Join the team: Community Manager (Japanese language)
Friday, February 5, 2010 by Omar Kilani
Despite our best efforts, we just haven't been able to get Bob fluent in Japanese (who would have thought that teaching a foreign language to a stuffed monkey would be so difficult?!).
While that's bad news for Bob, it might be good news for you! We now have a part-time position available for a Community Manager (Japanese language) on the Remember The Milk team.
Do you love communicating online and practically live on Twitter? Are you passionate about helping other users get the most out of Remember The Milk? Oh, and do you speak Japanese too?
If this sounds like you, and you'd like to join us in our quest to make the world more organized and productive, head on over to the jobs page and get in touch!
Remember The Milk Mobile Survey 2010: Help Bob Decide!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 by Emily Boyd
We've put Bob T. Monkey in charge of mobile development for 2010 (we figured he deserved the responsibility). Bob's pumped up and looking forward to bringing you more mobile goodness this year.
The problem is, with so many different mobile devices clamouring for some Remember The Milk love, Bob can't decide what to work on next! Should he focus his energy on improvements to one of our existing mobile apps? Create an app for an entirely new device? Develop a native app for a device that we currently only sync with? Enhance our mobile version? The possibilities are endless! (Well, pretty close to it.)
These are important questions because, no matter how many bananas we feed him, Bob can't do everything. :( So, Bob needs your input to help him prioritize development: take the mobile survey and tell Bob what you'd like to see!
Tips & Tricks Tuesday: A better "Upcoming" list
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 by Emily Boyd
This week's Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner, RTM user davidscottweaver, explains how he came up with an incredibly useful "Upcoming" Smart List using the advanced search options:
Since I only like to see tasks in my main lists (@Home, @Work, and @Car) that are due, overdue, or have no due date, I created a Smart List set aside just for upcoming tasks. The list only includes specific tasks I believe are worthy of a lead time, and provides a "gentle reminder" of something, well, upcoming. That way the list is always relevant and stays uncluttered. The lead time tags I use are: 3d, 1w, 2w, 3w, 1m. The code behind the Upcoming list looks like this:
(tag:3d AND dueWithin:"4 days of tomorrow" NOT dueBefore:tomorrow) OR (tag:1w AND dueBefore:"1 week of tomorrow" NOT dueBefore:tomorrow) OR (tag:2w AND dueWithin:"2 weeks of tomorrow" NOT dueBefore:tomorrow) OR (tag:3w AND dueWithin:"3 weeks of tomorrow" NOT dueBefore:tomorrow) OR (tag:1m AND dueWithin:"1 month of tomorrow" NOT dueBefore:tomorrow) OR (tag:2m AND dueWithin:"2 months of tomorrow" NOT dueBefore:tomorrow)
By putting "NOT dueBefore:tomorrow" in the code, a task drops off this "Upcoming" list when it's actually due and ends up on my other "main" lists. The lead tags can be changed to suit your needs, but I find those times sufficient. For example, if I need to buy a gift for someone who is hard to shop for, I normally put a 1m tag on it. Where if it's someone who's easy to shop for, a 2w tag is sufficient lead. The 3d tag isn't used too often, but nice if I'd like a gentle reminder for tasks repeating every couple weeks or so. For paying bills, I usually have the due date set to the actual due date of the bill, but the lead tag set to correspond to the date the bill is "available for payment" (usually 3 weeks prior, but not always) so I could pay it early if I want to. The list should be sorted by date.
Lastly, I have a repeating task to check my Upcoming list (repeats after 1 week). I usually check the list anyway whenever I'm on the site, but if I have a task there, I won't go more than a week in case I forget. Hopefully you find this system helpful to you as well.
Thanks for sharing this tip, davidscottweaver!
Do you have a suggestion for our weekly Tips & Tricks post? Got an interesting set-up or idea? Head over to the Tips & Tricks forum and add a new thread and let us know how you use RTM. Each week we'll give away a 1 year Pro account to the user whose idea inspires the Tips & Tricks Tuesday blog post for that week.
