I read a blog post recently that inspired me to take some action — specifically setting up reminders to take action. I wish I could remember exactly which blog it was, but I’ve tried to dig and been unsuccessful. If I find it, I’ll certainly update the post with the source.
Anyway, the author had several steps to ‘get off your ass and make changes, be awesomer’ (I’m paraphrasing, of course) and one that I did in the moment was set up some reminders. That was about a month ago, and it did have some effect on me. As of today, I’ve modified and updated the alerts I set for myself.
Here’s the reminders I currently have:
- 12AM: What are you grateful for? (I usually go to sleep around then)
- 12PM: What is the most effective use of your time and energy? (I’m awake and generally have started my workday by now, so this helps to refocus me on what’s most important)
- 4PM Sunday: Review Asana, Evernote, and journal. (Trying to insert a GTD-style weekly review into my routine)
- 6:30PM M-F, Sun: Meditate (simple breathing/gratitude meditation)
- 7:30PM MWF: Work out get huge! (3 days a week. Usually between meals at this point which was an excuse of mine for not doing this before)
Previously, I used the Reminders app for iOS. It doesn’t work quite the way I wanted for a daily reminder, since it wants to “check off” the reminder, and makes a note of how many days ago the reminder was set. I don’t care when I set the reminder, and I don’t want to go to the Reminders app when the alarm is triggered, so now I’m using the Clock app with simple alarms. I just changed the “label” text to be the reminder.
Feel free to steal these alerts, add your own, and all that good stuff.