Pinoy Tech Guy

Let’s face it, with the flood of things going on in our daily lives and items and ideas to keep track of you’ll end up forgetting something important, once, twice or even possibly most of the time.  Organizers, PDAs, then cellphones helps a lot with that but most of the time, it’s better to do it with something off the web. 
That’s where Remember the Milk’s comes it (cool name XD).  It’s got all the best features modern webapps have to offer: email/SMS/IM integration, tagging, advanced search, keyboard shortcuts and even offline access with Google Gears.  Since it’s on the web, you can access it anywhere you got internet or even by just sending an email.  Interesting enough?  Please do read on.

Managing Tasks

An account on Remember the Milk is free (as with most webservices) and but you do need to confirm the account with your email (RTM sends a confirmation email, if it’s not there, check your SPAM inbox).  Once you’ve done that, just log in to your account.  RTM presents you with three task tabs depende on when they’re due:

These tabs show what tasks you have scheduled today, tomorrow (or in the future) and the ones that have already passed (Overdue).  When you click Tasks or the Continue to Tasks button you get the Task Manager (not to be confused with Window’s Task Manager).

By default, these contain: “Inbox,” “Personal,” “Study,” “Work,” and “Sent.”  I’ll try to explain each of them in a bit

Upon trying it out, I noticed that you enter the task you want to get reminded of, it gets saved then you edit it as seen on the image below.  I would’ve preferred to have RTM let you enter all the necessary values but no biggie.  At least it allows you to use common place terms like “today,” “tomorrow,” “daily,” etc. instead of manually entering the date.  A date picker would be nice though.

Adding tasks

On your first run, RTM automatically adds a sort of default task in your Personal list due today called “Try out Remember the Milk.” Makes sense.
It’s marked orange because it’s labeled as a high priority task. To add a new task to your “Personal” list, click on “Add Task” (or hit the T on your keyboard) and type in a description.
Save your work by hitting Enter or clicking away.  Once it’s saved, the task box will display details about that task that you can set and edit.  If the date, repeatability and duration aren’t enough, you can go freehand and add “Notes” to task.  It’s not necessary but it’s a pretty useful feature when you need to be reminded of important details.

Prioritizing tasks

Important items can be moved at the top of the list or given a particular color by hitting the number 1, 2 or 3 key to assign priority.  The number 4 key is used to remove them

Completing tasks

Once you’ve been reminded or you simply want to end a task, simply select checkbox next to the item you wish to update, de-select any other tasks, and click the “Complete” button. It will disappear from your list of tasks.

RTM doesn’t delete the task though (unless you specifically chose delete) and it winds up in the “List” box in the right sidebar.  Click on the “1 completed” link to view the “Try out Remember the Milk” task.

Managing Lists and Tags

As soon as you get the hang of using RTM, you might feel that your reminders are a little cluttered if you stuff them all in the “Personal” List. By default, RMT gives you “Personal,” “Study,” “Work” as your Lists but you don’t need all of them (for example I don’t need the Study List anymore but I need a Play List XD).  To customize you lists,  Settings link at the top (don’t worry it’s on every page) and then click on the Lists tab.

Now at this point you’re probably wondering why the Inbox and Sent lists have lock icons next to them. That’s because they’re permanent lists that serve a special purpose: to act much like email does. The Inbox contains tasks that you’ve or other user’s have emailed or simply ones that you’ve added to RTM without specifying a list.  The Sent list contains tasks you’ve sent to other RTM users.

RTM also supports tagging so you can add another level of organization to your tags.  It’s just optional so users who don’t want/need that level of sophistication can opt not to use it.

Task Reminders

What’s a good reminder system if it can’t reach you right?  Remember the Milk has most of the communications options that most netizens (internet citizens) have like like email, instant messenger (supports AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, Jabber and Skype) or even applications like twitter.

You can set the your RTM to send you reminders days, hours even minutes (I haven’t tried seconds but.. err that would be pointless unless you plan to miss something) before the task.  It’s also kind enough to send you a copy of your list of tasks and to-do’s on a daily basis.

If you look at the picture, you’ll notice (if you’re a Filipino) a familiar name, Smart Communications.  Yep RTM supports an SMS alert although I’ve yet to try it since all my numbers are Globe >_<

As a reminder, set your time Zone under the General Tab of the settings so RTM will chime in at the right time instead of GMT or otherwise.

Where else?

As you can see, RTM has a netvibes widget so you don’t have to login to add your reminders.  Here’s a quick list of official services that supports the service.

A quick list of Official Services 

Note: linked to Remember the Milk so you can add the services if you already have an account.  Premium services (indicated by ) like that for the Iphone are not free though.

	Remember The Milk for Gmail Now you can manage your Remember The Milk tasks alongside your emails. Connect your tasks with your mail, contacts, and events in Gmail.
	Remember The Milk for iPhone and iPod touch Manage your tasks wherever you are with this full-featured mobile version that’s optimized for the iPhone and iPod touch.
	MilkSync for BlackBerry Synchronize your Remember The Milk tasks with the built-in Tasks application on your BlackBerry.
	MilkSync for Windows Mobile Synchronize your Remember The Milk tasks with the built-in Tasks application on your Windows Mobile device.
	Offline with Google Gears Use Remember The Milk offline (requires Google Gears browser plugin).
	Remember The Milk for Twitter Add new tasks to Remember The Milk, interact with existing tasks, and receive reminders — all via Twitter.
	Remember The Milk for Google Calendar Use Google Calendar? Now you can manage your Remember The Milk tasks from within Google Calendar.
	iGoogle Gadget Manage your tasks from iGoogle. Review upcoming tasks and add, edit, complete and postpone your tasks with this handy gadget.
	Netvibes module Manage your tasks from Netvibes, with handy features such as searching your tasks with Netvibes in-page search.
	Mobile version Use the full-featured mobile version of Remember The Milk to manage your tasks wherever you are.
	Locations Use the map to see where your tasks are located in the real world — see what’s nearby or on your way, and plan the best way to get things done.
	Quick Add Bookmarklet Add tasks quickly from your browser’s bookmarks bar. Easily add important dates and times you find on the web to your Remember The Milk account.

Find something better than Remember the Milk?  Post it in the comments

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