The Reminders app is, in my opinion, the most well-rounded and complete productivity app that Apple have made. They've been adding new features to it for years now, and I reckon that for 99% of people, the Reminders app is all they need to be more productive. But you need to know how to use it, so in this video I'm going to share 14 tips and tricks with you that make Reminders super useful. Okay, let's get into it. If you find the regular lists a bit too basic, you can include sections in your list to help you better manage your Reminders.
So here I have a project list and each item on the list represents a task that must be accomplished as part of my project. Let's say that the first stage that I want to include is the planning stage. Tap the ellipsis menu in the upper right corner and choose new section. The section is dropped into your list and you can give it a name. If you tap on the arrow to the right of the section you can expand or collapse this particular section.
With the section expanded you can tap into it to begin adding reminders directly into it. If you already have reminders within your list and you want to move them into that section, simply drag and drop them. If I then tap on the ellipsis button you can see that the option now says manage sections instead of new section. This is because we now have an additional option called edit sections. In here you can change the name of sections but you can also drag and drop them to change the order in which they appear within the reminders list.
Oh and just to point out if I tap into the reminder that we just created and tap on the i or info button, At the bottom of this page is an option called Subtasks. I can tap into this and add some subtasks to this particular reminder. So in a way you now have two levels of subtasks available to you within the Reminders app.
You have tasks within sections and then you have subtasks within reminders. When you create a list you can choose an icon for it up at the top of the screen and you can scroll through this list and choose one from here. There's quite a few to choose from and they cover a wide range of topics but they're monotone and a bit boring. If you want to open up the entire list of emojis, you might not realize that the way to do this is right under your nose.
The very first icon in the list to the left of where your selection begins, and really easy to miss, is a smiley face. Tap on that and this opens up the entire emoji selection. There are way more icons to choose from in here and they're much better looking, so give it a go.
Smart lists are a feature of the Reminders app that I think a lot of people steer clear of because they look daunting, but they're really useful. So when you create a list you have this option to choose the type of list that you're creating. You can choose standard or shopping which is where your phone will automatically sort the items in the list into categories or smart. I'll choose smart and then you can see underneath you can choose from edit filters. First at the top of the list you can choose whether or not the items that you add to this list should adhere to any or all of the filters.
Keep this in mind as we work through the options here. Underneath that we can see the different filters that we can enable. So I think the most obvious one and the one that sits at the top of the options here is tags.
I'll tap into this option and you can see that we can choose from a number of different states in relation to the tag. I think the most useful two options here are any selected tags or all selected tags. With this enabled, if we then create a reminder with a specific tag, our phone will automatically put that reminder into the relevant smart list. So let's say for example that I'm pulling together a list of Christmas gifts to buy, and let's say that I'm getting some for friends, some for family and some for colleagues.
I'd create my smart list like we've just been doing, and I would say that this list has to include items that match all of the filters that I'm including. I would tap into tags and choose all selected tags, and then I would tap Christmas and family from the list. I'd then choose done and save the list. This will then automatically pull any existing reminders through, that match my criteria but it will also apply to any that I make in the future.
You can get really detailed with this. You can specify to only include items before, after or during a certain date or time range. You can specify to include items added at a specific location.
You can use flag and priority status and the cool thing is that you can add multiple filters together to create quite detailed criteria for your smart lists. The problem with reminders lists is that they follow a traditional today. do list style.
You chuck everything into a list, you tick it off as you go along. That works for some things, but you might be working on more of a project where you want to move things from one stage to another. You could do this with a regular list using sections, but when we think of process flows we tend to think from left to right.
So in any list that you're working on, tap the ellipsis in the upper right of the screen and choose View as Columns. This changes the regular list view to a column view. Notice that the sections now show as column headers. If you tap the ellipsis you can choose to create a new column rather than a new section. Beyond the change of name this works exactly the same as managing sections does.
The main difference is that you can drag and drop items from one column to another. When you create lists in Reminders they appear in this standard list view as you can see with the new one that I've just created. If you work with loads of lists this is probably okay, but there might be some lists that you want to access more easily and for this you'll want to pin them. Apple don't make it obvious how you would do this, but you can either swipe from left to right on a list and tap the yellow pin button, or you can tap and hold on a list and choose pin.
If you'd like to unpin a list, you don't have the swipe option, you'd instead tap and hold on a list and choose unpin. Something I always try to remember is to enable my VPN when I connect to OpenWi-Fi, because connecting to OpenWi-Fi without using a VPN puts your data at risk of being stolen. Private Internet Access, the sponsor of today's video, make this easy by letting you set up an automation from within the app.
