My first iPhone was an iPhone 4 with iOS 4. It was a fine phone with a fine operating system, but it lacked a native task list app. A friend of mine recommended Things and even gave me a license to their desktop app. (He’d bought a family pack. No piracy here.) So, I installed the now-free desktop app, purchased the iPhone version, and was in GTD heaven.
Then, iOS 5 was released, and I met Reminders.
I had already sunk $10 into Things and was highly invested in it. I just couldn’t give it up. (The desktop app was a big thing for me.) But then again, I couldn’t just let Reminders sit fallow.
How could I put it to use?
Reminders: The Prayer List App
It didn’t take me long before I realized how awesome Reminders would be as a prayer list app. I created several different categories (Family, Church, Work, etc.) and began listing each prayer/need as a reminder. I didn’t set any reminders. I had tons of prayers listed in the app and didn’t want to have it buzzing and beeping all the time. I was just going to go through my lists during my prayer.
Well, that didn’t work as planned because I generally try to distance myself from my phone when I’m praying so that I won’t be distracted. Thus, Reminders languished for a year as a half-used app.
Prayer via GPS
Then, with iOS 6 came an updated version of Reminders, now with the ability to remind you of something based upon your location. That was it!
I went through my lists and identified a few urgent needs and set them up to remind me as I arrived and left certain locations. Check out the gallery below to get an idea of how this works.
Of course, there are a few options that I wish the app had (the ability to add a location via Maps, for example), but then again, this is not its given purpose.
I’ll offer one more bit of advice: spread your locatin-based reminders out over a good distance. Nothing is more annoying and less-conducive to prayer than being dinged by an app four times in a single car ride. Plus, change up your locations and your needs at least every other month. If you don’t, you’ll begin to ignore the reminders, which defeats the purpose.
Do you have a “prayer list app”?
Or do you have another digital way to manage spiritual matters?
Jonathan Ober says
I work from home…so I think I will have to use my to-do list or calendar to ping me every hour 😛
Phil Schneider says
Lol. That makes pretty good sense.