Remember the Milk

When I was in middle school, I walked into the public library with a list of books I wanted written on my hand in black marker. I walked right up to the information desk to ask where I could find the books I wanted, pointed to my hand, and the librarian stared at me in shock. "You'll get ink poisoning!" she yelled.

Fearful of dying from marker ink, I switched to pens clearly labeled "non-toxic" and tried to find other ways to remind myself to do things. Like post-it notes. But those are easily lost and crumpled and accidentally thrown away. I tried computer sticky notes, but they didn't transfer from computer to computer. For awhile, I had a paper planner that I carried around everywhere, but trying to find the perfect planner for my OCD self is a challenge in itself. And it became full of neatly handwritten notes, with cross-outs all over them, which quickly became a mess.

And then I discovered "Remember the Milk." It's an online list program which can be synced across almost any electronic device with internet access. And you can make different kinds of lists for different parts of your life. (My current lists are "Graduate School", "Personal", "School") And it's free. You can sign up here: http://www.rememberthemilk.com/

One of the best things about Remember the Milk is that you can put it on your desktop, so you can see it even if your internet isn't working. For Mac/Windows, download "App for the Milk" from http://www.chrillo.info/apps/app-for-the-milk/

You can also sync it with Google so that it shows up on your Google homepage, or on the left-hand side of your Gmail account. And do a zillion other things with it.

And, my personal favorite thing to do, is to embed it in your Windows desktop, to make everything look nice and clean and organized. Here are instructions on how to do just that!

Step 1: Right click on your desktop and select "properties."

Step 2: Click on the "Desktop" tab in the "Display Properties" window.

Step 3: Click "Customize Desktop."

Step 4: Click on the "Web" tab in the "Desktop Items" window and then click "New."

Step 5: Next to "Location" type in: http://www.rememberthemilk.com/services/modules/googleig/ and click "OK"

Step 6: Go to http://www.rememberthemilk.com/services/modules/googleig/ and type in your username and password, and check "remember me."

Step 7: Go back to your desktop to re-size and move around your new Remember the Milk list.

AND if that's not reason enough to sign up for Remember the Milk, you can also sync it to your iPhone, so you'll always have that list with you wherever you go!

(But I still like to write on my hands every now and again, just to spite that librarian...)