Reminders in Google Keep- Productivity series, part 1.

Posted on by

Google keep is one of the apps I use the most often day to day. I like to write lists for everything– you name it I have a list for it. One of the most irritating things when it comes to lists, though, is when you’ve written a proper detailed list of things you wanted to do at uni today (i.e. pick up book from library, drop into student advice centre, post a letter in the SU), but you get one or two tasks into your head, forget to check your list again until you come home and lo and behold you’ve only done two out of five tasks you meant to do, and might have even missed an important deadline or catch-up with your friends.

This is something I am a prime culprit of. However, Google Keep’s reminders are an absolute lifesaver. Today’s post will be a tutorial on the fairly quick and painless process of setting them up.

Who might this blog post be useful for?: People with an SpLD, mental health condition or who otherwise struggles with organisation and memory.

What study skills challenges can this app help you overcome?: Forgetfullness, poor time-keeping, inefficiency at performing tasks or unintentionally missing important lectures, appointments etc.

What is the tool or study skills strategy?: Location assisted reminders on Google Keep, synced to Google Calendar automatically.

Available on: IOS, Android and in-browser. I have written a blog post on how to use the basic features.

Date and Time reminder

To create a reminder, choose from creating a new note, audio note, doodle or list by selecting from the following icons…

screenshot of the icons for creating files in Google Keep

 

 

then once you have created your note, doodle, list etc., select the icon circled in red to create a reminder for it. You can then set this reminder by date and time or by location…

screen shot of the reminder icon circled in red. The reminder icon is a pointing hand with a circle around the finger.

First let’s look at creating reminders by date and time. This is a feature I often use with important deadlines and appointments. This is the screen that comes up once you have selected the reminder icon…

screen shot of google keep date and time settings for reminders.

Select date and time and input your information. Press the tick icon to create this reminder, and then you can access it through your Google Keep app or through Google Calendar. Here is how it looks on your google calendar…

screenshot of the reminder in google calendar. Text reads 'pick up prescription while at doctors! And extenuating circumstances form'

This syncs up only if you use the Google Calendar app and use the same email for both your Google Keep and Google Calendar accounts (or choose to set your different accounts up so they sync). I use my university email for both so they sync up automatically. It is worth noting that while events can be synced between google and apple calendars, reminders can’t be synced from google onto iOS calendars, so you will need the Google Calendar app installed on your mobile devices for this to work. If you find that you don’t check your mobile device enough for this reminder to be useful and would prefer a reminder on your PC while you’re online, you can also install the integrated Google Calendar add-on for your browser. For more information on the Google Calendar add-on for Firefox please visit this blog post on Google Calendar and scroll down. A Google calendar add-on is also available on Google Chrome.

Location based reminder

This kind of reminder is something that can be particularly helpful when you know you’re going somewhere (for example, the Doctors) that will trigger anxiety or dissociation- which will make remembering tasks that need to be done, like picking up a prescription, very difficult. This could also be a useful way to remind yourself to check a list of symptoms or worries you have prepared before your appointment- or it could simply be a note that reminds you to pick up bread while you’re in Tesco’s!

To set up a location based reminder first create the note, list or picture etc. I’ve created a shopping list as an example, and select the reminder icon as before. …

screen shot of a shopping list in google keep. At the bottom of the list is a location icon and text reading 'Tesco superstore'.

…Then instead of ‘pick date and time’ choose ‘select place’ and start typing in the location you want your reminder to be triggered by, this acts as a kind of search bar and inputs the exact adress for you as you can see below…

screen shot of search function for location reminder. The search bar reads 'Tesco' with a list of addresses in the results. screen shot of the search bar. The text in the search bar is the address and postcode of Tesco Superstore.

…And that’s about it, this reminder will then pop up on your mobile device when you are registered as at that location (ensure your location settings/ GPS are enabled and all correct and you’re good to go!).

Thanks for reading,

Rachel