There’s a lot of different tools out there for organizing tasks, reminders and to-do lists, and I know almost everyone has a different method of keeping track of these items, from post-it notes to PDAs. I’ve tried a couple different systems and most of them are okay, but none of them are great except RememberTheMilk.com. It is by far my favorite and the easiest way to make my tasks, reminders and to-do lists easily accessible. The best part: it’s all FREE! And around Life in Student Ministry, we really like free stuff.
Web Interface
A first glance at RememberTheMilk.com will show you how clean, user-friendly and “Web 2.0″ the site is. Create an account and you’ll be a pro at organizing tasks for yourself in about 5 minutes or less. It’s got all the features you might expect, plus a couple extras:
- Create tasks, to-do items and reminders.
- Schedule due dates.
- Setup different categories for tasks.
- Setup locations where tasks should be completed.
- Set priority levels for different tasks.
- Share tasks and lists with other people.
- Schedule reminders to be sent via email, Twitter, Skype, AIM, GoogleTalk, MSN, text message, and more.
- Sync with Windows Mobile and iCal standards.
- And a bunch more.
Accessiblity
The best thing about RememberTheMilk.com is that your data is not limited to their website. They go through great lengths to make sure it’s accessible where ever you want it. The two options I use the most are the Mac dashboard widget and text messaging from my cell phone.
Mac RTM Widget
If you’re a Mac user like me, download RTM’s dashboard widget and see all your lists and reminders in a single keystroke. As you complete each item, check it off in the widget and it automatically syncs with your account online, iCal calendars (like Google calendar or iCal, for example) and anywhere else you maintain your RTM lists.
Text Messaging
For some reason I tend to remember things when there’s no computer around, like when driving in the car or falling asleep at night. With RTM, that’s no problem. I just send a text message directly to RTM via Twitter and it immediately pops up in my task list and also generates an email to me. For example, if I send a text message to Twitter and say, “d rtm tomorrow Call Paul about teaching this Sunday,” it will schedule the task online, in the Mac widget and my email for tomorrow. Sure beats having to carry a paper and pencil everywhere.
There are so many more slick features to RememberTheMilk.com that you’re just going to have to go check it out for yourself. It really is the perfect system for me to stay current with every little ministry detail I need to remember.
[tags]RememberTheMilk.com, Twitter[/tags]
About me: I am married to my beautiful wife, 
October 22nd, 2007 at 12:42 pm
Sometimes we can over-organize our organization. Simplicity can save a lot of headaches.
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:36 am
Another Web 2.0ish web app for organization is Backpack. I don’t know much about it, nor how it compares to RTM, but I might try both to see what I like.
All I need now is an iPhone
November 26th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
Tim, you are right on the money with Remember the Milk. I use the igoogle homepage widget and have it in my gcal. You can also download a firefox extension that will load RTM in a sidebar and a firefox extension that will allow you to e-mail to RTM from gmail. Those guys at RTM are smart.