Tasks & reminders

A reminder is only useful if it arrives when you can act on it.

Too early and it is noise you dismiss. On the day and it is too late to be any help. Getting that timing right, for each different kind of thing, is most of the work.

Three shapes, and everything is one of them

You never have to say which. It is worked out from what you told it.

The one-off

Something with a single date attached, even if you did not know the date when you mentioned it.

“The eye test I have been putting off.”

The recurring

Set once and it repeats on its own rhythm. You never explain it a second time.

“The prescription runs out around the 20th.”

The long watch

Nothing happens for months, then it surfaces at exactly the point it becomes useful.

“The warranty ends sometime next year.”

How far ahead you hear about things

Sensible defaults, not rules. Every one of these bends to how you actually like to be told.

What it isWhen you hear

An appointmentTwo reminders, no moreThe evening before, and again an hour ahead

A repeat prescriptionEnough time for it to go wrong and still be fineA few days before it runs out

A renewal on a yearly cycleLong enough to actually do something about itSeveral weeks before it lands

Something you are waiting forRaised by its absence, not by a dateWhen it should have arrived and has not

A deadline with paperworkBecause the first reminder is rarely the one that worksEarly, then again as it closes

A birthday or an anniversaryThe reminder people most often get uselessly lateIn time to post something, not on the day

Say “that was too early” or “tell me twice” and it changes. You are not adjusting settings — you are just saying so, once.

And what it actually sounds like

This matters more than it looks, especially for anyone who has been made to feel forgetful by a machine before.

A reminderThe dentist is Thursday at 2. Nothing needed now — I’ll say again on Wednesday evening.

A check-backThe prescription should have been ready yesterday. Worth a call, or shall I raise it again tomorrow?

A long watch surfacingYou mentioned the warranty back in February — it ends on the 3rd of next month. Plenty of time.

What you will never getYou have 4 overdue tasks! Your streak is at risk. Tap now to stay on track.

Plain sentences, no urgency theatre, no scoring, and never a tone that implies you have let something down.

Twice

is usually the right number

Enough to be useful, not enough to be ignored

One reminder gets missed because you were driving. Five reminders get muted by the end of the fortnight, and then the whole thing is worthless. Almost everything worth remembering wants exactly two — one far enough ahead to plan, one close enough to act — and then a check afterwards to see whether it worked.

Handing over the first few

The hardest part is remembering what you have been forgetting.

Most people start with the one thing that made them look this up, then remember four more within a day. That is normal, and it is why nothing has to be handed over in one sitting — things get added as they occur to you, which is the only way anybody has ever actually remembered anything.

Start with Patricia

Six questions, a few minutes, and nothing to fill in.