PTPL 119: How to Be Plain-Text Enlightened —and Still Use Apple Reminders
Plus a quick print-to-PDF shortcut for your Mac
This week I tell you why I’ve moved from a manual Workflowy calendar for the Apple Reminders app, and show you how I export my tasks from Reminders to PDF to plain text.
No AI here; all words, ideas, and faults 100% human made. While paid subscribers are enormously encouraging and help me to keep writing, non-subscribers are always welcome to read for free.
Bye, bye, Workflowy calendar
Inspiration grabbed me and grabbed me good a few minutes into Frank Denegaar’s video on replacing one’s calendar and to-do list with Workflowy. I loved it!
Backup to plain text was easy, with Markdown thrown in for a pretty sweet package deal. Drag and dropping of tasks with their children and no other tweaky distractions was the main attraction. For those who remember that I was on the lookout for an app to help my non-techie sister replace Evernote, Workflowy ended up being a great fit.
But after 2 solid months using and mostly loving this completely manual calendar and task management combination, the wind has changed. It’s time for something a little less manual and more time (rather than task) focused.
Carl Pullein’s Time Factor system is what I’ve been exploring lately. He recommends a Calendar — Task Manager — Notes app team.¹ Carl’s free COD mini-course plus his numerous blog posts on how to switch from task to time management have been wonderful, but his (not cheap) book is also firmly on my radar.²
Todoist is Carl’s task manager of choice, but so far I’m more drawn to Apple’s Reminders. Honestly never thought I’d say that! Given more time with Todoist perhaps I’d change my mind, but Reminders wins for now.³
Yes, you can be plain-text enlightened and still use Apple Reminders!
Before stepping into any locked system I ask myself, “How devastating would it be to lose everything?” If the answer is “Not very”, then I secure a lifeline around my waist and swim a few laps to see how it feels. The lifeline I’m talking about is called Print-to-PDF (and-copy-the-text-into-Obsidian-if-I-feel-like-it). It’s not slick, not automated and not perfect, but it does the job.
What job is that? The job of backing up everything into an open format: a format that can quickly be copied into a plain text document and used immediately, or improved by adding Markdown to the headings to help with navigation. So far I’m happy with tucking away the PDF files into section 11.34 of my Johnny Decimal Life Admin system.
Here’s the step-by-step Reminders to plain text workflow. It assumes you have all the lists you want to back up in a folder.
File > Print (⌘P)
Click the PDF dropdown at the bottom of the Print window > Print to PDF
Add a date stamp and save the PDF to your hard drive
Open the PDF and select the text, then copy into a text file
You can speed up the process by using this Print to PDF shortcut:
System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > App Shortcuts
Click the
+button to create a new shortcutChoose
All Applications, then underMenu title, typeSave as PDF…(be exact: that’s an elipsis, not three periods)Give it a keyboard shortcut of ⌘P
Back in Reminders, press ⌘P+P (Command followed by two rapid presses of the P key) and add the date to the file name in the dialog box, then choose where you want to file to be saved. Easy! Reminders remembers the last Save location, so it’s a super quick process to get the PDF into a (more) open format.
In case you’re wondering, this process brings everything across, even sub-tasks and smart lists.
In other news…
Indie blogging, here I come!
Currently my work is published on Medium as well as Substack, but I’ll be leaving the latter soon for a more independent set up. While I’ll probably begin with blot.im, my new home will be a portable series of Markdown files that get turned into a website by the kind of magic I don’t feel the need to understand (yet).
Communities like Substack are filled with wonderful people and some stunning content, but my home base is going to be my own pad, linked to other independent thought-artists via a webring. See you there in a few weeks!
I love hearing from readers, and I’m always looking for feedback. Why do you read Plain Text. Paper, Less? Is there anything you’d like to see more, or less of? Which aspects do you enjoy the most? Found an error? Let me know in the comments, on Mastodon, or hit reply if you received this as an email. Looking for a way to support my work? It’s here.
1 ↩︎ The only way to really know if a system is a good fit: dive right in, and live with it for at least a month
2 ↩︎ Even if I can glean all I need to know from Carl’s free content, sending some money his way — and getting a great book in return — is the least I can do by way of a thank you
3 ↩︎ Reminders beats Todoist in how intuitive it is to learn, and features vs. price. I don’t want to take the chance of getting so far into Todoist that the free plan becomes frustrating. When a task manager becomes something I need to pay for, it’s time to look elsewhere.