Organizational Smackdown: Quick Reminders
Something essential to getting organized, for me, is the quick reminder. It's an email, IM, or text message that comes at a particular time. Given my not-so-perfect memory this has been an absolute godsend to have around with Backpack. I've used Backpack's built-in reminders every now and then but generally forget about them.
So I signed up for I Want Sandy earlier this week and started trying that, and really liked it. The reason is clear: it understands plain English. As a bonus (a hindrance to some), it works primarily over email. For example I just sent Sandy an email: "Remind me to take my backpack tomorrow at 8am." I get a confirmation email back, done. That's it.
I also signed up for Remember the Milk, which I'm planning to use as my to-do list system (more on that in a later post.) It too has reminders available: anything with a due date can be set as a reminder. "Great," I thought, "Let's see how it works with email."
The answer? Logical from a programmer's perspective but mildly frustrating from a user's. It's in English, sure, but obviously there's not a lot of super-smart parsing going on here. This is my first big disappointment with RTM and is a place where Sandy shines.
It's funny: three days ago I didn't care about setting reminders over email; now I feel like it's essential. That's part of the reason Backpack's reminders have fallen out of favor with me - they can only be set on the web. Eh.
Even though I don't want to have an "island" of data out there, it feels like Sandy is the winner. The super duper added bonus is that thanks to QuickSilver, I essentially have a command line reminder system!
Of course this isn't "integrated" with QuickSilver; I just set Sandy up as a contact in Address Book and QS took care of the rest. Nice and simple. Love it.
I may need to evaluate Sandy for other tasks (somewhat in place of Remember the Milk) but for now, it's the winner for quick reminders.