Bob T. Monkey explores "The Infinity of Lists" at the Louvre
Wednesday, January 27, 2010 by Emily Boyd
What exactly does a list-loving stuffed monkey do on his vacation? If you thought he'd be kicking back at the beach in his Sydney hometown, you'd be wrong! Bob hopped on a plane to Paris (you have no idea of the trouble we had in getting him a passport) to check out Umberto Eco's "Mille e tre" exhibition at the Louvre.
The exhibition "traces the evolution of the concept of a list through history and examines how its meaning changes with the passage of time". While Bob had a little trouble understanding the captions on the exhibits (he speaks excellent JavaScript, but his French isn't so great), he thoroughly enjoyed checking out lists of all kinds.
Bob's favourite examples of lists were the hieroglyphics from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamian tablets, and the menu of Tepemankh. While at the Louvre, Bob also relished the chance to see the Mona Lisa and, ever on the lookout for cows, was amazed to discover some Ancient Egyptian ones in the Louvre's collection.
Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Catching up on reading
Tuesday, January 26, 2010 by Emily Boyd
Got a shelf full of half-read books that are silently mocking you? (I know I do.) This week's tip, from RTM user adjectivenoun, will help you plough through those pages:
Do you ever have those books that you really want to finish but that just won't die? My problem usually lies in the book's overbearing sense of proportion.
What I do is create a new item called "Chapter" that repeats every few days (or a day, if you're more ambitious than I). That way, my reading gives me flexibility, and it seems a lot less stressful; if I have to postpone or delete a specific day, it will reappear soon enough without me worrying about neglect. I feel more accomplished when I get a whole chapter read and get to check it off my list.
I usually tag "Chapter" with the book title (especially useful if you're juggling multiple reads), but making a new List altogether works as well if you're really keen on getting the darn thing finished.
Thanks for sharing this tip, adjectivenoun — you're our Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner this week!
Do you have a suggestion for our weekly Tips & Tricks post? Got an interesting set-up or idea? Head over to the Tips & Tricks forum and add a new thread and let us know how you use RTM. Each week we'll give away a 1 year Pro account to the user whose idea inspires the Tips & Tricks Tuesday blog post for that week.
Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Chipping away at massive tasks
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 by Emily Boyd
Finding some of your tasks a little bit daunting? Try this helpful tip from RTM user jhmorris:
I have tasks on my to-do list which have been on there forever, I have no inclination to do anything about them. I’m blind to them.
Some of these are massive tasks but can’t sensibly be broken down into subtasks. My example is the formidable sounding “File every piece of paper in the study”. I replaced this scary task with a more achievable repeating task that chips away at the problem. In this case the task is “File some paper in the study”, which I have set to repeat after 1 week.
I now have an achievable task on my list and the satisfaction of completing the short term task regularly while moving towards achieving my long-term goal – a vast improvement on the do-nothing-because-it’s-all-too-difficult situation I had before.
Thanks, jhmorris! You're our Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner this week. :)
Do you have a suggestion for our weekly Tips & Tricks post? Got an interesting set-up or idea? Head over to the Tips & Tricks forum and add a new thread and let us know how you use RTM. Each week we'll give away a 1 year Pro account to the user whose idea inspires the Tips & Tricks Tuesday blog post for that week.
Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Tagging tasks with weather conditions
Tuesday, January 12, 2010 by Emily Boyd
Looking for tasks to do on a rainy day? Try tagging your tasks with weather conditions, as described by RTM user christoph76:
Tags representing certain weather conditions can be very useful for organizing indoor or outdoor activities on a "Someday Maybe" list. I started to collect things I'd like to do in the city or outdoors (like going on a hike, a visit to a museum, going swimming etc…) and started to add tags representing weather conditons like "rainy", "sunny", "hot", "dry" to them. So, on the next rainy weekend I can easily filter for things to do using Smart Lists or the tag cloud.
