Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Making your boss happy
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 by Andrew Conkling
When working on teams, it can be helpful to separate your own tasks from those that require more teamwork; when working with your boss, this is even more important. This week's tip, shared by dennis.tarwood, discusses a useful way to separate one's own tasks from those that need more input with your boss.
I track all the action items important to me in RTM. Many of them are important to my boss, too, and require his input during a weekly meeting. That made my to-do list unmanageable once a week, full of today's tasks and weekly discussion tasks with only my memory to separate the two.
Therefore, I tag everything that requires his input with his name. I also created two Smart Lists: "[Boss]" and "Not [Boss]", both searching the Work list.
Now I use those two Smart Lists once a week to know what I need to do on Boss Meeting Day that doesn't need him to weigh in, keeping me productive before and after that meeting.
If your boss uses Remember The Milk too, you could also utilize our sharing & sending features in this way.
Thanks for sharing this tip, dennis.tarwood! 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, add a new topic, and let us know how you use Remember The Milk. 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.
Posted in: Tips & Tricks
Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Managing college readings as a student with ADHD
Tuesday, May 24, 2011 by Andrew Conkling
Organizing oneself in college can be difficult, especially when one has ADHD. This week's tip, shared by elisabethericson, discusses some specifics in setting up an entire semester of readings for the most effective day-to-day management.
This isn't revolutionary by any means, but as a college student with ADHD I've struggled in the past with staying on top of my class reading. I mean, it's an involved process: look up each syllabus, determine if anything's due the next day, figure out which books I need, determine how long the reading will likely take, set aside the requisite time in my schedule, and ensure I actually have the right books with me at that time. Sounds elementary, but with an executive function disorder, remembering and following through with all those steps every day is exhausting!
Instead, I've recently found it helpful to take an hour at the beginning of the term to go through each syllabus and program each individual chapter or article into Remember The Milk as a separate task. I set the due date a day before each reading is assigned and the estimated time to half an hour (I'm a fast reader when I actually get around to doing it, so usually it takes less). The priority, obviously, is 1.
So on Sunday evenings I can look at the weekly view and easily estimate how much time I'll need to set aside for reading each day (Tuesday's two chapters and two articles times half an hour, so that's two hours…), and each morning before I leave my room I can check the daily view and pack whatever books it says I need. I don't have to check all different syllabi because it's all on my phone (I use Remember The Milk for Android), and I don't need to remember when anything's due because Remember The Milk tells me.
As I'm getting older learning to manage my disorder more successfully, I'm finding that by simplifying and automating as many tasks as possible, I can conserve mental bandwidth and ultimately be far more productive than I ever thought possible. Remember The Milk has already proven life-changing in that respect, and I'm so thankful that I found it.
Thanks for sharing this tip, elisabethericson! 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, add a new topic, and let us know how you use Remember The Milk. 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.
Posted in: Tips & Tricks
Help us decide! Vote on ideas for Remember The Milk
Wednesday, May 18, 2011 by Emily Boyd
We love getting feedback here at Remember The Milk, and it seems like you guys love sending it too — there's been 24,150 posts in our Ideas forum since we launched. :)
With that much feedback, we can't implement every idea (no matter how many bananas we feed Bob T. Monkey, he's still got limits!). So, we need to figure out which ideas are most important to Remember The Milk users.
That's where you come in! We've completely overhauled the Ideas forum, and added a voting feature (inspired by Google Moderator). We'd love it if you could vote for the ideas you like (and dislike!). Your feedback will help us to decide what Bob and the team should develop next.
One more thing! To recognize the support of those who've upgraded, if you're Pro, your vote gets doubled; each time you vote, you'll add +2 or -2. Get voting! :)
Posted in: New Features & Updates
Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Getting to 100 push-ups
Tuesday, May 17, 2011 by Andrew Conkling
If you have a hard time remembering to exercise or tracking your routines, this week's tip, shared by danigiri, may help; Dani discusses using Remember The Milk to work up to 100 push-ups.
Recently I stumbled onto this book '7 weeks to 100 push-ups' that details a routine to get to that fit upper body all geeks dream of.
To keep track of my progress, get motivated and do more push-ups I use Remember The Milk, of course. The routine is broken down into what needs to be done each day and I correlate it to a single task. I use three letter tags for easier writing and simplicity, therefore the routine tasks are tagged #fit
Basically, I copy the routine days in blocks of four and prioritize them, !1 is what needs to be done today, !2 tomorrow, !3 the day after and no priority is in three days. I don't use the calendar because if I happen to miss one routine it just sits as the next thing to do (though 'rest' days are always completed of course!). Modify to use dates if easier for you.
