Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Auto-tagging via Smart Lists
Tuesday, March 6, 2012 by Andrew Conkling
Managing a lot of projects or different spheres of life can be tricky. This week's tip, shared by george.shank, provides a few simple ways to use Smart Lists to streamline your organization.
Hey guys! I love RTM and have really begun to see just how flexible it can be. I think part of the beauty of RTM is it can be as complex as you like or simple too.
One thing I found I was doing often was tagging tasks in a very similar fashion so they would catch in certain Smart Lists. Items such as #@home or even more specific tags like #unpacking were getting repetitive and annoying to enter in. This was after the GTD guest post (phenomenal if you haven't read it) and so I made some minor alterations.
Any "project" list or large task list that I know will take place primarily in one venue or in a certain "tag environment" I simply create a Smart List as opposed to a normal list.
Say I want to finish unpacking after moving? I create a Smart List that has criteria tag:@home AND tag:unpack. Now any task I add in here will have those tags automatically. Not only that but now I can just do a simple #na or #wait and they will pop up in my @Home or Wait-Personal lists respectively.
Using mostly Smart Lists for my projects has greatly reduced my need to constantly use common tags but at the same time allows me to keep everything organized as well as getting great input from my tag cloud!
Thanks for sharing this tip, george.shank! 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 up with your relationship
Tuesday, February 28, 2012 by Andrew Conkling
Many people in relationships talk about being distracted by thoughts of their sweetheart, or about forgetting something they wanted to talk about, do for them, and so on. This week's tip, shared by eemeltoniv, suggests a way to keep up some fresh ideas for your relationship — and to not let it distract you while doing other things!
So, I'm in a great relationship. Throughout my work day, the most random questions, thoughts, and ideas pop into my head — things to ask her about, do together, etc. Most of these align already with my current lists — "Ask/investigate," "Hear/see/visit/do," etc. For the ones that are also germane to her, I append a tag with her name and have a Smart List set up to combine all those.
The payoff? Rather than send a million emails or texts a day with e.g. "Ninja or pirate or RTM monkey?" or "Let's go watch this movie" as soon as they come to mind (and before I forget), I instead log them and, at the end of the day when we talk, we can hit each of these. I feel comfortable that I haven't forgotten a good question or a neat idea. And it cuts back on having a bunch of email and text chains each about a different thing, in the midst of two very busy run-around professional lines.
Plus, when we do hit all this stuff, it's quite satisfying to check them off.
And, bonus for scoundrels: you can always go back, mark them as "incomplete," and rename the tag to the next significant other. For the record, though, I think mine is a keeper.
For the record, there's no need to choose between ninja, pirate, or monkey — you should see Bob's costume he wears to masquerades…
Thanks for sharing this tip, eemeltoniv! 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.
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Tips & Tricks Tuesday: The Awesome List
Tuesday, February 21, 2012 by Andrew Conkling
If you've been looking for a bit of "awesome" motivation to help your day, you'll love this week's tip. Shared by robotfu, it will help encourage you to add something exceptional to your regular routine.
Inspired partially by Benjamin Franklin's schedule and his "what good shall I do this day?" beginning of the day question, I created an "Awesome" list in which I put just that: ideas of good (or awesome) things I could do in a day and that are not typically part of my schedule.
Each idea has to be simple enough to not take too much time and to be able to be accomplished within that day. Instead of thinking of a new idea every morning, I just add ideas to that list as I think of them and I don't put any due dates when adding them — so then every morning, I look at my "Awesome" list and decide which of the ideas I will do that day and change that idea's due date to "today." (You may prefer to schedule it in advance, but for those who'd like to do it like me, I would suggest making a Today Smart List in which you keep track of all the things to be done today.)
Optionally, if you don't think you can fit it in your schedule in a daily basis, you could do it once a week. Or if that also results too difficult, you could just look at the list of tasks you've done by the end of the day, and select one that you think was really good and tag it #awesome. You could create your "Awesome" list based on that tag to keep track of the good/awesome things you're doing.
Hopefully, doing this can make your day a lot more special or fun and help you keep motivated
Thanks for sharing this tip, robotfu! 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: Building combination Smart Lists
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 by Andrew Conkling
We've highlighted some interesting Smart Lists on the blog previously, but this week's tip, shared by 4trainpoet, shows us a powerful combination of Smart Lists. Rather than some very long search criteria, these Smart Lists build upon one another to exclude anything in the previous ones.
I've been messing around with Smart Lists for the last few months, and the following is what I've come up with. It allows me to use due date and priority to split out tasks, without having to worry too much about which I prefer to use. It also helps to keep lists manageable, by splitting tasks into 4 groups: Today, This Week, Soon, and At Some Point…
- Smart List Name: [0] Today
- Search Criteria: (due:today OR priority:1)
This is the basic "things to do" list. Nothing fancy. No overdue tasks, except those marked "!1".
- Smart List Name: [1] This Week
- Search Criteria: (dueBefore:"1 week of today" OR priority:1)
This shows the above, plus the rest of the week, as well as any overdue tasks.
- Smart List Name: [2] Soon
- Search Criteria: (priority:2 AND NOT list:"[1] This Week" OR dueWithin:"1 month of today" AND NOT list:"[1] This Week")
This list shows non-urgent and upcoming tasks for the following month, that don't appear in the first two lists.
- Smart List Name: [3] At Some Point
- Search Criteria: (NOT list:"[1] This Week" AND NOT list:"[2] Soon")
Finally, there's everything else.
Thanks for sharing this tip, 4trainpoet! 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 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