Thanks for sharing this tip, christoph76 — you're our Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner this week!
Do you have a suggestion for our weekly Tips & Tricks post? Got an interesting set-up or idea? Head over to the Tips & Tricks forum and add a new thread and let us know how you use RTM. Each week we'll give away a 1 year Pro account to the user whose idea inspires the Tips & Tricks Tuesday blog post for that week.
Tips & Tricks Tuesday: New Year's resolutions
Tuesday, December 22, 2009 by Emily Boyd
Yup, it's that time of year again! Why not try benb's tip, and see how many New Year's resolutions you can keep in the coming year? You've got Remember The Milk to help! :)
It's nearly the end of the year, and I decided to enter my new years resolutions into RTM.
- Lose 2 stone -resolution 31/12/10
- Play guitar 2-3 times a week for 30 mins -resolution 31/12/10
- Take 1 good photo every day in 2010 -resolution 31/12/10
I tagged each one with -resolution ("-" is my prefix for categories) with a due date of 31-Dec-2010 (if it was one with an earlier date, or a review date other than the end of the year, set it as appropriate).
When they come due I can review and see how I did. If I really wanted to be nagged, I would set them up as repeating tasks every week or month.
Thanks for sharing this tip, benb! You're our Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner this week — best of luck with your resolutions!
Do you have a suggestion for our weekly Tips & Tricks post? Got an interesting set-up or idea? Head over to the Tips & Tricks forum and add a new thread and let us know how you use RTM. Each week we'll give away a 1 year Pro account to the user whose idea inspires the Tips & Tricks Tuesday blog post for that week.
Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Using Remember The Milk in a long distance relationship
Tuesday, December 15, 2009 by Emily Boyd
I'll let this week's Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner, RTM user alvlam, explain the title of this post. :)
You might be wondering whether there is a typo in the title, but this is exactly one of the ways I make use of this great utility.
This is a tip for the unfortunate few of us in the world surviving a long distance relationship. We have created a shared list of "things we will do together", and we can each populate this list with any little idea for an activity that we can look forward to. It sure helps lighten those low days because we can just look at the list and be reminded of upcoming visits and dream of the future.
We take it a step further and assign priorities to the events, along the lines of:
Priority 1 – "Things we will certainly do in the very near future", eg. ice skating at the Rockefeller Center or sharing a banana split.
Priority 2 – "Things that we would love to do together at some point in life", eg. explore Patagonia.As RTM keeps the list organized by priority, the more realistic and upcoming items are then presented towards the top of our list.
Finally, when we do visit each other, there is a great sense of accomplishment when we get to complete an RTM task… even for the smallest seemingly insignificant items!
Thanks for sharing this tip, alvlam!
Do you have a suggestion for our weekly Tips & Tricks post? Got an interesting set-up or idea? Head over to the Tips & Tricks forum and add a new thread and let us know how you use RTM. Each week we'll give away a 1 year Pro account to the user whose idea inspires the Tips & Tricks Tuesday blog post for that week.
Remember The Milk for Gmail… for Google Chrome!
Friday, December 11, 2009 by Emily Boyd
From the very first day that Google Chrome was released, the questioning started: "When will the Remember The Milk for Gmail add-on be available for Chrome?". We know that you guys love Chrome (it's edged past Safari and IE this week to be the 2nd most popular browser amongst RTM users), so we were keen to bring the extension to Chrome as soon as we could. I'm happy to say it's now here. :)
For those of you not familiar with Remember The Milk for Gmail, it's a browser add-on (available first for Firefox) that allows you to manage your tasks in Gmail: you can add new tasks and connect them with your emails, contacts, and Google Calendar events, automatically add tasks for starred messages or specific labels, and much more. For more info on what's available in the extension, check out the features page.
Here's what the extension looks like in Google Chrome:
Ready to install the extension? Awesome! It's available from the Google Chrome Extensions Gallery: