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Are you overwhelmed? Between work and home, it’s easy to drown in a sea of to-do’s and honey-do’s. Unfortunately, those mental reminders, sticky notes, voice mails, emails, planners and inked hands can cause serious repercussions. Worry is often a catalyst for anxiety, depression, poor nutrition, decreased physical activity and sleep deprivation, all of which can lead to serious physical ailments.
So, now that you’re worrying about worry, how can you fix it? Organize your life. Make that to-do list work for you, so you’re in charge of your time and energy not the unfinished business in your day. Many will find a unique method that works perfectly (or imperfectly) for you, but there’s one web site that’s hoping to be your first stop in organizing your organizational strategy.
What is Remember the Milk?
Remember the Milk, an online to-do list and task management application, makes it simple to organize your to-do’s, establish reminders and share your tasks with others. A small team of three from Australia developed the task management solution with a love for getting things done and stuffed monkeys. Remember the Milk (RTM) has since grown to be a powerhouse tool for anyone trying to simply their life. It integrates with major web services and offers intuitive customization that’s perfect for even the busiest control freak.
Creating Your To-Do Lists and Tasks
When you first login you see your weekly planner with a snapshot of today, tomorrow and overdue tasks. If you prefer not to see this view you can choose to “always skip this page.” As you continue onto the Tasks section there are three default “lists” that you can edit, delete or add to as needed. You can manage those lists under Settings > Lists.
The Tasks area of the app is where you create a new task, assign due dates, priority, repetition, time estimates, tags, locations, URLs, shared contacts or publish. The UI gets a little confusing while you’re creating tasks and editing, but once you’ve setup your account you can add tasks from your email or phone, making the app extremely versatile and a true competitor to sticky notes.
Other sections that are important for task creation, but aren’t essential are Locations and Contacts. Under the Locations area you can add specific addresses using Google Maps that you then assign tasks to. If you’re visiting a specific location on a certain day, RTM will display tasks nearby that you might be able to accomplish as well. For example, if you have to “pick up laundry on 2nd and Main,” RTM will let you know that your other task, “buy stamps at post office on 4th and main” is just two blocks away. Under Contacts you can add specific contacts, create groups and invite others to use the app. This is the only section that would be 10x more useful if you could easily import your contacts from Gmail, Basecamp or another contact management provider.
Setting Up Your To-Do List Reminders
Under Settings > Reminders you can specify that Remember the Milk send you a reminder on a particular day or time for all tasks. For example, “send me a reminder two days in advance at 8am for all tasks.” You can also create reminders just for tasks that you’ve assigned a due date to. Most importantly, RTM lets you determine how you want to be reminded of your tasks. You can choose to send reminders to specific email addresses, AIM, GaduGadu, GoogleTalk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, Skype, Yahoo or your mobile phone. You can also use MilkSync to sync RTM with Blackberry or Windows Mobile, which requires that you upgrade to pro.
If you prefer a less intrusive method for notification of your to-do’s, grab the lists via iCalendar, Google Calendar or subscribe with your unique Atom Feed. If you’re still addicted to holding your to-do’s in hand and jotting down notes, you can print your full to-do list or the weekly planner and take it with you.
Using Remember The Milk with Other Web Services
It’s one thing to create your to-do list, manage contacts and get reminded of your tasks, but Remember the Milk truly shines with its ability to integrate with other web services. They don’t assume how you want to work, instead they leave the option up to you.
- Want to work offline? Remember the Milk integrates with Google Gears.
- Need a simpler way to add tasks online? Setup Quick Add and easily add tasks from your web browser (support for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera).
- Need a solution for your iPhone or iPod Touch? Pro accounts can use RTM with both.
- Addicted to Twitter? Add new tasks and receive reminders.
- Is iGoogle your homepage? Grab the Remember the Milk Google Gadget.
- Need something for Netvibes? You can manage and search for tasks with the RTM module.
Remember the Milk separates itself from other task management applications with their API, which has been used to the best of its ability and produced some terrific features:
- Display your tasks on Mac OS X with a dashboard widget
- Create new tasks with a voice message using Jott
- Use the Deskbar Module for GNOME
- Grab the Quicklsilver plug-in
- More third party features
Tips for Making the Most of RTM
- Familiarize yourself with their giant list of keyboard shortcuts, which makes list, contact and location management even faster.
- Use Remember The Milk for simple time tracking, for every task you can assign a time estimate and see how many hours are really available in your day.
- Create Smart Lists that automatically update as your tasks change.
- If you’re more visual, sort your tasks by tags rather than lists.
photo credit: knitsteel
