Remember the Milk: Online todo and reminder system

I used to be uber-organized. Daytimer in hand, I would insure all my actions were lined up, set down, calendered in and then checked off as accomplished. Frankly it was all good. Ah then we have…

today’s reality….

Post it notes, very cool Palm Tungsten, phone with alarms, business cards stuffed into my purse, nice engineering pad, email, twitter….Certainly one of those has my todo list for today so I don’t get undone??

Well as you can see I’m less organized than I wish I were. So, thinking on what to do I read a booky called, “Getting Things Done” which was truly helpful for me. But what about a system to put my new book learnin’ to work? That’s when I stumbled on Remember The Milk.

Remember The Milk (or RTM for short) helps! In their own words:

Managing tasks is generally not a fun way to spend your time. We created Remember The Milk so that you no longer have to write your to-do lists on sticky notes, whiteboards, random scraps of paper, or the back of your hand. Remember The Milk makes managing tasks an enjoyable experience.

At first I was a little worried keeping my todo list on the web. Then I found out they have a secure connection and I choose what I make public or not so my stuff is safe. I have a list of articles I am writing for Beck’s Cafe, todo’s I have to get done for a thriving non-profit I’m on the board of, birthdays, work stuff (yeah my paying gig) and many other items. It’s terrific. Let me tell you how I used it and maybe you’ll be inspired if you aren’t organized already.

I enter todo’s in tabs, and each tab is for a specific subject area. Because Remember The Milk (RTM) lets you label any part of their system so it works for you as you can name things so they make the most sense for you. I have todo’s for work, for family, for Beck’s Cafe and so on. Once I enter an item in my todo list I then “tag” it. A tag is a special label that allows someone to group like items together. So, for Beck’s Cafe I have a tab for my article ideas and I tag all my articles for “workin’ girl” or for “frugal tech”. This grouping let’s me see all my ideas of the same tag so I can understand what I might write next. Oh and if you prefer not to use tags, you don’t have to. Early on I didn’t use them as I thought they were a bother and slowed me down, but, tags are a very helpful part. you can also color code which tasks to do before others. While this organizational process is helpful, phone text and email reminders are brilliant.

Every action item can have a due date and a reminder date and time. The reminders can be set for sending you a phone text message or sending you an email, or both! RTM’s reminders are worth the time to use their system. Yes, there are other text and email reminder systems on the web, but RTM’s tie in with your todo list makes this tool very helpful. Since using RTM I haven’t missed a single appointment for hair styling, hair removal, or those special hot dates I have … to go food shopping or get my oil changed. Pretty nifty!

You know that the Frugal Tech likes her deals so what’s the economic skinny here? Well RTM is FREE or you can pitch in $25 and get a few extra features and support their great tool. RTM can play nice with Google Docs, iCalendar tools and even is an application for your iPhone. And for free, or the $25.00 uptick you can’t go wrong. They have over 1 million users worldwide now so you won’t be a guinea pig when you try RTM.

So stop forgetting the milk and start remembering it with Remember the Milk today.