December 14th, 2007 at 6:39 am
I have been using this useful online reminder service lately, it’s called IWantSandy.
Named after Tim O’Reilly’s real life administrative assistant, IWantSandy is a virtual assistant that allows you to schedule and create lists by email. All you have to do is email *Sandy* and she’ll create/ remind you of your appointments when it is due. Once you register online, you will be given a unique email address that you can send instructions to *Sandy* in the form of xxx@xxx.iwantsandy.com.
For example, if I want a reminder to get milk at the grocery store, I would send Sandy a simple email saying “Remind me to get milk tomorrow at 9am”, “Remind me to get milk on Nov 12 2006 at 9am” or “Remind me to get milk tomorrow at 9 am @weekly” (which sets a recurring timed schedule). She’ll then send you an email reminder at the beginning of the day or a certain time period before the appointment as determined in your settings e.g. 60 minutes before. There is also a useful alarm clock style snooze feature where you can reply to her email and say that you want to be reminded again in say 30 minutes or so.
Advanced features include
- the ability to add tags (or group categories) to your to do or reminders list
With the tagging feature, you can essentially use it to store information like short notes, someone’s birthday, a web address/ bookmark, a telephone number, flight numbers, contact details etc. and search them easily.
- automatically adding appointments, reminders, and to-dos to your Outlook 2007 and iCal calendar.
- RSS functionality allowing you to send your appointments, to-dos, contacts, etc. to your RSS reader.
- sending reminders to multiple recipients
This one I really like. It has the ability to send reminders to more than one person at the same time. By Cc’ing a person when you email Sandy to schedule something, that tells her that the appointment reminder should be sent to the other email address (in addition) to you. I have already used this on a number of occasions when I wanted J to be reminded of something too.
- integration with twitter
Security
For security sake, Sandy will only accept instructions from a particular email address pertaining to your registered account. There is the ability to add a secondary email of your choice if needed. Although not completely foolproof, sending an email from a registered email address and to the specified unique email address provided creates a pretty efficient two way check. In the event that someone finds out your unique email address, it is easy enough to change it at will. The uniqueness of email address also makes it hard for spammers/ spam bots to guess it.
When I first saw it, I thought it would take a little adjustment and getting use to how it works. However, was surprised at how fast it caught on and valuable it actually became. I did tell J about how tedious it would be to use but have since taken back all the negativity I’ve said about it.
How does it differ from another to do list or the list feature in Outlook?
For starters, every instruction you send Sandy, is accessible online. That essentially allows you to look at your list anywhere and at anytime from any computer. Your instructions can also be modified by logging into your registered account. All instructions are archived so that you can refer back to a certain date and time easily by searching your tags. The ability to send out reminders to different recipients at the same time is a one of a kind feature not found in any other service (that I have come across so far).
In a nutshell, IWantSandy
* Kicks off your morning knowing what’s on for the day.
* Keeps your day moving forward with reminders right when you need them.
* Remembers the books to read, people to call, your cousin’s birthday etc.
* Keeps your staying organized with everyone in your life.
All without leaving your email inbox.
IWantSandy is a product of Values of n, Inc using the same reminder service technology as their flagship product Stikkit.
