Talking to Siri: Creating reminders without times

This morning, beloved leader Victor wondered how he could create reminders using Siri without having those reminders tied to a specific time. He loves Siri's easy voice integration but didn't want to schedule these items. He just wanted to add them to his to-do list.

Possible? You bet. The secret lies in the way you phrase your request.

If you ask Siri to "remind" you, it adds a scheduled item. Saying "remind" is always tied to time, because Siri has to actually nag you directly. [Much like asking a spouse to "remind me to pick up the dry cleaning" who then immediately responds "OK; don't forget to pick up the dry cleaning!", a reminder without a future target time is not that useful. –Ed.]

Instead, say "remember." Try saying "Remember to pick up the milk" rather than "Remind me to pick up the milk." Siri adds that item to the Reminders app without a time trigger.

As our commenters point out, there are other approaches as well. When Siri asks about the time for a reminder, say "no time," "don't remind me" or "never." You can also say "Add 'Pick up the milk' to my [name of to-do list]," and that will trigger a time-free task.

As Victor noted, "Arggh! I was saying it wrong, all this time."

Want more Siri tips? There's a book for that.