Manage Reminders from Your Mac’s Menu Bar
App Spotlight: Reminders MenuBar, a Lightweight Application for Efficient Task Management
… what if you simply want to add a new reminder or check off a completed one with a simple keyboard shortcut right from your Mac’s menu bar?
Capturing Your Tasks
When the idea of something you need to get done strikes you, it becomes essential that you can quickly capture that idea into some sort of system that tracks your progress. This is the big idea of the built-in Reminders application provided by Apple on each of their devices.
But, what if you simply want to add a new reminder or check off a completed one with a simple keyboard shortcut right from your Mac’s menu bar? This is precisely the question I was looking to answer when I came across an effective solution that offered everything that was needed and even more!
Efficient Task Management
The wonderful and lightweight application that I discovered in my research to solve this problem is called, Reminders MenuBar. Not only does this app offer tremendous capabilities and instant access to your iCloud Reminders, but it is also free to use.
This article will set forth how to acquire and install Reminders MenuBar, configure it for use with iCloud, take advantage of its key settings, and integrate its extended features that will make interacting with your Reminders a delight.
Table of Contents (Reminders MenuBar Usage Guide)
Installation
Reminders MenuBar can be downloaded directly from GitHub.
Click on the Version (Latest) to the right side of the app’s logo and name under the Releases section:
Download the reminders-menubar.zip file listed under the Assets section
Open the zip archive and then the expanded folder
Drag the Reminders MenuBar app to your Applications folder
Open the Reminders MenuBar application
The app will request permission to access your reminders in macOS: Click ‘OK’
We are now ready to start setting up Reminders MenuBar to work the way we want.
Setting Things Up
Reminders MenuBar has some interesting configuration options that will help you get the most out of your interactions with it.
The first thing that would be recommended is to activate the app in the menu bar and click the settings gear icon. This gives you access to many important options that help you get the most out of the app. A great thing to select right off the bat is Launch at login. This ensures that when you Restart your Mac, Reminders MenuBar is always accessible from your menu bar.
One of the most useful features built right in to the app is the ability to invoke its interface with a keyboard shortcut. The one set up by default is: Option-Command-R. This gives you instant access to quickly entering a new task or checking off one you just completed. This immediate access to your reminders is what really sets the app apart.
Another nice touch is the ability to change the appearance of the app within the menu bar by selecting your preferred icon. Many options are included in the Settings menu and this makes the app quite personalized to your own visual style and integrates nicely with the other items in your menu bar. Also, remember that you can adjust the position of the app anywhere in your menu bar by Command-dragging its icon.
Creating and Checking-Off Tasks
Now that many of the basic options have been configured in the Settings, let’s start interacting with Reminders MenuBar by creating new tasks and checking completed ones off.
Creating New Tasks
Invoke the app with Option-Command-R (or your custom shortcut):
Image of Reminders MenuBar Task Entry Field
Type your reminder and hit Return:
Image of Reminders MenuBar New Task Typed Your new task is instantly added to the list and shared with your iCloud Reminders:
Image of Reminders MenuBar New Task Created
Entering Due Dates with Natural LanguageAnother incredibly convenient feature is the app’s support of natural language to set a due date for your reminder. And when a due date is attached to a task, you will see it indicated by a number for tasks due in the current day to the right of the app’s icon in the menu bar.
Creating a Task with Due Date
Type a reminder in natural language with a due date and it is automatically inserted in the task:
Press Return and your new task with a due date is created (notice the number of items due today indicated in the menu bar):
Image of Reminders MenuBar Task with Due Date When items with due dates are created, an alert will be displayed below your menu bar if you have notifications enabled within Notification Center in System Settings.
Checking-Off Completed Tasks
Invoke your task list with Option-Command-R
Click the open circle to the left of the task to mark it completed:
Image of Completed Task in Reminders MenuBar And that is how you quickly create a new task, a task with a due date and check off a completed task in Reminders MenuBar!
Working with Lists
It’s important to keep in mind that while creating different lists can only be done within Apple’s Reminders.app, harnessing the power of organizing your tasks into lists can be done right within Reminders MenuBar!
The default iCloud list is simply called, Reminders, but you can create new lists to organize tasks by creating new categories like Work, Personal, Project Name, etc.
Creating New Lists in Reminders.app
Open Reminders.app on your Mac
Click the Add List option below My Lists in the Reminders window:
Image of Reminders.app Task Lists Title your new Reminders List, assign it a unique Color label and click OK:
Image of New List Creation Window in Reminders.app Accessing All Reminders Lists Right From the Menu Bar
The new lists that you’ve created in Reminders.app will now be accessible within Reminders MenuBar:
Image of Reminders Lists in Reminders MenuBar Now that you have created your desired lists, Reminders MenuBar gives you many options for displaying and interacting with tasks organized by list within its interface.
Additional Features
The Edit Menu
If you need to edit the text of your task, there are two ways to do this. You can click the three dots to the right of your item and select ‘Edit’ or even better just click on the text itself and the edit menu will appear.
Image of the Edit Menu in Reminders MenuBar The edit menu also gives you the ability to set a reminder or change the priority level of your item
Move Task to Specific Reminders List
Clicking on the three dots to reveal the edit menu allows you to change the list that your specific task belongs to:
Image of the ‘Move to …’ Reminders List Feature Show Completed Tasks
Click the open circle button in the middle of the Reminders MenuBar window to display completed tasks:
Harnessing Reminders MenuBar
I hope you find as much benefit as I have in managing tasks with the highly capable Reminders MenuBar. Now that you’ve learned how to harness its amazing potential to enhance your interactions with iCloud Reminders, there’s just no going back.
Helpful References:
Reminders MenuBar: Simple macOS menu bar application to view and interact with reminders. Developed with SwiftUI and using Apple Reminders as a source.
https://github.com/DamascenoRafael/reminders-menubar
Set up iCloud for Reminders on all your devices
https://support.apple.com/guide/icloud/set-up-reminders-mmbf52194b5a/1.0/icloud/1.0
What are the privacy policies for this app? It looks interesting and useful, I'm simply concerned about what is done with my data.
When I launch the app the Reminders Menubar Settings windows pops up. How do I stop this please?