For me it has to be an audible alert from a device that I will hear no matter what. Cell phone alarm is great. If you have a smart watch, even better. If you live on your computer then something like an outlook calendar alert might work for you. Now when the alert happens you still have to do the thing. I tell myself that doing the thing avoids more pain than not doing the thing and then after a while it becomes routine and I just do it without any justification needed.

Warning: wall of text incoming

Schedules, bah!

I make GLORIOUS schedules. I don’t use them. The more time I spend making a schedule, the less time I will use it.

Calendars Yes, I did have invisible calendars too, but I finally found something that works for me!

I used to not use calendars until it hit me that my grandmother’s calendar was how she always remembered people’s birthdays. I mean, duh. So I started using a calendar. I tried digital–failure. I tried desk calendars–failure. I tried small calendar books for purses and spiral-bound planner calendars–failure. I tried normal calendars with too small boxes for each day–failure.

After years I started doing this:

• I go to Barnes and Noble in August. That’s when they have their largest selection of calendars. Find one you like, but my preference is to have big squares for every day.

  Here’s what mine looks like:

  

  When it folds open, half a month is on each side instead of having the top half be a picture of something. It comes with stickers and junk, but I don’t use them.

• Go to August and mark “Buy next year’s calendar”. The calendar doesn’t run out in August, but the supply of good calendars does.

• Put the calendar where you will see it multiple times per day. The Dutch are known to keep their calendars in the bathroom. That works. I’m American and I keep mine next to the fridge, because…well, I’ll see it many times per day. Shut up.

• Find a way to have a pencil or pen near the calendar at all times–clip, string, whatever.

• Mark everyone’s birthday. If a birthday falls within the first three days of the next month, mark it a week in advance so you don’t miss getting a card out in time (if you do cards).

• If you need to put something on the calendar and you aren’t near it, send yourself a text to do it. When you’re home and see the text, you know what to do. “Was man schreibt, bleibt” is a German saying that roughly translates to “what you write down, you remember.” The act of writing it down does help. Digital calendars on my phone aren’t helpful to me. If I need to know what my calendar looks like when I’m not home, I just take a pic of the month I need on my phone’s camera.

• When you get a new calendar, take your old calendar and mark everyone’s birthdays and other annual things you’d like to remember, like “sign up for summer camp” in March. Of course throughout the year, if something sounds cool or you forgot something you want to do in the future, make a note in the margins and mark the new calendar appropriately.

• Tell anyone who shares your household to use the calendar too, so you can remember if they’re going to an event (so you won’t schedule something then) and also, when they get used to it, maybe they can help you remember too (“Hey, are we taking X out for her birthday?” or “Do you have everything you need for Y?”)

• Sometimes I highlight a box if it’s really important or lasts a whole week (like a summer camp), but that’s something I tend to switch up every year.

Good luck. If you need me, I’ll be reading everyone else’s tips, ha ha.

I have the same “invisible calendar” problem as you. It’s like once I input something into the calendar, my brain marks it as “dealt with” and moves on. There is no part of my daily routine that promptse to check the calendar (or weather) and nothing I could do with the information if I successfully looked. I can use it for appointments (with the "warn me via push a day before, and hour before, and ten minutes before flags all turned on), and to remind me it’s recycling day, but for complex tasks? Forget it.

What works for me is making the tasks take up space in the physical world. For example, if I need to take something to work, or to eg. the post office on my way to work, I hang it by the front door or put it in my bike helmet. If I have to do something in the morning after breakfast I set it on the dining table. If something needs to be stored downstairs in the basement I throw it in the laundry bin and sort it out next time I take the laundry down.

I have the same issue, and I haven’t found any good solutions either. Todoist worked for a short while, but I quickly realized that a task manager with no calendar is almost useless to me. I’d love to hear others’ systems.

Edit: I know Todoist can sync with Google Calendar, but that’s an extra app and a Google account on top. I won’t be renewing my subscription when this one runs out.

The closest I’ve managed to get is setting alarms for every other hour to remind me to drink water or eat. Sometimes, even then, I still manage to forget to do so.

I need a physical calendar/agenda that’s always in plain view, digital doesn’t tend to work for me

I have my phone on me all the time, so I use my Google calendar. Anytime I’m scheduling something, I’m adding it to the calendar while talking with the scheduler. I set the notification based on what I’m doing, something that requires going somewhere or is important I’m getting that reminder a day before, an hour before I need to leave and when I need to leave( I also build in 10 minutes of poor time planning skills into leaving time knowing it will take longer than i expect). Things like medication are alarms that I won’t allow myself to turn off until I’ve actually taken it. My notifications are all audible. Figure out what gets your attention best and run with it, for me I know my brain will fight me if I let it so I annoy myself into doing it. One last thing I do is have the calendar widget on my homescreen so when I’m flipping through I catch a glance at what’s coming up.

I use the todoist app which adds it to my calendar and lets me set a default remind me time

I’m sorry. I cannot help you.

I put everything on my calendar and then promptly ignore it.

Screw fiddly digital calendars. They all have the same flaw most organizers have: they require you to stick to their system. I completely switched to a bullet journal and I am happy with that. The free form of it allows me to add or remove anything to my liking and so far this has worked wonders. It’s of vital importance to do the daily migration to the next day in the evenings though.