I started using Due when it first came out. loved that it had a timer that you did not have to manually switch off. I never really used the main feature of Due — the nagging reminders — until recently.
I stopped using Due when I got my first smart watch a couple of years ago, because at that point it was easy to switch off the built-in timer. DIdn’t have to drag my phone out of my pocket to do it.
But over the past few months I’ve started using the reminders feature of Due, and I love it. It’s perfect for tasks that should be completed within a couple of hours of a particular time, but not AT the particular time. I have a reminder set for 6 pm Tuesdays to take out the trash. But it’s fine if I do it at 7 8 or 9 pm, so long as it’s done before I go to bed. The Due reminder keeps nagging me every 45 minutes until I mark it as done.
Another thing I use Due for: I’m responsible at work for sending out a weekly email newsletter. I like to do that after 9 pm on Tuesdays. But I don’t have to do it at a particular time, just after 9 pm and before I go to bed.
Here’s one I use a lot: Often during the day I’ll come across a YouTube video that I think my wife and I would enjoy watching together. I am not in the habit of checking my YouTube Watch Later list in the evening. So I set a reminder in Due to do that.
I use Due only for critical reminders where I want to be nagged. eg, pack medicine before a trip, dial into a scheduled call, or some similar important / need to be nagged activity or event. I otherwise use ToDoist for general reminders where the exact time or even date is not critical. eg, update my fantasy football picks each week, run carbon copy cloner to physical drive each month, book car service for upcoming trip. I definitely don’t like to be nagged all the time for everything, which is why I only use Due selectively.
I use it for alerts I need to know about, but which I too often miss in the anemic popup/beep in iOS apps. If iOS alerts could be as repeatable, persistent and noisy as Due with its Nautical Bells sound (which I can hear through earbuds hanging off my neck) I wouldn’t need Due.
I have a repeating wake-up alarm set for 2 minutes after my HomePod alarm, which I find I need because I occasionally fall back in bed after slapping the top of the HomePod in the morning. (I could use Due by itself as an alarm clock, but I like the HomePod’s alarm sound.)
I also use it to give me an x-minute heads-up on an event I have to leave for or call into.
Just to make sure I keep myself aware, I put inside Due a week’s advance notice of expirations of software and magazine subscriptions and domain registrations, and a few hours’ notice before important personal/work appointments.
Example from today: Reminders to check in for flights! I like to check in as soon as I can, but sometimes check-in doesn’t open right on time. I use Due to bug me every 15 minutes until I check in, as usually the check in opens after a few of those
I use an alarm for that — and it’s a good example of how Due is different from a conventional alarm. A conventional alarm tells me to do something at EXACTLY this time. Due tells me to do something within a few minute or hours after a specific time.
So I set a timer — not Due — to remind me to dial in three minutes before the start time of a meeting. (Takes me that long to take out my iPhone, put in my AirPods, and navigate through whatever horrible conferencing system the other guy is using.)
I just use it for quick reminders of something I need to do that really isn’t a task. I don’t have much thought process for when I due use it. Oftentimes, if I think of something I need to check on when I get home I’ll just add it to Due instead of my task manager. For example, when I was out today I remember I needed to ask my wife a question and I just put that in Due. The notifications are already set so its pretty quick. Another use is medicine for me, our baby, or dog. I don’t really have a rationale for why I don’t use something else but this has always just worked.
It’s weird, I don’t really have a set system for Due but its always been on my home screen and I have always used it. I don’t think about it too much but I probably use it everyday for many different one off tasks. Sometimes I do think about it too much then it just gets too complicated and overwhelming of when I should use it.
Like I said, typical timers aren’t noisy enough. I keep my iPhone plugged into headphones most of the time, and Due let me hear the alarm when normal alerts won’t.
Kind of like my system for using Drafts, Apple Notes, and full-blown word processing documents. I use all three to take notes. I never really thought about it for years — I just did it. When I did think about it, I realized that I use Drafts for text I mean to save for seconds, minutes, hours, or days. Notes is for weeks or months. Word processing documents are for documents I mean to keep forever. But I don’t give it any conscious thought when I start a note.
I use it daily, and have many recurring items set within it:
Medications
Reminders for OmniFocus: I have a morning and evening reminder for me to check OF in the morning for the day’s coming items, then another in the evening to plan the next day’s activities and clear the inbox.
Reminder to engage flashcard application Anki on a daily basis (this one has had an enormous impact on the quality of my work - highly recommended for anyone wanting to become more knowledgeable about whatever they care to become smarter about!)
Typically, I use do for thing a that I deem to be important enough that I need follow-up “nagging” on. I tend to hyper focus so strongly that I often won’t recognize one-and-done type notifications from the native Reminders app, making Due ideal for my needs.
I use a Mac for making cards (easier to paste pictures into, formatting text, etc) but splurged on the iOS app ($25) so that I can be anywhere and review on the go. To he honest, the steep price of the app almost turned me off to the entire system when I first priced it, but after using Anki for a month on my Mac, I was all in. It’s made an IMMENSE difference in how I learn things.
Bins (three different collection types, once, twice or three times a week)
Medicine
Feed fish
Water plants every 3 days
All things that I find need strident and persistent reminders. Also, any other once-off reminder I simply must NOT forget, set to 1, 5 or 10 minute “pings” to get my attention, according to urgency and “promptness factor”.
I use Due to set a reminder to take my Apple Watch back off the charger so that I don’t miss the next “Stand” activity ring. (Actually, though, I use Lin Junjie’s Alfred workflow, to just type it on my Mac, since that’s where I’m usually sitting when I’m charging my Watch. But it occurs to me that a Shortcut would also be really useful for this.
Due is great for recurring reminders. (I use a calendar app exclusively for appointments.)
I teach on online class at the same time every afternoon during the week, and so Due pesters me with the annoying Samba Whistle alarm 10 min prior to class.
Other reminders are for weekly trash night, backups on first Saturday of each month, bi-monthly furnace filter changes, etc.
I wrote a Python script initiated from Drafts app to set up a series of 9 consecutive days of Due reminders for nine-day prayer devotions called novenas.
