I’m having memory problems which make it hard to function, and I’m trying to work around those. For example, if I have started a process and want to do something else while it runs, I want a reminder to check on it/go back to it in x minutes. I want it to be on my computer instead of phone. In theory I could use the reminder feature on my iPhone, but this is a different kind of reminder and I don’t want to dilute the meaning of the reminder sound. Also, I want something that will pop up and interrupt what I’m doing (and not rely on noise that will bother other people), and I want it to be easy to set. Most of the things I can find have an alarm but not a pop-up. This: http://time-in.info/timer.asp has a popup and lets me enter a custom message...but the custom message does not show on the popup window. doh. It may be the best I can do, but I imagine I could have several timers running at once, so it would be confusing without a note. this http://www.copleys.com/timer.htm has the popup behavior I want, but doesn’t let me add a message.
I use Apple’s iCal, which of course is only for Apple devices. It pops up a notification showing the “description”, “location”, and time of the event. I put the quotes in because you can use those strings for whatever you like. If the calendar is shared in iCloud then an event entered on any of your devices pops up on all of them.
Here’s a quick-and-dirty batch file I made to add a reminder to the task scheduler. Copy it into Notepad and save it as something.bat , then make a link to it on your desktop or wherever.
@echo off
set /p MESSAGE=What do you want to be reminded of?^
^>
set /p ALERTTIME=When do you want to be reminded (hh:mm:ss)?^
^>
set TASKNAME=%DATE:/=_%_%TIME::=_%
set TASKNAME=%TASKNAME:.=_%
schtasks /create /sc once /tn %TASKNAME% /tr "msg * %MESSAGE%" /st %ALERTTIME%
pause
EDIT: I can’t figure out how to make LessWrong put a blank line in a code block. There needs to be an extra blank line before each ^>
It prompts you for the text and the time to pop up the alert. It does have some limitations (you need to specify the exact time rather than e.g., “alert me in 30 minutes”, and will only work for the same day), but if people think it’s useful I can improve it.
It also needs you to enter your password to schedule the task. It’s possible to avoid this by putting your username/password into the batch file, but that’s obviously a security risk so I wouldn’t recommend it. If you want to do so anyway you can modify the second-to-last line of the file to add the following text (replacing ‘username’ and ‘password’ with your actual username and password):
A friend posted this:
She’s found timers which pop up windows, but none where she can add a message.
What is she ultimately trying to achieve? More aggressive reminders than a normal calendar app can give you?
Also: computer or smartphone?
I’m having memory problems which make it hard to function, and I’m trying to work around those. For example, if I have started a process and want to do something else while it runs, I want a reminder to check on it/go back to it in x minutes. I want it to be on my computer instead of phone. In theory I could use the reminder feature on my iPhone, but this is a different kind of reminder and I don’t want to dilute the meaning of the reminder sound. Also, I want something that will pop up and interrupt what I’m doing (and not rely on noise that will bother other people), and I want it to be easy to set. Most of the things I can find have an alarm but not a pop-up. This: http://time-in.info/timer.asp has a popup and lets me enter a custom message...but the custom message does not show on the popup window. doh. It may be the best I can do, but I imagine I could have several timers running at once, so it would be confusing without a note. this http://www.copleys.com/timer.htm has the popup behavior I want, but doesn’t let me add a message.
Google Calendar does this, I think.
Google Calendar puts the message in the Google Calendar window rather than a pop-up in front of whatever you’re doing.
Google has what it calls desktop notifications. See e.g. here
I use Apple’s iCal, which of course is only for Apple devices. It pops up a notification showing the “description”, “location”, and time of the event. I put the quotes in because you can use those strings for whatever you like. If the calendar is shared in iCloud then an event entered on any of your devices pops up on all of them.
You can do this in Windows using Task Scheduler.
task scheduler does it, but it’s a ton of steps—not something I would want to set up dozens of times a day.
Here’s a quick-and-dirty batch file I made to add a reminder to the task scheduler. Copy it into Notepad and save it as something.bat , then make a link to it on your desktop or wherever.
EDIT: I can’t figure out how to make LessWrong put a blank line in a code block. There needs to be an extra blank line before each ^>
It prompts you for the text and the time to pop up the alert. It does have some limitations (you need to specify the exact time rather than e.g., “alert me in 30 minutes”, and will only work for the same day), but if people think it’s useful I can improve it.
It also needs you to enter your password to schedule the task. It’s possible to avoid this by putting your username/password into the batch file, but that’s obviously a security risk so I wouldn’t recommend it. If you want to do so anyway you can modify the second-to-last line of the file to add the following text (replacing ‘username’ and ‘password’ with your actual username and password):