January 28, 2022
I recently passed a weighty milestone: 2,000 tasks in Appleās default Reminders app checked off! It goes back about 2Ā½ years, which comes out to a little over two reminders each day.
Why so many?
Iāve written before about how I believe that my memory is worse than the average humanās. Reminders is my way of combatting that.
If I have a thought on the way to class, like āI should get my Covid test after this class!ā, there is a near-100% chance that I wonāt remember that in the right moment when class is over.
So instead I pull out my phone, hold the power button, and tell Siri to set a reminder. Never the app, always Siri ā fiddling with the actual date picker is too much work and Iām lazy.
And when the time comes, a wonderful notification pops up on my phone and watch, and I remember to do the thing. I never check it off before I do it, but Iām very strict about checking them off once I do it (I canāt stand the stale reminders sitting on my lock screen).
Thereās something that feels very solid about Reminders. Iām someone whoās always jumped from one to-do list app to the next, so the idea of setting a reminder for months from now in a specific to-do list app is scary. But Reminders will always be with me āĀ it has been for 2Ā½ years. So I feel comfortable offloading reminders for far in the future into the app.
I think thereās also a bit of a danger here. My dad told me once that heās never liked to-do lists, because they make him feel like a taskrabbit whoās just checking off to-do items mindlessly. Thatās no way to live, he told me.
But I somehow donāt have this feeling. I feel like Reminders is like an external memory, helping me to do things that I already wouldāve wanted to do on my own. And in any case, my life would most definitely fall apart without it.