Errands. Work. Kids. Partners. Activities. Birthdays. Vacations. Deadlines. Bills. How are we possibly supposed to remember all of these things?

Our brains simply aren’t adapted to take care of all of these tasks. Sure, we can do it… but it’s taking a huge toll. Stress and anxiety have never been higher for a majority of the population.

Thankfully, humans are pretty dang good at creating tools to help ourselves get along faster and smarter. Enter the smartphone, which, shockingly, can be used for more than Instagram.

Let’s talk about how we can use a simple app to help us free our minds of all the hectic, overwhelming tasks we are confronted with every day. This is the best way to put your life on autopilot, discover more free time, and make sure you’re still getting everything done.

IPHONE REMINDERS

iPhone reminders is an app that many people have decided not to use at all. It seems like it conflicts with other scheduling and task apps such as Google Calendar or Notes (here’s a link to the coolest possible way to use your Notes app for total life management too).

But Reminders comes with a few unique features that makes it perfect for the system we’ve outlined below. A few of them include:

Date and time – Instead of just a checklist that can easily be forgotten, you can set your reminders to appear exactly when you need them.

Notifications – Just like with most apps, you have a few notification settings available. You can make Reminders so annoying you won’t be able to forget them: noises, badges, permanent banners, and more.

Siri – You can simply ask Siri to “Remind me to do *task* at *date and time*.” And it will automatically be added to your reminders.

Organization – Use the colored labeling system to seperate your reminders into different parts of your life.

Locations – By letting Reminders know certain locations like your home, work, or local grocery store, your reminders can pop up whenever you reach that area.

Recurring – You may need to be reminded of certain things once a week or once a month. You can make recurring reminders that get checked off and reappear during the next deadline.

Priority – You can also assign a priority to each reminder, from ! to !!!. Now, this might be a useful feature to you, but sometimes this makes you feel like you can just ignore the lower priority items. Beware.

WHEN TO USE REMINDERS

The simple answer? Constantly. Every single time something “comes across your desk” that you need to remember, you should simply tell Siri what and when, and then you can forget about it.

No more going through a mental checklist three times a day, trying to remember what your shouted at you to pick up while you were driving away, or what time and day you needed to be available for trivia night. Examples include:

+ Grocery lists
+ Meetings
+ Phone calls
+ Errands
+ Upcoming events
+ Chores

But what might be even more valuable than just sporadic reminders is setting up a consistent schedule to automate all those tasks you need to remember each and every week. Here’s the best one in the world to get your started. Call up Siri right now and say,

“Remind me to take out the garbage every week on *day and time*.”

Done. For the rest of your life, no more waking up to the sound of the garbage truck and running down the driveway in your way-too-revealing bathrobe.

Other recurring reminders you could set up include:

+ Weekly check ins with family or friends
+ Daily reminders to get up and stretch
+ Birthday reminders for those close to you
+ Monthly medication refills
+ Daily medication reminders
+ Feeding pets when arriving at home
+ Checking your schedule when you get to work

MOVING FORWARD

By now, your reminder setup should be looking pretty powerful. Make sure you complete each task as soon as you get the notification, or else you run the risk of forgetting about it even after you’ve done all this organizational work!

Leave a field report below: what are some other reminders you could share to make our lives easier?

Or, how about strengthening that mental health?