The Reminder Trick

Published on Mar 1, 2016 (updated Feb 5, 2024), filed under misc. (Share this post, e.g., on Mastodon.)

This is one of 180 articles that you can also read in an ebook: On Web Development II.

This tool is so powerful and at the same time so trivial to make a routine that I ask everyone who regularly employs it to transcend their disappointment—I’m mentioning it for the people I meet who don’t use it.

Use reminders.

Use reminders not just for meetings and events and, though discouraged by some, tasks, but also for important facts and insights and affirmations.

Use reminders to remind yourself of what you have learned.

Use recurring reminders to keep really important lessons in mind.

Use reminders.

Though any web-based calendar should do, and even if Google had put it on life support, I recommend using Google Calendar. Then, I suggest thinking about a simple syntax for recurring reminders like, for example, “[monthly] Review personal goals”, alongside a notation for everything optional (parentheses?), as with “[2weekly] (Trust your impulses)”. (You’ll like the allusions.)

I use reminders this way for years and believe they’re way too helpful not to be used extensively. That’s all.

About Me

I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m an engineering lead, guerrilla philosopher, and indie publisher. I’ve worked as a technical lead and engineering manager at various companies (e.g., Google); I’m an active web and tool developer (code optimization, digital defense), a contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and a book author (O’Reilly, Frontend Dogma).

I love trying things—in web development and engineering management, but also in politics and philosophy, where I hold to one idea in particular: that we can only be well if we take good care of everyone. Here on meiert.com I talk about some of my perspectives and experiences. (Please share feedback: Interpret charitably, keep it friendly, but do be critical.)