — Kenboard Style or Column Style. This makes it look more like the Trello app or like the Kenboard format for tables in Notion.
I utilize it for tracking my reading progress. I have used twelve columns, one for each month of the year, and use it to track the books I read every month. There is no deadline set for any book. If I feel I can’t complete reading a book this month, I move it to the next month by simply dragging and dropping.
2. Upcoming Books List 📚
By now you must have realized I am an avid book reader, which is why I also track the upcoming books from my favorite authors.
Once again, I use column-list/kenboard style to track upcoming books by different genres. Here I use the deadline as the day when the book was released and once again mention the author’s name in the notes.
3. Shopping List 🛒
Another new feature with iOS 17 for Reminders is a customized Shopping List template when you create a new list. This has been an amazing update as it classifies every new shopping list item under a new section. You can then view these sections as just a list or as columns as we saw before.
Since you can set a location-based reminder too you can set different locations of stores for each reminder item in your shopping list.
4. Shortcut for App Subscription Renewal 📋
This is something I want Apple to work on. There is a huge list of app subscriptions I have. Currently, there is no method for setting up a monthly reminder for when the subscription needs to be renewed or canceled. The easiest way I figured out was to use a Shortcut that asks you what the reminder is about and the deadline.
I customized this shortcut to ask about the subscription and then ask for the renewal or cancellation date. This works wonders as I don’t have to remember every time a subscription charges me and deducts credit from my App Store account.
5. Luggage Checker 🧳
When I am out for a trip, the last thing I want is missing luggage. So the first thing I do is keep track of all the bags either with name or with a photo and then set a location reminder for when I arrive at the destination.
Though I try my best to use Reminders uniquely so that it becomes a progress tracker too rather than just a reminder app, at the end of the day, I always end up having some checklist items that need to be checked at a certain time. And this is where the confusion begins — when to use reminders and when to use calendars.
🗓️✔︎ When to use Calendars and when to use Reminders?
Though Apple centres its apps and services around simplicity, its whole system of Reminders, Notes, and Calendars sans any integration, is maddeningly confusing. So much so that I doubt how Apple has made it so far without doing something about them.
When time-blocking is required, Calendar is a better choice. If you have an online meeting to attend, it’s much easier to keep a record on Calendars and quickly open the required conference app for the meeting. However, if there an pre-requirements that need to be taken care of for an upcoming meeting or event, Reminders are to be used.
What these two apps lack is a better integration so that you are reminded of a Calendar event as well as its pre-requirement on Reminders consequently without needing to go to both apps individually.
But the list of what I expect from Apple for the Reminders app is a bit longer. Let’s cover that in our next section.
Just a quick detour… if you like such kind of tech stories, consider signing up for my email newsletter. It’s 100% FREE and will remain for all my lovely audience.
🤔 What I want from Reminders
- Smart Reminders: Remember how Mail and Messages offer you the ability to save an event in Calendars when it sees a certain time or date mentioned? That is what I expect from Reminders too — the ability to read what’s on the screen and create reminders accordingly.
The best use case for it would be for App Subscriptions Renewal which I mentioned above. All the subscription renewals and cancellations for your Apple ID could come up as reminders under a separate list just like the Shopping List.
- Auto-scheduling: I hate it when I miss some reminder because it pops up just once. Though Reminders does offer the ability to reschedule a reminder after some time if you miss the deadline, I would love for it to have some auto-scheduling or auto-rescheduling that can understand the best possible time to remind you about a certain task if remains unchecked.
- Integration with Notes and Calendars: We discussed this in the previous section. A deeper integration with Notes and Calendars would simplify the user experience a lot more. Users would be able to create a Calendar event list out its pre-requirements as reminders and take notes all at the same time without switching between three different apps and linking them in some way.
- More Shortcuts and Automation: If you go to the Shortcuts Gallery within the Shortcuts app, you will realize there is only a single Reminders shortcut — the one mentioned for app subscription renewal is s customized version of.
I would expect a bit more shortcuts for Reminders in the next update. Probably even some automation to make things even simpler and remind you of certain tasks at a specific time — like say, create a reminder for cleaning your headphones every time you disconnect them.
These are some things from the top of my head but I am sure I can think of more as I use the Reminders app more and more.
✌️Conclusion
Reminders is a great newbie app for creating and sticking to reminders. It even extends as a progress tracker if you have the knack for creating different templates. However, it lacks just as much. Despite having a great suite of apps like Calendars and Notes, the lack of integration between these apps comes off as a huge disappointment. Some other drawbacks revolve around the lack of smart reminders and automation abilities.
I hope Apple works on these and offers us a great experience with the upcoming update. With a rumoured focus on AI, iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 launch during WWDC’24 seems very likely for an update that pulls the plug on all these issues and drawbacks.
What are your expectations from iOS 18 and the Reminders app? Do you use Reminders daily? Drop your thoughts in the comments below and find out some great ways to use Reminders.
Just a quick detour… if you like such kind of tech stories, consider signing up for my email newsletter. It’s 100% FREE and will remain for all my lovely audience.
If you enjoyed this story and would love to see more of such in-depth stories on tech, do consider subscribing to my free newsletter, down below:
