The Reminder Trick

Published on March 1, 2016 (↻ February 5, 2024), filed under Everything Else (RSS feed for all categories).

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 to think 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 a frontend engineering leader and tech author/publisher. I’ve worked as a technical lead for companies like Google and as an engineering manager for companies like Miro, I’m close to W3C and WHATWG, and I write and review books for O’Reilly and Frontend Dogma.

I love trying things, not only in web development (and engineering management), but also in other areas like philosophy. Here on meiert.com I share some of my views and experiences.

If you’d like to do me a favor, interpret charitably (I speak three languages, and they do collide), yet be critical and give feedback for me to fix issues, learn, and improve. Thank you!