Hard and Soft Landscapes: Calendar vs. Reminders

Patrick Rhone sent me an email with his interesting topic. He is trying to clear up the confusion on how calendar fits with GTD. He suggests calendar should be used only an appointment or event is happening at a specific time. There are also tasks where you need to do within a timeframe but not in specific time. So he come up with a calendar and reminder type of separation to deal with two type of work - just to protect the sacred territory of your calendar timeslot:

… These are all “hard landscape” items. Things that are happening at a specific time or are needed for specific appointments and events.

But there are some more “soft landscape” things that you might want to use the reminders for and should not disrupt the “sacred territory” of the calendar.

Reminders are meant for exactly that, just a quick little alarm to remind you of something. That is the reason that, by default, the reminder times are nebulous and not exact (i.e. “Later Today”, “In a couple of days” etc.). These include, things you need to get done later in the day like “Pick up milk on the way home” or in advance of an event but not by a specific time like “Make dinner reservations for birthday dinner” or maybe just a little nudge like “Don’t forget to pack your charger”. Sometimes, some action items that are time sensitive may benefit from a little timely kick in the pants…

Well thought.

Hard and Soft Landscapes: Calendar vs. Reminders - [Patrick Rhone]