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Comment by radley

1 day ago

I found Reminders to be unreliable and foolishly designed. It only works for must-do tasks. It uses repeating-period instead of time-since, so it can't handle repeating tasks that are optional. If you fail to mark off a repeating task, the next instances stack up and crash the notification cycle.

I'm familiar with the pain point you're describing. In general, I would say a recurring calendar event is a better solution for your particular preferences. Personally my mental model is that the act of deciding to not do an optional task constitutes completion of the reminder for that occurrence. And if I forget or deprioritize that decision, the reminder still hangs out in my Today list until I do as a mitigation.

  • I still use my calendar for routine time-window reminders. But when I tried timeboxing tasks for after work, those don't stick because my daily work hours can shift by as much as 2 hours, depending on how many pre-work-hours meetings I have that day.

    I'm a big fan of automation, so half of the fun with that project is setting it all up.

    • If you work at an office, you can set your reminders to be location-based with daily recurrence so that you get reminded when you leave the office or arrive home. I imagine you can also integrate Reminders with IFTT if you want a "Done with Work" button on your phone if you WFH.