Work reminder tips for busy (and forgetful) professionals
More reminders aren’t always better. The key is to set them only for things you can’t afford to miss — and to have them arrive right when it’s time to act.
Three rules for reminders that work
1. Write the title as an action
Instead of “Weekly meeting,” try “Pull up weekly meeting slides.” Instead of “Report,” try “Send daily report email.” When you know what to do the moment you see the notification, you spend less time stopping to think.
2. Time it for when you need to get ready
For a 10:00 meeting, a reminder at 9:50 — not 10:00 — gives you time to open your materials and get to the room. Set each reminder for the moment you need to start on the task.
3. Clear out reminders you no longer need
Pause or delete recurring reminders once you don’t need them. When pointless reminders pile up, you start dismissing the important ones out of habit, too. For tasks with a set end date, use Schedule with an end date from the start, so there’s nothing to clean up later.
Example setups
Recurring meetings
- Title: “Pull up weekly meeting slides”
- Setup: Time 9:50 AM · Weekly on Mon
- Tip: Put the meeting room or what to bring in the note, and it’ll show up in the notification.
Daily deadlines
- Title: “Send daily report email”
- Setup: Time 5:30 PM · Weekly on Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri
- Tip: You don’t need this reminder on weekends, so pick the weekdays instead of “Daily.”
Healthy habits
- Title: “Stand up and stretch,” “Drink a glass of water”
- Setup: Time · Interval, every 50 minutes
- Tip: Use the Pause button so the reminders don’t follow you home after work.
Projects with a deadline
- Title: “Review the pre-launch QA checklist”
- Setup: Schedule · Start date next Monday · End date launch day · 10:00 AM · Daily
- Tip: The reminders stop on their own after the end date.
One-off tasks
- Title: “Call the client back”
- Setup: Time · Quick option “In 1 hour” · Once
- Tip: With follow-up on, a reminder you brushed off while busy comes back once more 15 minutes later.
Save snooze for “not right now, but soon”
The Snooze 10 min button in a notification is handy when you’re on a call or wrapping something up. But if you keep snoozing the same reminder, that’s a sign the time itself is wrong. Edit the reminder and move it to a time when you can actually act on it.
Use desktop and phone reminders together
Web Push Reminder works best when you’re at your computer. For days you won’t be at your computer — like site visits or business trips — and for anything you absolutely can’t miss, it’s safer to add it to your phone’s calendar as well.