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You can see in this example list that not only have I got reminders, but many of the reminders have got icons next to them. That's because these reminders are linked to items elsewhere in the Apple ecosystem, like notes, emails, or pages in Safari. The easiest way to create a reminder that links to something else is to create a reminder from that item using Siri.
So here for example I've received an email and I want to be reminded about it tomorrow morning, so with the email open I'd access Siri and say remind me about this tomorrow morning, and just like that the reminder is created complete with a link back to this email. Or in Safari I could say remind me about this later today, and it will create the reminder complete with a link back to the Safari page. Or in Notes, which is really useful, you can say remind me about this in an hour for example, and it will create a reminder that links back to that note. This also works in Messages, and it will create a reminder with a link back to the messages thread.
So if you've ever done that thing where you get a text and you can't reply right away, but you don't want to forget and appear rude, that's how you could manage this. It definitely works in Mail, Notes, Safari and Messages, so predominantly first party Apple apps, But in the next tip I'll show you how you can achieve the exact same effect with pretty much anything on your iPhone. In the previous tip I showed you how you can use your voice assistant to quickly create reminders that link to other parts of the Apple ecosystem. The problem is that this mainly works with first party Apple apps like Notes, Safari and Mail. What if you want to use it to remember something in Apple Music, or Books, or Maps, or even third party apps like Netflix or Spotify?
Here's how you do that. So here in Netflix, for example, I've got a show and maybe I want to add it to a watch list that I've got in Reminders, where I've got a list of loads of different content that I'd like to watch. To do this, choose Share, then choose More Options and choose Reminders from the list of apps.
Fill in any information you'd like to add and then choose Add. The reminder is added, complete with a link to that exact show in Netflix. Here in Spotify, I have an audiobook and again, maybe I want to share this with a list of content that I want to consume.
In Spotify you tap on the ellipsis button, then choose share, then choose more from the list that appears and choose reminders from the share sheet. The process from this point on is exactly the same as it was with the Netflix example. If you tap on details you have a load of additional information that you can input.
So for example if this was an audiobook that you wanted to tell a friend about you could toggle on when messaging and choose that friend from the list. Then the next time that you're messaging that person you'll be reminded about this audiobook. Additionally, you could tap into tags and include a tag here. Maybe the list of content that you're creating is a generic list of TV shows, movies, audiobooks, podcasts, etc. You could use tags to better manage that list.
In Instagram you would tap on the little paper aeroplane icon, then at the bottom of this page choose Share To. You're then taken to a normal share sheet. I can't show you this for every app out there as everyone uses different apps, but the general rule of thumb is to look for a share option within the app that you use and then either look for the Reminders app or look for a More option, which will then take you to a regular share sheet.
By the way, if you prefer to have content like this in a written format, there's a PDF version of this video. complete with screenshots and you can access it along with all other PDFs I've created, plus future ones, for just $5 a month. You can either scan the QR code that you see on screen, or follow the link in the description of this video to learn more. One of the most useful, but often overlooked features of the Reminders app is the ability to create list templates. For example, a packing list is something that many people can relate to.
If you often bring the same items with you when you go on holiday, you can spend some time creating that list once and then save it as a template. That way you don't have to create the list from scratch every time. Here's an example list that I've created.
To save it as a template, tap the ellipsis button in the upper right corner of the screen and choose Save as Template. Provide any necessary information and save. Now the next time that you create a new list, you'll see an option to choose Templates.
Simply tap on the template that you want to use, give the list a name and you're done. On the Mac, if you want to add a reminder from another app, you can generally just click and drag the item into reminders. I can do this with mail for example. This will not only create a reminder but also link back to that email.
This is a quick and easy method on the Mac but you can also do this on the iPhone. It's not as quick and easy but if you prefer the drag and drop method you might find this useful. So if I have an email and I want to create a reminder for it that links back to the email, I can tap and hold on the email for a second and then start moving it out of mail. While keeping my thumb or finger on the screen, I can use another finger to swipe up and close the Mail app, and then open the Reminders app.
I can navigate to the list where I want to add the reminder, and simply drop the reminder into the list. You can share a list so that you can work on it with another person or a group of people. To do this, you will of course first need to have a list created.
