How to Set an Alarm for Birthdays You Actually Won't Forget
All of us intend to keep that in mind. Then one day you get an email or Facebook message that says "happy birthday" and you realize that you knew nothing of its proximity. What you really need is not willpower, but something that stops you before the event, not after, so you can take action to stop it.
Here are some tips on how to do it properly, what tools to use and why a simple phone alarm is often not sufficient.
How to make a phone alarm work for birthdays
The alarm feature of your phone is designed to do one thing: Ring at a specific time once. Remembering a birthday requires something special:
It should auto renew yearly. A one-time alert will indicate re-enter the date next year and again the following year.
It must not be delayed until the day, it should go off early. When the day itself finally arrives, there's no time left to put any plan into action or to order a gift.
It should tell you what day it is, who is it for. The "10:00 AM" buzzer is generic so you still have to remember who it is, whether it's your sister or a co-worker.
It must withstand a new phone, a change of time zone or months without being seen. The first time any of the above occurs, a note-app entry or a one-off alert gets lost.
This is what a good reminder system is supposed to fill.
What a good birthday alert really means.
A successful set up does three things:
Not a same-day ping, but one a week in advance, that is the typical sweet spot as it allows time to plan something.
A reminder on the same day, if the initial warning was missed, so the day doesn't pass.
An easy way to respond right then preferably a ready-to-send message, not a message that needs to be thought of.
Most people make it part one (I was told to make a calendar appointment or set up a phone reminder) and then never follow through with part three (I did something) because there's a disconnect between what I was told and I actually did something.
How to set one up
Option 1: Your calendar.Option 1: Your phone's calendar.
Add birthday as a yearly recurring event and set a notification a few days in advance. This is possible, but most calendars only allow for one lead time to be set, and there's no way to convert the notice into a real greeting.
Option 2: A note or list that you go over yourself.
It's better than nothing, but it can only work if you remember to look at it and that's the issue you are trying to solve in the first place.
Option 3: An app that is specially designed for birthday alarms.
The one that actually does the trick is the first, which tells you how much ahead you want the warning, and then notifies you with your own time zone's clock and with a pre-written, customizable greeting to send on the day of. No more of forgetting to remember, manual checking or entering dates again.
The set-up takes 3 steps:
Add the people you don't want to forget – name and date, imported from contacts or typed into one at a time. If you don't want to record ages, the year will be optional.
Select lead time and channel push, email, SMS, or all three, targeting them in time when there is still time to plan.
Send the greeting when it is triggered: the reminder message will be preformulated when the reminder is triggered, and therefore will take one tap to act upon, rather than a blank reminder to fill in and a blinking cursor.
It's ready for one person and then it's ready for that person next year, and next year, and next year and so on.
What is the difference between an "ALARM" and a "REMINDER" here?
Not really same idea, two names. One is what happens when it does go off, and the other is what makes sure it does. An effective tool does both.
More than something that beeps
The truthful constraint of a literal alarm is that it ceases at making noise. The actual thing that gets you out of the jam is what you do in the 60 seconds following the alarm. Do you know who it is for? Do you send it something as simple as tapping a button?
The gist of Birthday Reminders is that it's about birthdays, anniversaries, and all sorts of dates you never want to forget, and it sends you alerts that are meaningful and in time, and a message that is ready when you need it. It is free and can be used on web, iOS and Android, and there is no limit on the number of contacts available, nor a paid version that removes the cool features.
Set it once. Let it take care of remembering from here.