Are you one of those who sets reminders and alarms on your computer calendar, task list, and PDA to trigger you to do something or be somewhere? These reminders and alarms seem to be beneficial in concept although in implementation they can leave something to be desired.

Consider this situation… you may have great intentions when you are setting the reminder. “Yes, I need to get this done by Tuesday at 10am”, you say as you dutifully set your alarm. Then when Tuesday at 10am rolls around and you are focused on something more important, the reminder that pops up on your screen can become more of an irritation. In the best scenario, you may then read it before choosing to tell it to “snooze” or “dismiss”. In the worse case, you don’t even look at it before “dismissing” it and the task is left in electronic limbo land until you manually review it or remember to do it.

One of my clients (who happens to have a great sense or humor) was describing this problem to me as a game of “pop and bop” in his office. He went on to say it was kind of like playing “whack-a-mole” as a kid in the arcade. The reminders pop up and you bop them back down! I got a chuckle from the visualization he created in my mind and then we discussed how there is a better way…

I recommend being selective about using reminders. Make sure that it’s something that you really need and want a reminder for (this will probably be an activity that has time sensitively to it). For example, if you have a big meeting that you absolutely can’t be late for, a reminder may be just the right tool to facilitate you being on time. On the other hand, if you have a task that you want to get done and it really doesn’t matter if you do it today or tomorrow, you may opt not to set a reminder. The takeaway for you here is that ff you use a reminder, you need it to be effective for you and using it haphazardly will dilute it’s effectiveness.

The question now entering your mind is probably, “so how will I remember to do a task if I don’t set a reminder?” The short answer is to create a habit to look at your electronic calendar and task list frequently enough so that you can scan the horizon of upcoming activities and decide what to do next. With these small changes, you can reduce the irritation of playing pop and bop at the office and enjoy whack-a-mole exclusively at the arcade!