As I complete routine days I tick tasks as done. Watching the status:completed and tag:#fit list grow is very motivating and keeping track of the exact number of pushups and 1 minute rests I need to do is really easy. If I'm at home I can tick with computer or if at the gym I can tick on my iPhone.
Posted in: Tips & Tricks
Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Using Smart Lists to see tasks due in specific weeks
Tuesday, May 10, 2011 by Andrew Conkling
If you keep track of a lot of tasks or have specific deadlines, it may be helpful to narrow in on particular weeks or timeframes of tasks. This week's tip, shared by c0nsiderthis, discusses how to use Smart Lists to narrow in on specific weeks of a school semester.
As a student, I have the usual Smart Lists for each class's tag (eg. Searched for: "tag:math46" and saved list as "MATH46"), and have tags for "assignment", "test", "online quiz" etc.
I've also created Smart Lists for the weeks in the semester. That way I can easily see that I have 5 tests and 3 assignments due in Week 15, but I have few tasks in Week 13 so it's a perfect time to get the assignments done. Search for:
dueWithin:"1 week of [date of start of Week X]" and then save the list as "Week X"
dueWithin:"1 week of mar 26" and then save the list as "Week 12"
Posted in: Tips & Tricks
Introducing Remember The Milk for iPad
Thursday, May 5, 2011 by Emily Boyd
We're huge iPad fans here at Remember The Milk (our moms are, too!) and consider it to be a revolutionary (and magical :) new device. So when Apple announced that developers could start building apps for the iPad, our resident mobile app guru was on the case.
That was just over a year ago. Since then, we've rebuilt the app from scratch and thrown out 4 different design concepts in our pursuit of a Remember The Milk experience that feels natural and intuitive on the iPad.
After a lot of tweaking and testing (and what turned out to be the most ambitious project we've worked on since launching Remember The Milk), we're excited to announce that the app is finally done.
The universal iPad app is now available as a free download for everyone on the App Store, with some features available exclusively for Pro (more on that later). Get the app now, or read on to learn more. :)
Tell me more about the app!
Natural and intuitive.
The gesture-rich interface (inspired by Twitter for iPad) is designed to take full advantage of the iPad and makes tasks fun. More fun than pen and paper? We think so!
Always in sync.
The app (naturally!) keeps your iPad and your Remember The Milk account in sync. That's tasks, notes, lists, Smart Lists, tags, locations… the whole lot! You can use the entire app offline without an Internet connection, then sync up later when you're back online — perfect for plane trips.
For Pro users, smart auto-sync makes it easy to stay up-to-date — changes you make are automatically sent to Remember The Milk within seconds. Background sync completion means that if you leave the app mid-sync you don't have to worry — the app will finish up your sync with Remember The Milk and make sure you're in sync.
Organize your way.
Organize efficiently by list, Smart List, tag, or location and prioritize your tasks. Not sure what's next? See at a glance how many tasks are due today, tomorrow, and this week. Don't like the ordering? Choose to sort by priority, due date, or task name for each list. Of course, you can review your completed tasks with a fast switch between incomplete and complete tasks.
Keeping on top of tasks.
Manage your tasks easily with a few taps. All the fields you've come to know and love are supported (task name, list, priority, due date/time, repeat, time estimate, tags, location, and URL) and you can even customize the fields shown. So if you're big on tagging, you can set that field to always display when adding tasks.
There are flexible options for setting due dates and times, too; choose from days in the upcoming week, a full date/time picker, or enter your own in any of the supported formats.
Get stuff done with gestures.
Tap tasks with two fingers to quickly complete or postpone in the task list: pull down to reveal the Complete button, pull up to reveal the Postpone button.
You can also perform actions on several tasks at once. Just tap Edit on a task list to complete, postpone, prioritize, move, tag, and set the due date for tasks. You can also perform all these actions and more while editing a single task.
Add tasks the Smart way.
Add tasks quickly (and with as many properties as you like!) by using Smart Add syntax, e.g., "Pick up the milk tomorrow", "Order stationery #work", "Return books in 2 weeks @Library", and more. The auto-complete feature makes adding tasks with Smart Add super fast.
