Notes and Reminders On the Go

Matt Stauffer

Have you ever found yourself writing a note on your hand, despite the smartphone in your pocket? Here are a few tips on how to take quick notes and reminders when you’re away from your computer, using only your phone (smart or not.)

  • iOS: Captio ($1)
    Enter your email address once in Captio’s configuration, and from then on you’re only presented with a space to type your message. Captio costs $1, but makes up for the cost by making it easy to attach pictures to the note from your phone. (for a free alternative, check out Task Me–but you have to provide the app with your own email login.)
  • webOS and Android: Jotter (free)
    Jotter has two fields: email address (which it remembers from your last session) and message. After you type your message, hit Enter, and the Jotter sends the note to your email inbox. Jotter also gives you the option to Jot Again, if you’d like.
  • Most phone services: text yourself
    Many phone services let you send text messages to email addresses, so save your email address as a contact and use it to send yourself quick notes and reminders on the go.
  • Gmail users: the + trick
    You might not know this, but you can add a + and then any word you’d like to your Gmail address, and it’ll still go to your inbox. So, if your Gmail address is user@gmail.com, you can create thousands of email addresses that all end up in the same place: user+spam@gmail.com, user+facebook@gmail.com, user+tasks@gmail.com. I used this to set up Jotter to email me at myemail+tasks@gmail.com, and then set up a Gmail filter to auto-label those messages.

If you’re a smartphone user, you might be wondering, “Couldn’t I just open my email program and write a message to myself?” Yep. You could. The benefit of these programs is that they make the proces of emailing yourself a few seconds faster–and when you need to jot a quick note, those few seconds can be precious.

Do you have any other clever tips for sending yourself notes on the go? Leave them in the comments.

(photo from flickr user Furryscaly)

By Matt Stauffer | Posted: Dec 10, 2010
Category: Time & Task Management | Tags: , , , , , | Permalink | Post a comment | Trackback URL.

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