My memory is horrendous, no worse than that… Put it like this, I’m one step away from writing whatever I wish to remember in permanent ink on my forehead. Now, what was I talking about again?
All jokes aside, if I find anything that can aid me in my quest to be able to actually remember something, I’m certainly going to check it out. The other day I found out about a website called Remember The Milk which promised to do just that with a web based to-do list.
First things first – it looks nice and friendly. Who wouldn’t want to use a website with a cool logo like that?! The whole interface, right from the sign up page, makes you want to use it. All you need to do to get started is go through a standard “enter your email here” etc. and you’re set.
Right, so you’ve signed up and logged in, now what? Well that obviously depends on what you want to use the site for. I think there’re two main ways to use it; as an out and out to-do list, or as a replacement for your main calender. I already use Microsoft Exchange to sync my Google Calender to my phone and so am only really interested in the to-do list part. It works fairly well as a full calender, but Google tend to take some beating.
The first thing I did was crack in a note – it was something ingenious like “Something I have to remember” to try it out. It’s literally a case of clicking in a box, writing what you want then hitting (or tapping if you’re a more gentle person) enter. Everything did what I expected, nothing earth shattering. However the second thing I tried was “Squash with Ed on Friday”… and it set the date! Now you may not find that exciting, but I thought it was fantastic. I now had a note called “Squash with Ed” with the date set for the appropriate Friday. It understand loads of things – it’s almost slightly scary. I certainly think it’s really clever, apologies if you’re not impressed! 
The rest of the interface turns out to be just as intuitive, you can set priority levels on tasks, have different lists for certain types, make certain things occur weekly… You’re better off checking it out for yourself rather than me writing a massive exhaustive list. The best bit is that they’ve managed to include all of this functionality without making the whole thing look scary.
Like I mentioned before, I’m not using this service as my full calender, but it’s still nice to put ‘do by dates’ on tasks. Be it a project, or just to give yourself a kick in the bum, I find it useful. If you do, there’s a nice overview which lets you know what has to be done by today, tomorrow, (or if you’re really rebellious), what is overdue. The reason I mention this is that you can also get it to send you reminders via a whole load of methods. Just off the top of my head I know it can send emails, instant messages, texts and even tweets letting you know what you have to do. Useful if you’re not in front of a computer.
Finally I should mention the services and sync options. No-one likes to have to log into hundreds of web pages so there are plugins for Gmail, Google Calender and a couple of others. You can then add and read your notes through services you already use. They also offer apps for iPhone and Windows Mobile, but you have to be a member of their premium service to use them (I want to say $15 a year? :S It certainly isn’t that much if you’re a heavy user).
Do I have any complaints? Only one – no application for my Symbian-based phone! Their other phone applications require a premium account – not the kind of thing I habitually sign up for, but in this case I think they’ve lost out on a customer. I’d love to be able to easily update it via an application. It’s not that big of a problem, I just update by sending an email – but still, it would be nice to see some Symbian love.
Are you jealous of your goldfish’s memory like me, or are you thinking of checking this out anyway to help organise your life? Let me know about your experiences in the comments below.