Remind Yourself

Whether you enjoy checking off items on your to-do list or you need a kind of backup brain to remind you of all the random tasks that come your way, the Reminders app can quickly become an important part of your daily routine. Walking the dog when you remember you’re out of coffee? Need to remember to buy gas as soon as you get in the car? Reminders has got your back. If you sync reminders using iCloud (see The iCloud Advantage), it’s easy to add a reminder using Siri with whatever device is at hand. Once that’s done, the app can alert you when a reminder is due, or even when you arrive or leave a location, like your home, work, or car.

Use Siri to create reminders on your iOS/iPadOS devices, Apple Watch, Mac, or HomePod (if you’ve turned on Personal Requests). Make no mistake, this is a killer Siri feature. If you want to wow a relative who just got a new Apple device, show them how easy it is to make a reminder.

Tip: Our Apple devices give us a bunch of different ways to remember things. Get the rundown in When to Use What: Reminder, Calendar, Timer, or Alarm?

Create a Reminder

Creating reminders with Siri is so quick and natural that you may never do it any other way.

Add Basic To Do Items

Say something like: “Remind me to buy coffee,” “Remind me to call Jon,” or “Remind me to look up Italian pastry making” and your item is added to the default iCloud Reminders list.

Video Alert! Check out the video “How to Use Siri with Reminders” on the Siri video page.

The iCloud Advantage

If you take advantage of iCloud syncing, your reminders are available on all devices connected to the same account. On your iPad or iOS device, make reminders sync through iCloud by going to Settings > your name > iCloud and toggling the Reminders switch on. (Your Apple Watch mirrors your iPhone.) On your Mac, go to System Preferences > Apple ID > iCloud and check the Reminders option.

Create a Time-Based Reminder

If you need to remember something at a certain time, include that information, too: “Remind me to cancel my trial subscription in 14 days.” “Remind me to take out the garbage at 9 A.M.” (Figure 49).

Figure 49: Use Siri to create a reminder that tells you to do something at a certain time.

By default, when you specify a day but not a time for a reminder—“Remind me to call Mike Price tomorrow”—you’re notified at 9 a.m. If you’d prefer another time, go to Settings > Reminders on your iOS/iPadOS device, and under “All-Day Reminders,” pick something else.

Create a Location-Based Reminder

If you’ve turned on Location Services turned on for Siri and Reminders (see Turn On Location Services for Reminders) for a device you carry with you—say, your iPhone and your Apple Watch—you can also create a reminder that prompts you to do something when you reach, or leave, a certain place (Figure 50).

Figure 50: Go beyond the basics to create reminders that prompt you to do something when you reach, or leave, a location

Say “Remind me to turn on the oven when I get home.” “Remind me to turn in my timecard when I leave work.” “Remind me to bring my umbrella when I leave.” By default, you’ll get a notification when you leave a location or when you’re within about 320 feet of an address.

Need to remember something when you get in the car? If you pair your iPhone with your car using Bluetooth or CarPlay, you can set a location-based reminder to automatically detect when they connect. Try these commands with your iPhone: “Remind me to buy gas when I get in the car” or “Remind me to get the bags in the trunk when I get out of the car.”

Turn On Location Services for Reminders

To use location-based reminders, you have to let the app know where you are. On your iPhone, go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services. Make sure Location Services is toggled on. Then, scroll down to Reminders and select “While Using the App.” On your Mac, go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy. Select the Privacy tab and then select Location Services in the list on the left. Click the lock icon, enter an administrator’s password, and check the Reminders box in the list.

To learn how to turn on location services for Siri itself—so it can give you local recommendations, for example—see Location, Location.

Remember What You Were Doing

Another handy use for reminders is to keep track of something you’re looking at if you want to come back to it later. Say “Remind me of this” and Siri makes a reminder based on what you’re viewing, for example, a Mail message, Maps location, or webpage (Figure 51). If you don’t specify a time or date, Siri doesn’t set an alarm; it notes the item in your Reminders list.

Figure 51: Use Siri to create a reminder for yourself when you’re viewing a website, Mail message, or Maps location that you want to come back to later.

Organize Your Reminders

Most of us tally many invisible lists in our mind, from what we need to buy at the store to what chores to do around the house. It’s easy to move these out of your head and into Reminders. Simply say something like “Create grocery list.”

To add a reminder to a specific list, say something like or “Add cookies to my grocery list” or “Add Positano to my vacation ideas list.”

Work with Your Reminders

Siri can also help you get an overview of your to do items after you’ve made them, too. Ask Siri “What’s on my reminders list?” “Do I have any reminders?” “Read my work to-do list.” Siri reads your reminders back to you (Figure 52).

Figure 52: Siri can read reminders back to you. If you’re lucky, there won’t be any!

To see if you missed anything ask Siri “Do I have any overdue reminders?” When you’re ready to mark something off your list, just say something like “Mark my Call Jon reminder as complete.”

Tip: Siri can’t delete a list, share a list, assign a task, or tap into many of the Reminders app’s newest features, like subtasks. To do any of that, you must use Reminders on your iOS device, iPad, or Mac.

When to Use What: Reminder, Calendar, Timer, or Alarm?

Our Apple devices give us so many tools to help ourselves remember things that sometimes it’s hard remember which method to use. Here are some basic guidelines:

• Use Reminders: If you need a reminder at a certain time (or place) that includes some text—for example a description of what you need to do, a phone number, or a web address—use Reminders. For example, you might need to call the phone company on Friday after 9 A.M. or pick up milk on your way home from work. Reminders are available on your iOS/iPadOS devices, Apple Watch, Mac, and HomePod (if you’ve enabled Personal Requests).

• Use Calendar: If you need to block off time on your schedule for an event and remind yourself about it, use Calendar. For example, if you’re volunteering at school from 9 A.M. until 1 P.M. on Tuesday, you need a reminder not just when it’s time to go, but every time you look at your calendar to see if you’re free that day. Calendar also makes it easy to schedule (and remind yourself about) recurring events. Calendar is available on your iOS/iPadOS devices, Apple Watch, Mac, and HomePod (if you’ve enabled Personal Requests). See Make a Date.

• Use an Alarm: If you need a simple, audible alarm at a specific time—say, 1 P.M. or 6:30 A.M.—set an alarm. You might set an alarm to wake yourself up in the morning, for example. You can set alarms on your iOS/iPadOS devices, Apple Watch, and HomePod. Alarms stay on your iOS/iPadOS devices until you delete them, so it’s easy to use them again. See Set an Alarm.

• Use a Timer: If you need a simple, audible alarm in a set amount of time—say 30 seconds or 45 minutes—set a timer. You might use a timer in the kitchen to remind you to take something out of the oven. You can set timers on your iOS/iPadOS devices, Apple Watch, and HomePod. Here’s where it gets confusing: Since your Mac doesn’t include a timer, when you need a countdown it suggests you create a reminder instead. (Say “Set timer 5 minutes” to Siri on your Mac, for example, and it suggests creating a reminder with an alarm for 5 minutes from now.) See Set a Timer.