Once you've done that, tap into the list that you would like to work on collaboratively and tap the Share button, which is at the top right of your screen. next to the ellipsis. You can see underneath the name of the list it says collaboration. This is because your phone is letting you know that when you share this list you're not simply sharing the contents of the list with another person, you're inviting that person to collaborate with you.
Beneath that you can see an option that says people you invite can add others. This is pretty self-explanatory but if you tap into this you can allow or revoke that access. You would then choose how you'd like to share access to the list.
So I'm going to tap on messages and I'm going to find the person that I'd like to share access to this list with from my contacts list. I'll tap to send the invite in messages. My friend will then receive the invite in their messages and they'd simply tap on the share icon to accept my invitation. With that done you can see that I now have an icon showing on the reminders list for the person that I've shared the list with.
That person can then use the reminders list the same as any other list and any changes will be reflected on both devices. Also, when you add an item in a shared list, notice this person icon that appears in the menu bar. This is because you can assign items to individual people.
You simply tap on the person icon, then tap on the individual you'd like to assign the item to, and their image will appear next to it. This also creates an assigned list on the main screen of their Reminders app. They can tap into this and see all the items that have been assigned to them.
If I tap on the icon for the person that I've shared the list with, you can see that I can message them. start a video call with them or an audio call with them. I can also tap into manage shared list and this is where I can change things like notifications, add more people or remove people. Something I've always wanted to be able to do is to add voice memos to the reminders app, but Apple don't let you do this. There is a workaround.
So here we are in the voice memos app and I've just created a voice memo. You can see that there is a share option for the voice memo but the one app that's missing from the share sheet is reminders. You also can't use the Remind Me About This hack, nor can you drag and drop into reminders. None of the standard methods work.
The only way that I found that you can get this to work is to share the voice memo to Notes. I'll swipe from right to left on the memo, tap on the ellipsis button and then Share. I'll choose Notes, give the note a name and then save it. What this does is it creates a note in the Notes app with the voice memo embedded into it. With that done you can then open the note and use any of the normal methods of reminding yourself about it, whether that's sharing directly from it, using drag and drop, or using Siri.
So obviously it isn't as quick as being able to share directly from a voice memo, but it's a pretty good workaround. If this is something that you think you're likely to want to do, also keep in mind that if you own an Apple Watch you can capture voice memos on your Apple Watch and iCloud sync means that they'll show immediately on your iPhone. So if you're ever inspired while you're out and about and you want to quickly take a voice memo, you could still create a reminder from it when you're back at your phone.
Reminders now lets you create early reminders. So while you're creating a reminder you're going to tap on the i or info button to access additional options. One of these options is date which you're going to toggle on. By default this is the date that you'd be reminded of this particular reminder, but for the way that we're going to use this we're going to say that this is the date that we need to complete this particular task, but we want to be reminded of it earlier on. I'll choose a date and you can see that underneath the calendar section there is now a new button called early reminder.
Tap into here and you can see that you have a number of preset options to choose from, including a custom option at the bottom. I'm going to choose two weeks before and then complete my reminder as usual. The reminder will stay in my list until I complete it, but I'll receive an early reminder two weeks ahead of time.
Tags and reminders are exactly what they sound like. They are a method of tagging your reminders to then group them later on. They're really useful, but I find that most people that I speak to still don't use them. So let's take the example of creating a list of media that you want to consume. This could include books that you want to read, albums to listen to, games you want to play, movies or shows that you want to watch.
Creating separate lists for all of them would get messy really quickly, so a much easier method is to have one list and tag the items as you add them. As you're adding an item you can see that you've got a tag icon in the menu bar. Tap on that to move your cursor into the tags field.
Input the tag that you'd like to include. You can also tap on the i or info button on a reminder and choose tags from that list. You can see in here that you can either choose from existing tags or create a new one. Once you've created and started using tags you can head to the main page of reminders and tap on a tag from the list at the bottom. This will pull together all items with that tag even if they're across different lists.
Another new feature that arrived in iOS 17 is interactive widgets. In other words for reminders you no longer have to tap on the widget to open the Reminders app to complete an activity. Instead you can simply tap on the button within the interactive widget and complete it right from your home screen.
To do this just add a widget to your home screen as you normally would. The widgets are interactive by default, this isn't a setting that you have to enable or disable or anything like that. So there you go, 14 tips for getting more from the Reminders app.
What do you think? Anything I missed? Drop me a comment and let me know. And as ever if you found this video useful do please consider leaving me a like and subscribing to my channel for more content like this in the future. See you on the next video.