Reminder Systems

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Google cell phone/text message reminder system

Get paid to look at your calendar each day

Google cell phone/text message reminder system

This page describes how the Google Calendar system can remind you of tasks, appointments, birthdays, etc. by cell phone text message, by email, or both. The email messaging is free, but, depending on the terms of your contract, your cell phone company may make a small charge for each text message.  If you have Outlook, you can use its calendar reminder system in the same way as the Google system described below.

How would you like a reminder system, one that can...

help you organize your day

help you get out of your house on time so you can get to work or school on time

remind you of appointments

tell you when it’s time to turn off the TV at night so you can get to bed on time

The reminders can be set up to reach you...

today, tomorrow

Tuesday

weekdays

Monday, Wednesday and Thursdays

the first of every month, every birthday you enter, etc.

Reminders can reach you

by email at no cost or by cell phone text message (depending on your cell phone service, for about 5 cents a reminder or free).

You can specify

when and how often you want to receive the reminder

whether you want to receive the reminder one time or repeatedly

People can send themselves reminders of occasional events like...

Pick up take out dinner on the way home from work next Tuesday (set up a text message to arrive just before you leave work)

Call the doctor next month to make an appointment (email)

Watch movie you don't want to miss on TV next Thursday at 7:45 PM (text message)

Lunch meeting with Mr. Thatcher next Friday. Dress up (email message on Thursday) and be on time (text message half an hour beforehand)

Dentist appointment tomorrow (email)

Pick up Jane after school Thursday evening (email and text message)

Stop what you’re doing and get ready to leave for work every week day at 7:40 AM

Prepare brown bag lunch for the next day (email and text)

Start getting ready to leave work for home every week day at 4:45 PM (text)

Turn off the TV at 10 PM (text)

Be in bed in ten minutes 10:30 PM (text)

Drive to poker game every other Friday night at 8 PM (email and text)

Bowling with the girls on Thursdays at 7:30 PM (text)

Be ready for your music lesson on Tuesday at 6 PM (text)

Pay bills on the first and third Monday of the month at 8:30 PM (text)

Check the oil in the car on the first Sunday of the month at 11 AM

XYZ meeting second Tuesday of the month at 8 PM

Pay rent first day of the month

Buy birthday card for Joan April 12 on way home from work at 6 PM (text)

John’s birthday, your anniversary will be in a week (email and text)

Start getting papers together for tax return (email)

Get yearly medical check up, get mammogram, PAS test (email)

You're more likely to do things you want to do.

For the regularly occurring event, you will get in the habit of doing them and, after a while, not need the reminders.

 

How to Get Started

• Go to google.com/mobile/calendar/index.html  (But first print out the instructions below, which are better than those on the Google site.)
• If you haven’t already registered with Google, sign up for a Google calendar account.

Once you’ve signed on (it takes less than three minutes), you can start creating reminders about events.

You can create reminders of events either on-line or from your cell phone.

Let’s say you want to be reminded of a meeting with Bob scheduled for every Wednesday at 2 PM. You would like to be reminded by email the day before the meeting and by text message fifteen minutes before the meeting.

Go to your Google Calendar.

Click once on Wednesday at 2:00 PM (that's the time of the event you want to be reminded of.)

If your aim was wrong and you clicked a little before or after the time you intended, don’t worry. You’ll learn ways to correct that.

Click on "Edit event details".

If, by mistake you click on "Create event", the event will be put in your calendar as a blank, without details.  You will be able to enter the details later by clicking on the red event box in you calendar and selecting "Edit event details".

In the box labeled "What", write the message you want to receive as a reminder, for example, "Lunch with Bob"

Click on the down arrow of "Repeats"

Select "Weekly".  A list of days of the week will appear.  Click on the Wednesday box. Uncheck any other checked boxes.

Click on "Options"

Note that the default reminder options is for "SMS" (send yourself a cell phone text message) 5 minutes before the event.  

You can easily change the defaults to meet your needs.  You can request to get only an SMS message about the event , only an  email, or both types of messages.  You can set how far in advance you want each reminder. 

You can select to have an email message sent by clicking on "Add another", clicking on "email", then "1 day". Click on "Save". The calendar will now send you an email saying "Lunch with Bob" a day before the event and, if you wanted an SMS message too, the same message as a text message 5 minutes before the event.

Using your cell phone, you can only enter an event for one date and time, not repeated times, and you can only setup text messages, not emails. However, once you have entered the event (by phone or email), you can later edit it on-line to make it repeat or get it by email.

Here's how to do it.  Using your cell phone keyboard controls, choose "Text Message", then "Write"

First enter the time at which you want to receive the text message by cell phone:  enter three or four digits (for the hour and minutes) followed by a "a" for AM or "p" for PM.   For example, to send 3:30 PM, enter 330p.  To remind yourself of a meeting with Joan at 3:30 PM, write "Joan 330p". 

The default date on which you will be messaged is the next date, including today, on which the time will next occur.  If at one o'clock PM you set your message to arrive at 2 PM and want to be called not today but tomorrow or afterwards at 3 PM, you will have to enter the date you want the message to arrive.  Enter a date by entering the first three letters of the month then one or two digits of the date of the month.

To enter an event so you will receive a text message a few minutes before 10 AM on October 11 saying "Norma @ 10 AM on Oct 11", write "Norma 10a Oct 11". As noted above, if you don’t enter a date, the system will call you at the first 10 AM after you send your message.

When you are ready to send your message to the Google reminder system, click on "Send to", enter the number 48368 (reminder clue: "item8" or "i vent"), and click on "Send".  A few seconds later you’ll get a confirmation that Google received your message. A few minutes before the time and date you specified, you’ll get the text message.

If you want to edit any text messages that you have entered and it has not yet been sent to the recipient, you can do it on-line on your Google Calendar page.

That’s all there is to it. Good luck.  If you find any errors in these instructions, or if the system doesn’t work as described, click here to please let me know.

Get paid to look at your reminder calendar each day

It is very helpful to keep a calendar for keeping track of appointments, birthdays, etc.  so many people start to do this.  They write down events and appointments in the calendar, but then, after a few days or weeks, stop looking at it.  If you have a friend or relative who would like you to remember appointments and tasks to do better than you do now, here's a suggestion that might keep you keep checking your calendar every day. 

Make an agreement with the other person that each evening, you will check your calendar for the next day and make a small pen or pencil mark on that date of the calendar documenting that you have looked at it.  The next day, the other person will look at the calendar and, if you've made your mark, will pay you a small agreed-upon amount of money.  The amount could be 25 cents, a dollar, or ten dollars depending on your budget.  It should be large enough to have some meaning but not so large as to be burdensome to either of you. Use whatever tools you can to "win" this game, including leaving notes to yourself on your pillow, by your toothbrush, etc to remind you to check the calendar each evening.   

If the other person finds that you haven't made your mark on a particular day, they will politely ask you for payment, and you will politely make it - no comments, no discussion.  

Hopefully the other person is someone who is invested enough in your being successful with the calendar that he or she will be willing to pay for your being successful at it, at least for a while until it becomes a habit, when you can stop the game. 

PS  Keep it light. If this game leads to arguments, it's best to stop playing it.

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