What To-Do with Reminders?

Client Notes

Last week, I helped Jon get acquainted with screen zoom functions on his Mac so he can shift away from holding a large physical magnifier up to his display. I recommended a large external display, too, so he can truly make everything bigger.

I also frustratingly tried to switch Shirley from AT&T to Visible to save her money — AT&T offered no less than $47/month — but kept running into account number errors. I’ll have to try again when I see her next week.

Rearrange Reminders & Sections

You can easily rearrange lists and reminders using drag and drop. On any device with a mouse or trackpad, this is simple with click-and-drag. On a Mac, look for the drop insertion indicator () to know where the item will be when you let go. On mobile, the whole item tile moves and the list makes room for it wherever you drag.

You can also rearrange the sections of a list, both those you’ve created and those in the Today view. In a custom list, the sections are visibly named and you can simply drag and drop them. You can also use File > Edit Sections on Mac or > Manage Sections > Edit Sections on mobile. Greyed out sections are currently empty.

In Today, the default order is Overdue | All-Day | Timed Reminders. If you’d rather have Overdue somewhere else in the list, choose File > Edit Sections on Mac or tap > Edit Sections on mobile and drag into your desired order.

Share Lists with Others

In addition to creating multiple categorical lists of reminders for yourself, such as Home, Work, and Personal, you can also share any list with others. Then, anyone can add, edit, and complete items on the list.

You might do this to collaborate on a project or to share the responsibility of household chores. You can also assign any task to a specific collaborator.

Anyone shared on a list can get notifications about the tasks contained. However, notification settings are unique for each collaborator. Go to Manage Shared List to specify whether you receive notifications when someone adds or completes reminders.

Use Smart Lists in Reminders

As I wrote in Make New, Friends, “smart” items are app-specific objects that represent saved search criteria. These have been available in Mac apps for years, such as smart folders in the Finder and Notes, smart albums in Photos, smart mailboxes in Mail, smart playlists in Music, and smart lists in Contacts and Reminders.

However, such smart groupings on mobile devices are relatively new. Only in iOS 16 did smart folders came to Notes and smart lists to Reminders.

It’s worth creating a smart list if you realize you frequently look for items that match certain criteria. For example, you might want to see a consolidated list of all items whose location is your home. Did you know you can remind yourself to do things when you “get home”?

When creating a new list, you can choose List Type: Smart List. Then, you can edit the filters. (See the animation above.)

Additionally, the tiles at the top of Reminders, such as Today, Scheduled, and Flagged, are smart lists curated by Apple. You can toggle them on Mac in View > Show Smart Lists and on mobile in > Edit Lists.

Create Templates of Reminders

If you have a repeating project and need the same organized list of tasks each time the project recurs, you can create a template. For example, I’ve done this for my TEACH workshops.

I have a series of tasks across multiple sections representing my pre- and post-workshop responsibilities. The template editor provides all the same capabilities for creating reminders and sections, and putting them in order.

Then, for a given workshop, I view Templates, create a list from my TEACH Workshop template, and name it for the next workshop.

Use Siri to “Remind Me…”

Siri makes it pretty easy to create new reminders. “Siri, remind me when I get home to take out the trash.” “Siri, remind me tomorrow at 2 pm to water the garden.”

But what if you want to add one of these items to a specific list? For this, Siri supports multistage prompts.

I usually listen to the Mac Geek Gab while bicycling. Often, I think of a response or other contribution to the podcast and want to keep riding. After pausing the show, here’s a conversation I might have with Siri via my Apple Watch:

As a result, I’ll get a new reminder on my Geek list that reads: “1108: apple doesn’t create photo books but photos does, via app extensions.” When I next review my Geek list to send feedback to Mac Geek Gab, I’ll have items like this as reference points.

Context: In last week’s episode, discussing James’ inquiry about preserving photos for future generations, Pete alluded and Dave confirmed that Photos no longer has the option to create books. That’s not quite true, though.

Actually, while Apple doesn’t offer the service, Photos enables users to design print publications using third-party Project Extensions and submit them to those companies to print.