ForumsQuestionsReminders: what's the best way?


Reminders: what's the best way?
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Mark Ottaway

Posted: Aug 14, 2010
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I've been using PIMs, Smartphones and GTDs for many years but am new to both iPhone and Toodledo after a recent upgrade to iPhone 4. A newbie question to this forum as I'm sure there are heaps of you out there who have this completely sussed.

I still struggle to use iPhone/Toodledo/calendar usefully compared to what I've been used to with WinMo, Android, Palm. The main problem is that reminders for events (To Dos, calendar items, etc) appear once and once only. With no ability to snooze and with the next reminder wiping out the last one if you haven't noticed it, I keep missing things when I am away from my laptop and relying solely on my iPhone for reminders.

People have always thought I'm amazingly well organised and have a great memory ... now I'm being exposed for what I am as it was always my technology that made me appear that way! :)

I'm sure this is very resolvable, so I'm curious how the experienced Toodledo/iPhone folk on this forum manage those issues. What tricks do you have for:

1. Handling reminders that appear at an inconvenient time - e.g. in a meeting. I.e. something that needs to be reminded again in say an hour?

2. Handling multiple reminders that mean earlier ones get lost when you're relying on push notifications?

3. Using Toodledo generally to ensure you don't miss things?

Would really appreciate your insights!

Cheers,
Mark
PeterW 

Posted: Aug 15, 2010
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Hi Mark.

I've been using iPhone for almost a year now but prior to that was in the same boat as you, having used WinMo devices for a number of years and various PIMs on the PC.

I don't know if there is any solution for the issues you've raised. I had the very same problems and have had to reduce reliance on my handheld poking me and instead proactively look at what's coming up each day, which is probably a good thing. GTD methodology helps in this regard.

One thing I do on the iPhone for calendar items is to set two reminders - one at 2-hours before and the other at 1-hour before which I find helpful.

One of my favourite apps on WinMo was PocketBreeze, which combined calendar and task items in one view on the Today screen with the ability to reschedule, copy, etc. I really miss that app. Apple has nothing similar although with the calendar database now accessible on iOS4, I am hoping someone will come up with something similar.

I just found a new iPhone app named iKoyumi that provides what I feel is a better monthly calendar view of your data so you can see what's coming up. This helps a bit.

I'm interested to hear if others have found some solutions that help with these issues.


This message was edited Aug 15, 2010.
Mark Ottaway

Posted: Aug 15, 2010
Score: 0 Reference
Hi Peter

Thanks for your comments. Reassuring to hear it's not just me being stupid! :)

Like you, interested in what others may have found to help with this.

Cheers,
Mark

PS. Unfortunately an iPhone calendar sync'd with Exchange doesn't allow a second alert as Exchange doesn't support this. SO that option ... which would be soooo handy ... is not available for everyone.


This message was edited Aug 15, 2010.
PeterW 

Posted: Aug 15, 2010
Score: 0 Reference
Posted by Mark Ottaway:
PS. Unfortunately an iPhone calendar sync'd with Exchange doesn't allow a second alert as Exchange doesn't support this. SO that option ... which would be soooo handy ... is not available for everyone.

I hadn't noticed that! I have three calendars going on my iPhone, one is my work Exchange cal, the other two are personal and synced via MobileMe. Only the latter allow two alerts to be set. Never realised!

It sure would be nice if Apple and Micro$oft ensured that their respective calendar ecosystems worked better together. Unfortunately both seem to think their way is right.
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