Get Organized: Using Location-Based Reminders

How often do you pass right by the grocery store and forget to pick up milk? Have you ever headed to the airport to catch an international flight, only to realize your passport is back at home? If you're disorganized and forgetful, I highly recommend setting up a few location-based reminders on your smartphone.

As the name suggests, location-based reminders are notifications or alerts that are triggered when you (or really, your GPS-enabled smartphone) are in a particular place. For example, you can set a location-based reminder that says, "Buy milk" the next time you walk or drive past your favorite grocery store. There are also location-based automations, which I'll describe in the more detailed examples below.

How Location Reminders and Automations Work
Using an app that supports location-based reminders (I name a few of them below), you instruct the app to alert you or take an action when you arrive at or leave a specified destination. You set the address by either typing it in or by selecting one stored in your digital address book. The app then keeps an eye on the GPS information collected by your smartphone to trigger the alert when you arrive at or leave a destination.

With some apps, you can specify edge of the geo-fences—that is to say, the radius, or how close you need to be to the location you specified, for the app to trigger the alert or automation. Other apps, however, don't let you see the geofence edge, so there's a little bit of wiggle room. Every app I've ever seen that supports location-based reminders uses at least a 25-meter radius from the exact point you set, so I wouldn't worry about the location being too specific.

Using location-based reminders requires leaving your phone's GPS (called "location services" in iPhone) switched on, which causes the battery to drain faster than if it's off. But if you're a super-forgetful person, the tradeoff may be worthwhile. You also have to make sure your phone allows notifications or alerts from the app itself in your phone's settings. People sometimes disable them without thinking much about it when they first install some apps.

Here are three suggestions for location-based reminders and how to enable them.

1. Never Forget Your Passport Before a Flight
iPhone users: The stock Reminders app has location-based reminders that can be set to alert you when you arrive at or leave a place. Before your next international flight, set a reminder that says, "Passport check!" that triggers when you leave the house on the day of your flight so that you get visual confirmation that you (and your travel mates) all have your passports.

In Reminders, you do have control over that geo-fence I mentioned earlier. I recommend keeping the geo-fence very small around your home's address for this particular reminder to that you can't get very far before the notification appears. Reminders also lets you add a time to your notifications, so if you have an upcoming flight, you can set the location-based reminder to only trigger on the day of the flight and not every single time you leave the house.

Speaking of travel tips, check out my new Kindle single, The Get Organized Guide to Travel: How to Plan, Budget, and Book Your Next Trip ($2.99).

Another variation on this alert might be a reminder to bring an umbrella, a pair of sunglasses, your house keys, your work ID, or whatever item you're prone to forgetting when you leave the house every morning for work or school. A standing daily reminder of this sort could also be time-based, rather than location-specific, if you follow a regular schedule.

2. Let Your S.O. Know When You Leave Work Late
EasilyDo is a neat app I've written about before that has dozens of ways to help keep your life running smoothly by automating simple tasks. One of those automations is to send a text message when you leave a specific place after a particular time.

I set it to automatically text my significant other when I leave work later than 6:30 p.m. with the message, "Leaving work late. On the way." A notification appears on your phone's screen when the auto-text message is sent.

In EasilyDo, you don't have specific control over the radial distance from the address, but in my experience, the automatic text message always sends when I'm less than half a block from the office.

You'll find this feature in the "Stay Connected" section of the app. A nice touch: You can use your own phone number or one owned by EasilyDo to avert SMS charges. There's an EasilyDo Android app and EasilyDo iPhone app, and both have the "Text When I Leave" feature.

There are all kinds of variations on this auto-texting idea, of course. You could, for example, set the app to text, "I'm almost home—need anything?" when you hit a specific point along your commute.

3. Remember to Stay Focused for the First Hour of Your Workday
Using whichever location-based reminder app you like—the Google Search app, with Google Now enabled is one option for both Android and iOS—set up a notification that reminds you when you arrive at work to start your day productively.

Having a simple reminder could help you set aside those unimportant tasks until later so you can focus on what needs to get done first.

Similarly, you could set a reminder for when you reach the gym to review your routine. Or co-opt your reminder app to instead be a motivational app, so that you see a message cheering you on before your workout.

Another app I like for this kind of reminder is AnyDo for iPhone, particularly because you can set the alarm to be recurring daily. Unfortunately, the Android version of Any.do doesn't support location-based reminders.