Smart Add saves you time too, with support for adding by context: tasks added to your today list will be due today, while tasks added to Smart Lists inherit their criteria. So, if your Smart List shows all your high priority tasks that are due today and located at the office (due:today AND location:office), any tasks added to this Smart List will automatically inherit all these properties.
Notes… that look like notes.
Need to store additional info about a task? Write a note (or notes!) for quick reference.
Email addresses, phone numbers and links in your notes conveniently auto-link to Mail, Contacts and Safari.
See tasks located nearby.
Like to take your iPad everywhere you go? Take the chance to add your favorite locations to the app. You can see tasks located nearby with one tap, in the Nearby view, so you can plan the best way to get things done.
A powerful tasks search engine in your hands.
Not only can you search for tasks by name, you can use any of the advanced search operators supported in the web app for more powerful searching. Want to find your high priority tasks due in the upcoming week and tagged with 'bananas'? No problem!
Save your favorite searches as Smart Lists for quick access. (For anyone new to this feature, Smart Lists are very handy; they're similar to Smart Playlists in iTunes, but allow you to easily see tasks that match your desired criteria, rather than music!)
Accessibility and VoiceOver support.
We're passionate about accessibility, and excited that the app has full support for VoiceOver, the iPad's gesture-based screen reader.
Available in 20 languages.
Remember The Milk for iPad is available in English, French, German, Japanese, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Russian, Polish, Czech, and Greek. Interested in helping to make the app available in your language? We'd really appreciate any help — please check out our online translation program.
Available in two flavors: Free and Pro
Like our iPhone app, the iPad app comes in two flavors: Free and 
. In the free version, you'll be able to sync manually once every 24 hours with the Remember The Milk servers, which is great for backing up your tasks and notes online.
The Push Notification service is also unavailable in the free app (we can't give you everything free, now can we? :). But aside from that, you get all the goodness of our iPad app… free!
Exclusive to Pro: Unlimited auto-syncing + Push Notification service
Want to keep all your devices in sync without that pesky once-every-24-hours limit? Don't fancy having your syncing style cramped? Craving some of those sweet Push Notifications? No problem, that's where Pro accounts come in! Upgrade to Pro, and ye shall receive:
- Unlimited auto-syncing with Remember The Milk online. That's right, just let the app sync for you, or tap that little 'sync' button as often as you please.
- Smart auto-sync that automatically sends task changes to Remember The Milk within seconds. No more wondering if you have changes that need syncing!
- Keep in sync with your tasks on multiple devices. Got an iPhone as well as an iPad? Maybe you also use another device? The syncing goodness means you'll have your tasks up-to-date everywhere you use the app.
- Push Notification reminders and badge updates. Not only will we send you lovely Push Notification reminders, but if you add or change tasks via another Remember The Milk interface (like, say, the web app), we'll make sure to update the badge number on your device via Push Notification to reflect these changes.
And don't forget the other Pro benefits, including membership in our Pro Tester Program, priority support via email, and of course that little icon next to your name to indicate your awesomeness.
Thanks to…
A big thanks to the Remember The Milk users in the Pro Tester Program who helped us to test the app, gave us lots of feedback and reported bugs. (Unfortunately we could only invite 100 testers, as there's a limit on the number of devices that can be authorized for iPad testing, but we would have loved to invite everyone!)
Want Remember The Milk on your iPad?
Awesome! Here's the link you'll need to launch iTunes and download the app:
Want to learn more, or have any questions about the app? Please check out our Remember The Milk for iPad mini-site. We hope you enjoy the app as much as we enjoyed building it! :)
Posted in: New Features & Updates
Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Serendipitous tasks
Tuesday, May 3, 2011 by Emily Boyd
Who says you can't plan serendipity? This week's tip, shared by thorstenvpk, describes a nice idea for scheduling surprise tasks:
For some days of the month, not every day, but likely often, I set a task for me or my friends to be surprised.
For myself that could be the advice to do an extra yoga session that day, or buying myself a great new music CD and a fine bottle of wine to share with my wife that evening.
For friends that could be a task like, call XY by phone and wish them a nice day. For people meeting in the street, just give a smile to each shop assistant you meet that day. Or, try to make at least 3 people smile that day.
I do not like to over-stress myself with these tasks, and do not want to get into a hamster wheel by doing the same tasks the same day of the month, so I plan week by week and this means:
One great moment of planning the tasks and several lucky moments while doing them.
Thanks for sharing this tip, thorstenvpk! 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, add a new topic, and let us know how you use Remember The Milk. 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.
Posted in: Tips & Tricks
