Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Tracking warranties
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 by Andrew Conkling
Warranties can be very useful, often meaning the difference between getting something fixed for free or having to replace it. It can be frustrating to miss out on a warranty, especially if it involves paying extra for it. This week we have two tips that will help you keep track of warranties for your items.
The first tip, shared by clayton.chu, suggests keeping track of both return and warranty dates so you have all the information you'll need in case of a problem.
After I get home from shopping, I grab the receipts of every major purchase I've made that I might return or need to service. I create TWO tasks for each item, each with the policy expiration date as a due date: one for the return-to-store, one for the return-to-manufacturer. Each is tagged as either "return" or "warranty".
Each gets a note as to where I purchased it; relevant credit card information; all accessories that may have come with item; and the general return policy (do I need the receipt present, or is a credit card okay? is there a restocking fee?). This way, if I do need to make a return, I won't be surprised when I get to the store to find that the clerk can't look up my information, that I'm missing parts, etc.
For the return tasks in particular, I also add a tag with the store name. For warranty tasks, I add to the note the manufacturer's policy and where to send stuff; the manufacturer's website; or who to call to set up an RMA.
I then use the search
tag:return AND NOT dueBefore:today
or
tag:warranty AND NOT dueBefore:today
to see what items are still within the return policy. This might be overkill if I have only one item to return, but definitely useful if I have lots of things to return at various stores. I sort by due date; this combined with the store tags let me plan a trip to return all the stuff I want to return in a single shot, within enough time so that the return is allowed.
I don't get rid of overdue tasks; sometimes stores or manufacturers will allow an out-of-policy return/exchange. Keeping the task overdue and on its own Overdue Policy list lets me know that I might have to fight to get my return approved. I never mark the task complete until I have attempted to use the return policy, either successfully or not (i.e., they won't allow me to do an out-of-policy return).
A complementary tip, shared by om, suggests keeping up with any warranties that may be ending soon.
I also created a simple Smart List:
dueWithin: "1 month" AND tag:warranty
This way I can check if there's nothing wrong with the equipment just before the warranty expires and get it fixed or replaced free if needed.
Thanks for sharing these tips, clayton.chu and om! You're both our Tips & Tricks Tuesday winners 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: Using priority instead of due dates
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 by Andrew Conkling
Perhaps after last week's tip, you realize how often you postpone some of your tasks. This week's tip, shared by graham.poulter, offers an alternative: using priorities to help you decide what to do on a given day.
For a long time I would set due:today on the things I wanted to do next, and the next day postpone the ones I didn't do. Most of the tasks don't really have an externally imposed due date and kept getting postponed every day until I got to them.
My tip is to take off the due dates and use priorities to create a "Next" Smart List (priority:1), an "Upcoming list" of all priorities (NOT priority:N), and a "Backlog" list (priority:N) of non-prioritised items.
The "Next" list can be extended to also include items with a real due date (real consequences for missing it) in the near future:
priority:1 OR dueWithin:"3 weeks of today" OR dueBefore:today
Thanks for sharing this tip, graham.poulter! 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: Taking care of postponed tasks
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 by Andrew Conkling
We often hear from users that taking care of old tasks can really help to feel better about what's left to do. After cleaning up tasks you added long ago, this week's tip, shared by kateoneill, suggests also looking at cleaning up postponed tasks.
My morning RTM routine involves marking as "complete" any tasks that I did actually complete the day prior, but postponing the rest. This means that some tasks that don't grab my attention can end up deferred for days, weeks, and yes, sometimes even months. But I have two Smart Lists to help me address this:
one called "ORLY?" with
postponed:"> 5" AND priority:1
so that I can see any supposedly high-priority items I've been procrastinating on and either handle immediately or determine true next steps forand one called "Clutter!" with
postponed:"> [whatever the highest number that yields results is]"
which allows me to go in periodically and clear out ALL old tasks, and then revise the smart list to a smaller number so that it continually tightens my view on my overall tasks.
Thanks for sharing this tip, kateoneill! 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: Keeping track of frozen food
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 by Andrew Conkling
In addition to using Remember The Milk to plan your week's meals, you may find that it helps to keep track of what's in your freezer. This week's tip, shared by carolsher, describes how to make sure your freezer doesn't get too full… so maybe you have more room for ice cream? :)
In the past I have found it difficult to keep track of what I've got in my freezer.
Using a written list is awkward because as some items get crossed out when they are used, it starts to be hard to see what remains available. But now I am using Remember The Milk!
I have a list called "Freezer". Each item of food in the freezer is added as a task. The due date of the task is the date on which the food needs to be used up.
I tag each item to remind me which of the drawers it is in: top-drawer, middle-drawer and bottom-drawer. I can also tag foods with their type such as soup or veg.
I've been doing this for a few months now, and it's very easy to maintain and definitely is helping me not to waste food. Thank you Remember The Milk for being such a useful and flexible tool.
Thanks for sharing this tip, carolsher! 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: Cleaning out old tasks with a Smart List
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 by Andrew Conkling
If you've been using Remember The Milk for any length of time, you may have added some tasks that just didn't get done. This week's tip, shared by chris089, suggests looking through those tasks to get them done or just to cut them loose.
#5 of the Cult Of Done Manifesto got me thinking: I have a lot of items on my lists that have been there for ages and will probably stay there forever. So I created a new Smart List:
(NOT addedWithin:"1 week") AND due:never
This results in a shocking 302 open tasks. During my next weekly review, I'll go through those and either decide when and what to do about them or just delete them. And then repeat that every week.
