Junk reminders

It’s incredibly easy to set a reminder – our phones bristle with notifications, alarms and task management apps.

They can be really powerful when you first start a habit, making the change seem easy. A well planned set of reminders helps you relax knowing that you’ll be prompted to do something in good time.

It’s a good tool, and one I often use myself.

But there’s a trap here too.

It’s easy to add an unrealistic number of reminders, or reminders that pop up at the wrong time. This quickly means we start ignoring the reminders.

If you end up ignoring too many reminders, your system can quickly fall apart.

Each notification that gets ignored means the next one is more likely to be ignored.

And instead of a system that’s helping you change, you have a system which is basically making you feel bad about yourself. A system which is sabotaging your progress and your motivation.

Here are some tips I’ve come up with to avoid that trap:

• Be frugal with your use of reminders – adding too much at once sets yourself up for failure.
• If you can, choose a real life cue (after I brush my teeth I will…) as these feel more natural than yet another digital ping.
• Make a habit of turning off as many app notifications as possible so there’s less background noise.
• Be smart with your timing – prompt yourself to do things at the time of day when they’re easiest to achieve.

What reminders work for you? Do share any tips I’ve missed!