Free Reminder and Calendar Services
In this category, we review the Internet's best free reminder services, including calendars, alarms and personal planners. If you often forget important appointments or have trouble juggling "many" daily tasks, these services could easily revolutionise your working life. Some of the sites we review below simply trigger an alert before an appointment (e.g. a dental check-up), either by e-mail or in some cases using other methods. However, if you require something to use on a daily basis, be that a to-do list to prioritise workload, a personal bookmarking tool, or perhaps a mobile task management app, we’ve got that covered as well. We would very much appreciate it if you could contact us if you discover any outdated information or links. Thanks!
FollowUpThen
This free reminder service lets you gain greater control of your e-mail inbox. Using it is simple: just forward an e-mail to FollowUpThen and they will deliver the message back at a time or day of your choosing. The service is easy-to-use, safe, secure and spam free. It is also possible to set up recurring reminders and carbon copy (CC) reminders for others. Upgrade to a premium account to get SMS reminders and other neat features.
Astrid
Billed as a "social productivity" service, Astrid is a personal task management application for mobile phones and desktop users. Ideal for anyone juggling the demands of daily life, the program allows you to prioritise appointments, manage deadlines, receive reminders (or more forceful "nags" for pressing jobs). With a simple and easy-to-learn interface, Astrid is one of the best apps of its kind. Recommended for people who enjoy to-do lists. Available for Android and iPhone.
Doodle
This free service lets you schedule events and gain consensus on the best possible date/time for each participant. Requiring no registration, Doodle is amazingly easy to use and perhaps the best method to agree on a mutual time, whether that's something as straight-forward as lunch or an important business meeting. The service is compatible with Google, Outlook and other popular calendars.
Evernote
A popular freeware program for PC and mobile. Evernote's slogan of "Remember everything" sums up the purpose of this excellent software. Whether you need to write a memo for later, record an audio message, tag a photo, or save Web pages, documents or maps, Evernote will enable this within seconds. Another major selling point is the ability to quickly find and share notes with friends or colleagues. Syncronisation will ensure all your notes are made available across a variety of devices.
Toodledo
A useful to-do list application for Apple, Android, Blackberry and PC. Using Toodledo, you can quickly organise tasks and arrange these according to priority, due date and category. It is possible to customise tasks into folders, so family, work and other commitments can remain separate and then be filtered. What's more, with mobile access, you needn't be sat at a desk to review your schedule. An alarm and scheduler ensures no appointments are missed.
Remember The Milk
We're a great fan of this free reminder/task management service. Being easy to use, Remember The Milk allows you to set up and create reminder lists for tasks, whether that's dental appointments, business meetings, study periods, or other situations. The priority system is excellent and ensures important tasks are highlighted more prominently. Available for Apple, Blackberry, Android, Twitter, Outlook, Google Calender (as a plug-in and also compatible with Google Mail).
Springpad
A popular and useful reminder application, available on mobile and PC. Springpad operates using a mixture of notes, tags and checklists, so you can quickly save Web pages, product recommendations, events and appointments, or photographs and videos in your preferred format. The app is most impressive on mobile, with its product barcode scanner, local businesses search and social networking features. Setting up alerts and reminders is also very easy.
Alertful
A quality and free reminder service from the UK that's just the thing for remembering important dates, holidays, appointments and so on. Alertful requires no registration and offers a completely "spam free" service. So whether you need to remember a friend's birthday or schedule an MOT, you'll be covered with Alertful.
UncleAid
A free service for anyone having trouble remembering birthdays. At UncleAid, you simply enter the dates you'd like to remember, and the site will alert you via e-mail seven days beforehand. Even better, gift suggestions are made according to gender and age (in the event you're struggling to find a suitable present). It is a clean, easy to use site without any subscription or marketing ploys.
E-mail Remind
Everyone forgets appointments from time to time, but when this begins to happen regularly, an e-mail reminder service could be just what the doctor ordered. Step forward E-mail Remind, a UK-based reminder service that sends automatic reminders before birthdays, anniversaries, appointments, public dates, etc. The site is easy-to-use and just requires a short registration. There's also a handy gift finder for locating gifts for that important birthday.
Spyvo
A fun, free and easy-to-use reminder service, complete with e-mail forwarder, eBay search utility, and other useful tools. Using this, you'll never forget that important date, and you can receive all this information via MSN, Skype, AOL, ICQ and other popular messaging clients (ideal if you're on the move!).
Remindeo
Never forget that important date every again with this free reminder service from Remindeo. The interface is intuitive and easy-to-use, allowing you to enter dates for virtually any appointment, event, or task. Text messages or e-mails can also be scheduled to provide additional notification, although a small fee is required for the text message service (e-mail alerts are free but advert-supported unless you upgrade). An iPhone application is available to download free of charge.
ManageMyAlerts
Do you have trouble remembering important dates and occasions? If so, be sure to check out this free reminder service. ManageMyAlerts is a simple and effective method to create reminder alerts for birthdays, anniversaries, appointments, etc. It takes less than a few minutes to join and you'll be able to create, delete and edit alerts as you wish, directly via your Web browser.
Myreminders.co.uk
This free reminder and calendar service is one of the best we've seen. The intuitive interface at Myreminders allows you to easily manage birthdays, appointments, anniversaries and other events. You are able to quickly gain a snapshot of upcoming appointments and can manage contacts and customise your calendar with a range of different options. The service even suggests suitable gifts for him or for her.
DateReminder.co.ukThis is a handy and reliable UK-based free reminder service that allows you to remember important dates, such as birthdays, anniversaries, parties and the like. Once registered and after some simple configuration, the service will e-mail you a reminder two weeks in advance and draw your attention to the dates you are due to attend. You may configure as many reminder alerts as you wish.
StickyPadIf you find it difficult to remember important meetings or occasions, this freeware tool will help to solve all your problems. StickyPad allows you to place virtual sticky notes on your computer desktop, thereby saving lots of space on your real office desk. The program includes a number of useful features, most notably the ability to instantly e-mail your reminders to colleagues. StickyPad contains no spyware, advertisements or viruses.
Birthday AlarmThis site provides a free reminder service, along with free digital greeting cards. Contrary to its name, Birthday Alarm is useful for remembering far more than just people's birthdays. It's ideal for remembering other important events, too, such as work holidays, your social occasions, visits to the doctors, and more. Here, you'll also find an online shop selling flowers.
MyBookmarks.comHere's our favourite free bookmark manager. MyBookmarks.com is a clean, easy-to-use site with immense functionality beneath. They allow you to keep track of your browser bookmarks at one online location, so you can access them from anywhere. The three most popular browsers are supported here - you are able to import your favourites from Mozilla, IE and AOL.
Yahoo! CalendarA solid free calendar service from the Internet portal giant, Yahoo! As with most Yahoo! services, unless you already have an account with them, you will need to complete a free registration form. This service allows you to share your calendar with your friends or customers, keep a check on your appointments from any computer and will also act as a reminder service.
BigDates ScreensaverA free reminder service in the form of a fun and colourful screen saver, featuring an assistant called Dottie, who manages your personalised calendar. Using the BigDates screen saver, you can keep track of all your important events throughout the year. The program is completely free to download but only functions on the 1024x768 screen resolution.