Thanks for sharing this tip, chris089! 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: Planning your meals
Tuesday, January 3, 2012 by Andrew Conkling
Eating at home can be inexpensive, healthy, and certainly tasty. It does take a bit more work at times, at least if you eat more than Bob's usual dinner. This week's tip, shared by flewtist, discusses how you can keep up with your meal planning — and any prep work — to make sure you have something ready to eat when you get hungry. :)
I always plan the meals for my family. But I will often forget to leave enough prep time or forget to do the necessary prep work (like defrosting) that means the difference between eating a healthy home-cooked meal or eating delivery.
Now as I do the planning, I make entries in my RTM list. The first entry is tagged menu for the menu item for that day and contains a list of things I am going to make, along with the prep time if it is an unfamiliar dish.
Dinner: Crockpot Turkey/stuffing/green beans (cook 8 hrs) ^Sunday #menu
The second entry is if I have to do prep work for the dish, like defrosting, or assembling the dish ahead of time.
Defrost turkey ^Friday #foodprep
I combine these two tags into a Smart List so that I can see all menu/food tasks at once, and each item comes up on the day I need to do it.
Thanks for sharing this tip, flewtist! 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: Tracking academic conferences and papers
Tuesday, December 27, 2011 by Andrew Conkling
For students on top of deadlines at school, if you're attending conferences, you can have those deadlines to contend with also. This week's tip, shared by seamus.bradley, offers an effective way to keep track of a conference's details so you make sure to submit your papers on time!
OK. This is actually a really obvious trick, but I actually didn't think of it for ages. So this just shows how dumb I am, maybe. But anyone else as dumb as me might benefit from this.
Despite the above dumbness, I'm actually doing a PhD. One thing this involves is submitting papers to conferences. So I put the submission deadline as a task in RTM. Now here's the clever bit: put the conference website in the url part! I know! Obvious, right? But for YEARS before I thought of this, I had to keep searching for the conference website every time I needed the details of the conference.
As well as this, I now have a 'conference' tag. And along with this tag, two other tags: 'abstract' and 'full-paper' which indicate whether the conference submission requires a full paper or just an abstract. (So in fact, I rarely ever visit the link to the conference any more…)
I've found similar tricks useful for job applications, too.
Thanks for sharing this tip, seamus.bradley! 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: Short-term crisis management
Tuesday, December 20, 2011 by Andrew Conkling
When something unexpected happens, it can be hard to pick up and move forward. Or, at least, there may be a lot to pick up. This week's tip, shared by evanblackerby, discusses how he used Remember The Milk to navigate a tough situation he had never dealt with before.
We recently had a 4 ft diameter oak tree hit our home during a severe storm. My wife, son, and I were missed by the tree. We were all safe, but shaken. Three rooms on the house were destroyed by the tree and rain. We have had to deal with a tree service, insurance company, banks, and various contractors. Countless people. This is a lot to remember and keep straight. As crazy as it has been to be displaced for a few months, Remember The Milk has helped me keep it all generally straight. There is a lot that goes into rebuilding one-third of my home.
The way it works for me:
- I immediately created a category called "The Tree" :-)
- Everything under that category has a person connected to it. "Paul" my contractor. Electrician. Tree guys. My own personal duties (Evan).
- I save each thought or question I have directed at a person. These come at random times.
- Then I create Smart Lists based on each of the people involved in the process. This does the magic in our situation.
In the demolition/construction/renovation business the workers/bosses show up at random times. It is difficult to collect my thoughts on all things that I need to discuss with each of them. "Where to put these lights" or "why does that look crooked" or "is this supposed to be more sturdy than this?"
With the searches, my contractor can just show up and I run the search for "Paul" and all the questions for Paul show up. Same with insurance and bank people.
This tool has been invaluable through these uncharted waters these past 3 months. Thank you guys for helping us through this crisis.
Thanks for sharing your story, Evan. 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: Spend less time categorizing your tasks with keyword-based Smart Lists
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 by Andrew Conkling
It can be easy to over-organize your tasks in an effort to stay as organized as possible. If this is your tendency, you may appreciate this week's tip, shared by dougbrown77, which offers a refreshingly simple way to keep organized lists of tasks.
I found some time ago that I am prone to spend too much time categorizing tasks so that I may at some future point focus on those items. Remember The Milk's Smart Lists have helped me spend less time on categorizing which gives more time to actually do the things I need to do.
I use key words such as buy, call, visit, follow up, write etc. as basic categories. I have set up Smart Lists that search my tasks for these words and then display tasks with that word. For example, the Smart List buy will show me all the tasks with the word "buy". This allows me to concentrate on things that I need to buy.
Now the fun part, whether I am using Siri or Smart Add I can just input the words "buy tomatoes" and that item will show itself in the buy list.
Of course, I can add more categories and tags but I find that for most items this is enough information.
Thanks for sharing this tip, dougbrown77! 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: Keeping track of past and future gifts
Tuesday, December 6, 2011 by Andrew Conkling
As we're approaching the holidays, you may be starting to organize your gift lists for others. This week's tip, shared by miquelmartin, suggests a few ways to keep track of gifts you bought last year, to help organize your gifts this year, and to save a few ideas for next year too!
I sometimes have a hard time remembering what I've given someone as a present. On occasion, I may come up with nice ideas for future presents, and finally I can often use being reminded that the deadline's coming!
For all this, I keep a Presents list with yearly repeating items for each occasion and person (e.g. Brother's birthday). They are due 20 days before the occasion, and I use the notes field to add what I have given in the past, or ideas on what I might give in the future. I mark them as completed as soon as the buying is taken care of.
Thanks for sharing this tip, miquelmartin! 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
