Comments on: Alternatives to I Want Sandy

Question: Alternatives to I Want Sandy

dyslexictraveler — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:20:28 -0800

mourning-the-about-to-be-lost-productivity-filter: What alternatives to I Want Sandy can you recommend as far as email reminder services go?

Now that the folks behind I Want Sandy have announced that they are shutting her down in two weeks on December 8 (just two weeks!!), I'm about to be stuck in a lurch without a trusted email reminder service.

What alternative services can you recommend that will let me add reminders from within my email software (i.e., gmail calendar reminders don't count, because I can't create those by sending a message, or more importantly forwarding a message from within Mail.app)?

Both free and paid services are fine as long as they are reliable & flexible, and at least somewhat likely not to disappear in the near future.

By: drjimmy11

drjimmy11 — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:08:31 -0800

www.rememberthemilk.com is great, and you can create events by email. It can send reminders to your email or SMS.

By: drjimmy11

drjimmy11 — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:10:27 -0800

Apparently there's even a FF extension which lets you manage tasks directly from gmail! And it's all FREEEEEEEEEEE!

By: donknotts

donknotts — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:37:30 -0800

I really like gootodo.com. I use it primarily for work-related tasks and it's really helped my productivity. It's 18.00/ 6 months but well worth it for me.

By: dyslexictraveler

dyslexictraveler — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:57:06 -0800

donknotts and drjimmy11: do you know if either Remember the Milk or gootodo.com will send you back more than just a one line "todo" when they send the reminder -- i.e., the full content of an email message you forwarded to it on a date you specify?

My biggest use of Sandy currently is not so much for timed to dos (although I do do that on occasion) but more as a kind of electronic "tickler" system. What I really like about it is that I can simply forward emails to it with a reminder date and then it will send them back to me on that date.

Here's a real life example of how this is super useful: this morning I had a doctors appointment at a doctor I had never seen before, and I had forwarded off my appointment confirmation email to IWantSandy several months ago so I could forget about it till I needed it (this morning when I'm trying to find the office).

In any case this ability to have information appear in my inbox at exactly the moment I need it is what I'm dreading loosing when Sandy goes offline, and what I'm really looking to replace.

By: sio42

sio42 — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 05:50:24 -0800

i have seen this mentioned several times on mefi.

timecave

i have not used it, but it is supposedly just what you want. you send things to it (the cave) and then they reappear when you want.

hope that helps!

By: donknotts

donknotts — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:43:44 -0800

dyslexictraveler: yes gootodo will include the whole email you send it as well as attachments. Individual tasks, however, are not sent back to you - they are accessed through the website. You can sign up for a daily summary of your tasks that can be emailed to you. This might be where Sandy had an advantage but I'm not familiar enough w/ that service. You can get a free trial so you might want to check it out.