RemindMail - reminders for emails

You have most likely tried it: You send an email to someone and you would like to be reminded in a few days, so you can follow up on the email if you have not heard back from the recipient.

RemindMail.net helps you do just that: Just send a copy of the email to 2@RemindMail.net, then you will get a reminder in 2 days. You can even just add 2@RemindMail.net as Cc for the original mail you are going to send.

Try it

To try RemindMail.net send an email to +0.15@RemindMail.net and your friend. Click here: +0.15@RemindMail.net and add your friend. Use the subject: "Test of www.RemindMail.net". Within a few minutes you will receive an email that asks you to confirm using RemindMail. Click the confirm link (you only need to confirm once - not for every reminder).

Around 15 minutes after you sent the mail to your friend you should get the mail back from RemindMail. The subject has "Reminder:" added, so you can see it is not the original mail, but just the reminder.

Now you have created your first reminder.

Getting started

In the future you will probably use 3@RemindMail.net, 7@RemindMail.net, 30@RemindMail.net, and 2010-12-27@RemindMail.net. They will send a reminder in 3, 7, 30 days and on the 27th of December 2010. You can use the 2010-12-27 address and change it to the date you need. To add them to your address book, click them and send an email to each of the addresses.

Advanced use

Send email to:

3@RemindMail.net	to get a reminder	in 3 * 24 hours.
+23.59@RemindMail.net		in 23 hours and 59 minutes
23.59@RemindMail.net		at first comming 59 minutes past 11 in the night.
2010-12-27@RemindMail.net		at this time of day on the 27th of December 2010
2010-12-27-23.59@RemindMail.net		at 59 minutes past 23 on the 27th of December 2010
3w@RemindMail.net		in 3 * 7 * 24 hours
wed@RemindMail.net		at this time of day on first coming Wednesday (Use mon, tue, wed, thu, fri, sat, and sun for weekdays)
wed+7@RemindMail.net		at this time of day on first coming Wednesday after 7 days
wed+23.59@RemindMail.net		at 59 minutes past 23 on first coming Wednesday
wed+2010-12-27@RemindMail.net		at this time of day on first coming Wednesday after 27th of December 2010
wed+2010-12-27-23.59@RemindMail.net		at 59 minutes past 23 on first coming Wednesday after 27th of December 2010

Use cases

Preparations for meetings

From: John Doe <john@example.org>
To: Jane Doe <jane@example.org>
Cc: 3@RemindMail.net
Subject: Draft for contract

Hi Jane.

Could you send me the draft of the contract? I need it for the meeting in a week.

Regards,

John

John will get a reminder in 3 days. If he has not received the draft by then, he can remind Jane.

Follow up on email contacts

From: John Doe <john@example.org>
To: Phone company <info@example.com>
Cc: 30@RemindMail.net
Subject: Invoice for May 2004

To the Phone company.

Would it be possible for you to get me a copy of the invoice for May 2004?

Regards,

John Doe
CustomerNo: 12345678

The Phone company probably need some time to dig out the old invoice. They might even send it by paper mail, so it may take some time to get to John. In a month he will get a reminder, so if he has not received it by then, he can contact the Phone company again.

Tasks that cannot be done before a certain date

From: John Doe <john@example.org>
To: 2008-02-01@RemindMail.net
Subject: The new OpenMoko phones

Note to self: The new OpenMoko phones are out by now. 
Buy them at https://direct.openmoko.com/

John reads in an article that the new OpenMoko phones will be sold from January-2008. He wants to remember to buy them when they are available.

Tasks that cannot be done before a certain date

From: John Doe <john@example.org>
To: Jane Doe <jane@example.org>
Cc: mon+2008-08-01@RemindMail.net
Subject: Next meeting.

Hi Jane.

Welcome back from your vacation. We should schedule the next meeting soon.
Please call me when you are back.

Regards,

John

John knows Jane is on vacation until 2008-08-01, so he wants to be reminded the first Monday when she is back, so he can agree on a meeting date with her.

Limitations

RemindMail works using email. Email may get stalled for shorter periods of time, therefore you should not depend on the reminder arriving within minutes of the time you specified. You can, however, expect it to arrive within an hour of the specified time. Normally the reminder will be less than 5 minutes late.

Absolute times (i.e. 14.05@RemindMail.net and 2010-11-12-13.14@RemindMail.net) should be specified in the time zone GMT.

Email can also get lost. So do not depend on RemindMail for important reminders. Use it for the reminders you would otherwise not have gotten. RemindMail is not a replacement for your calendar.

It did not work

If you did not get your reminder, it may have been classified as spam by your mail system. Look in your spam folder and mark it as not-spam. Normally mailsystems will learn from that. In some mailsystems it helps adding the sending address (postmaster@RemindMail.net) to the address book.

If you got an email from Mail Delivery Subsystem or MAILER-DAEMON please forward it to: postmaster@RemindMail.net.

If it still does not work, contact postmaster@RemindMail.net

About RemindMail.net

RemindMail is developed by Ole Tange. It was developed because he needed a system could help him follow up on tasks and that:

was integrated with email.
It was often when emailing that he needed a reminder after a few days to remind people if they had not done what he expected.
was fast to use.
Making a calender entry would be too much work for most of the reminders, as the reminders would usually be about small things.

Design decisions

What to return

The reminder should tell what it is reminding about. Sending the original email with a changed subject line seems like a simple idea that solves this.

Sender address

The sender address reflects the date specification given when the user emailed RemindMail.

Recipient of reminder

The recipient of the reminder should be the sender, as he will be the only person who knows if a certain task is completed.

Future ideas

every-wed = every wednesday this time of day every-14 = every 14 days this time of day every-month = every month this date of the month this time of day status = list of coming events and removal function every-wed+2007-11-11 = every wednesday this time of day after 2007-11-11 every-wed+2007-11-11-23.59 = every wednesday at 23.59 after 2007-11-11 every-wed+23.59 = every wednesday at 23.59 3-23.59 = the first coming 23.59 after 24*3 hours (3 < 1000) +3-23.59 = in 3 days, 23 hours and 59 (3 < 1000)