Be an Organized Student with Remember the Milk
Thursday, August 21, 2008 by Kelly Sutton Everyone is always falling on and off the GTD wagon, but I've been hooked on a great to-do organizer called Remember the Milk (RTM). If you are looking for a way to keep yourself organized going into the new school year, this post is for you. This post will talk about the pros and cons of the service, its application for students and a demo of how I personally use it.
Now is a great time to get yourself organized. It's just before school and you might be looking for something new.
To-Dos in the Cloud
One of the biggest selling points about RTM--to me--is its free-ness and the fact that it's in the clouds. The online interface is straightforward and clean. It has Google Gears, so you can access your tasks even when you're not online. Get the benefits of having info online and also avoid getting screwed if the campus WiFi goes down.
RTM also boasts just about every possible method of ingestion. Currently you can add tasks from a GMail sidebar, an iPhone, a BlackBerry, any Windows Mobile phone, Twitter, Google Calendar and... you get the point.
Student Application
Well this is all fine and dandy but how can us students use RTM? Since laptops are the primary computer choice of most students and campus-wide WiFi is now a selling point for schools, a cloud-based to-do manager makes sense.
And whether an iPhone is outside of your price range or not, the barrier for entry is low for Remember the Milk, which makes it perfect for students. As with most web applications, this sucker is on the freemium pricing model: you get most of the functionality for free.
Do It Like This
How do I use it? Let's take a look.
Whenever I'm sitting down to work, I always make sure I've got an RTM window open. I keep this window on the "Overview" view of tasks. Another important note: this gets its own separate window. It keeps me on task and focused.
To enter in tasks when I'm at my computer, I use the RTM Quicksilver plugin. A few keystrokes and the task is in my system.
If I'm on the road, RTM has a personalized email addresses for each user. I just send a task to the address from my new iPhone 3G and it's off my mind. (It would also work with my previous phone, the LG VX6200.)
Remember the Milk offers a great, free service that can be checked and maintained from just about any device, save maybe pen and paper.
Do you use or have you tried Remember the Milk? What do you think? OR What do you use as your personal organization system? Let us know in some comments!
Reader Comments (27)
I love Remember the Milk! I wrote something similar a while back but not as in depth. I even decided to shell out $25 for the premium service so I can sync with my Blackberry and use it on my iPod Touch.
Great article!
I have yet to use Remember the Milk but I think I'll check it out... I've been using Todoist for a year now and it's working great for me.
I've been using RTM for a while now, but I don't have email or a data plan on my cell phone. What I love most about it is that it interacts with Twitter using direct messages. When I'm on-the-go and think of something I have to remember to do later, I can just send a quick text message (I do have unlimited texting on my plan) and know it's there for me when I look again. There's a whole bunch of commands that RTM takes through Twitter, including lookup options, and for those of us without an iPhone, no matter how badly we may want one, SMS messaging can be a lifesaver.
Thanks for the article, just in time for back-to-school.
@Annie
If something's working great for you, don't go switching. I always screw myself whenever I decide to switch for no reason. :(
@Stepahnie:
Most cell providers allow you to send emails via SMS. Just type an email address into your "To" field and see what happens. I also preferred the Twitter method though before I got my iPhone. :)
This looks like a very useful application. It's not often that I read posts about useful applications for college students. I'll have to read more about this. Thanks for sharing and mentioning a program that you use, Kelly.
I've had good luck with a Google Calendar & cell phone calendar combo, but I kept reading rave reviews of RTM. So, I gave it a try, and... well, I was underwhelmed. Seems like a good enough program, but Google Calendar is just as good as far as I'm concerned, especially with the SMS Quick Add function.
But maybe I'd be of a different mind if I started out with RTM.
[...] What about those tasks that you have to get done, but don’t actually qualify as homework? Remember the Milk. No, I didn’t forget anything. Remember the Milk is a web application that I have written about previously. I am using it to track all to-do tasks right now, and once school starts, I will use it to track all tasks that aren’t homework. I don’t have space for a full description of my RTM use, so I will save that for a later post. For more information right now on using RTM as a student, see Kelly Sutton’s post on the topic, over at HackCollege. [...]
[...] “Be an organized student with Remember The Milk.” [Hack College] [...]
To GTDify it, I tag each task with a project name and save a search for each project tag. As for context, I tag it with @email or @webdesign.
I heart RTM.
I also use http://todoist.com/" rel="nofollow">Todoist.com. Love it's simplicity. I also use google calendar side by side. I tried RTM for a couple of days a while ago but it just didn't stick with me.
I've been using a notebook for To Do lists for ages but kept moving things to the next day. A waste of both paper and my time.
I've been using RTM for a couple days now and it's much better- I seem to get more done. Maybe the fact that it's linked in my favorites and makes me feel guilty when something is overdue... Anyway, it works!
So, thanks Hack College! :D
I use RTM for everything also! I tend to add items using Jott from my phone. I found it to be the easiest way for me.
http://blog.rememberthemilk.com/2007/11/jott-your-tasks.html
[...] Get Organized with Remember the Milk [...]
[...] Get Organized with Remember the Milk [...]
The best thing about RTM (along with phone sync-ing) is the gmail plug-in. That feature is awesome!
I've been a fan of RTM for easily half a year now and the Gmail Plug-in is awesome. I have my gmail permanently opened when I'm online so the tasks are constantly there to remind me as well!
I recommend Gtdagenda
Here is how you can use it for school:
http://www.gtdagenda.com/useit/5/How-to-use-Gtdagenda-for-School
[...] What about those tasks that you have to get done, but don’t actually qualify as homework? Remember the Milk. No, I didn’t forget anything. Remember the Milk is a web application that I have written about previously. I am using it to track all to-do tasks right now, and once school starts, I will use it to track all tasks that aren’t homework. I don’t have space for a full description of my RTM use, so I will save that for a later post. For more information right now on using RTM as a student, see Kelly Sutton’s post on the topic, over at HackCollege. [...]
wow..seems so convenient very nice..
Remember the milk is pretty amazing. I have used it over and over many years in a row. I absolutely love it.
I'll have to try this out... it looks really cool. I wish I could have had something like this back when I was in school (last year, lol).
RTM seams to be very useful because it is not a stand alone program. It is a great thing that you can interact with GMail sidebar, an iPhone, a BlackBerry, any Windows Mobile phone, Twitter, Google Calendar. I personaly like the option of iPhone. Think this great stuff should be tried out. Thank you for sharing.
You should also check out Manymoon.com since it allows you to create projects with classmates & track tasks.
It's free and works with Google Docs and Google Calendar.
I use and recommend http://www.gtdify.com.
I love http://gtdify.com.