Full transcript of “🔓 Unlock the Secret of Columns in Apple Reminders! 📋”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:00 Say goodbye to that messy to do list and hello to Apple Reminders with the new column feature. If you haven't started using the new column feature, stick around to find out why it's a game changer and how you can use it to simplify everything you do. I'm Dylan Stewart, The MacWhisperer, and in today's lesson we're going to be talking about Apple Reminders new column feature. This is a powerful feature that can allow you to consolidate multiple reminders lists, differentiate within a specific list, track an entire workflow from beginning to end, or manage an entire team project with separate
0:46 columns for each of the team members tasks. It's super powerful, but don't walk away before hearing my MacWhisperer power tip. This tip is so valuable that it's going to change your holiday experience from here on out. So let's hop on in and get started. The first thing I want to talk about is your shopping list. Within Reminders, you can easily create a grocery list that you can share with everybody in your family, making it super simple to make sure whoever goes to the store has everything they need. And Apple added a new functionality with iOS 17 to support this. First off, on the left side you'll see my shopping list. I'm going to right click on it and choose Show List Info.
1:32 In this section, under List Type, you're going to find a brand new function called Groceries. This will automatically sort your entire grocery list into separate sections, breaking down the different aisles you need to purchase things in. And you may be saying to yourself, Dylan, what does this have to do with columns? Just hold tight, we'll make sense in a moment. I'm going to turn on the groceries function here, and right before our eyes it's going to transform this list into a list with separate sections for the different aisles in the grocery store. Let's watch it happen. Click groceries, and click OK. And automatically it's broken things down by baby care and baking items, bread and cereals, canned food and soups, dairy, eggs, cheese, all of these things.
2:17 This makes it so helpful to use reminders for your grocery list because it automatically puts things into the right section. But the important thing for you to know is that sections are directly related to columns. It's the same concept. So to change this view from a section view to a column view, I'm going to click on the view menu up at the top here and select view as columns. Now immediately what we're given is all of these separate columns with all of the separate sections of the grocery store. This makes it easy for us to move things from one section over to another in order to make sure when we're in the store we have exactly what we need. The way columns work is really, really interesting. When you first turn it on, you'll have a section called Others.
3:04 This is the unsorted section. And then from here, you can move things into separate columns and complete the columns as you go. The shopping list is just a basic way to explain this concept, but now we're going to kick it up to the next level. What if instead of organizing one shopping list into separate areas, we created separate shopping lists for all the separate stores that we go to? Maybe you buy things at Whole Foods, or Trader Joe's, maybe you go to the general supermarket, or maybe you go to Target. Let's add some columns so I can show you how to use that within your grocery list. I'm going to click the new column icon in the upper right hand corner. And our first new column is Costco. Certain things are best purchased at Costco. Maybe it's your seafoods.
3:51 Let's move that right over to the Costco list. Or maybe it's the different meat products you need to purchase. We can drag things from column to column, but we can also right click on them. And where it says move to column, we can just organize them right here and put that directly into our Costco list. Let's add another one. Clicking right here, I create a new column. This column is Whole Foods. Now, Whole Foods is where I like to purchase all my produce. So I can grab all of that produce and I can move it over to the Whole Foods section. As you do this, you can easily create separate lists for the separate stores you go to. And as you add things in, you can move them over to whichever store you want to purchase them on, taking this singular shopping list and making
4:36 it so much more valuable. But that's not the only way that you can use columns. Let me give you another example of how to use columns. This time we're going to create a process to gain new customers. I'm going to click on my customers list here. Now the first thing you need to know is this is just a blank list. It's got no columns, it's got nothing. So the first step is to come up to the view menu and change it to view as columns. Now, we've still got nothing here, but we can begin to create our separate columns. I'm going to click the column button right here, and this first column is Social Media. Let's create another column over here. And this column is Online Ads. Let's create another column. This column is Mailing List. Now let's create an offer to give to the people in our mailing list, just like that. And let's click one last one here.
5:22 called Offer Redirect, and a final column called Paying Customer. So what happens is when somebody responds to some of my social media posts, I can put them into the system. We're going to add Jim, and we're going to add Jennifer. Now, Jim and Jennifer responded to social media, so I can now target them with some of my online ads. When an ad is responded to, the person ends up getting added to my mailing list. When they're on my mailing list, they can be sent a specific offer. If they don't respond to the first offer, we can send a second offer, and then when they do respond, they can become a paying customer. By creating columns, I've created a workflow to track how I gain new customers, and it's easy to do and easy to create.
6:07 Here's another great way to use columns. I love to keep track of all the movies I want to watch with my family. They're right here in this movies list. But unfortunately, with the way streaming is today, it's so hard to figure out what movie is on what channel or service. But by taking this movies list and turning it into a column list, I can solve that problem simply. First step, come up to the View menu here and select As Columns. Now remember, anything that hasn't been sorted ends up in another column. But we can easily create new columns by clicking on the Column button to the right, or even by right clicking directly into the Reminders list. As I create new columns, I can name them with the different streaming services, like Max, Netflix, Prime, and Apple TV.
6:55 Now all I need to do is figure out where these movies are being shown and move them into that specific category. It's easy to move things one at a time by clicking on them and dragging them directly over, but you can also select multiple items by clicking on the first item, holding down the command button and selecting additional items just like this. Then you can drag all of them over together into whatever column you need. Also, don't forget that a simple right click will allow you to move into the column this way as well, which can be an easy way to organize this list. Now, as I watch these movies, I can check them off. And we'll drop out of that list, and I can find the next Prime show, or the next Apple TV show, or the next Netflix movie or Max movie that I want to watch. This makes it so easy to keep track
7:40 of all the movies I want to watch without worrying about where I'm going to find them. Here's another great use for columns. It has to do with when you're creating a project for an entire team. So in this case, I've got this empty team list. Let's come up to view, make sure it's set as column, and let's start off by adding each of the separate columns for each person on my team. As we create the specific tasks that need to be accomplished, we put them into the other column Now each person can grab the task that they want to work on. or they can be assigned to specific tasks. So social media posts goes to Frank and the new website goes to Frank. YouTube video goes to me. creating the cheat sheet goes to Alaila, and planning for the September launch goes to Ben. In this way, we all have a bird's eye view
8:26 of what each person on the team is working on. And in some cases, we may take a piece, once it's completed, and move it over to one of the other columns so that that person can check on the progress and do a little quality control before it's finalized. This is a great way to keep track of simple or complicated team projects so that everyone knows what everyone else is working on. If you're going to do this kind of thing, don't forget to hit the share button here and share that out with your entire team so that they're all connected to this reminders list. And once you've properly shared your board, you can easily come into any given task, right click on it, and under the assigned section, Assign it to a specific person. It can be in their column, but it can also be assigned to a different person in case that task moves around through its process.
9:13 But this will automatically alert that person that there's a specific task that they need to do, and then when they come and they look into their columns, they see exactly what the separate pieces are and can accomplish it easily and simply. And one of my favorite uses for columns within Reminders is to take an overly complicated list and give it a little bit of separation. In this case, I've got a list I call my to purchase list. Anytime I come across something interesting or useful online, I add it to this to purchase list along with a link to the website so I can buy it. But look at this list. This list goes on forever. 150 items. I'm never going to find what I'm looking for. So let's come straight up to the View menu and choose View as Columns, and let's create a couple of columns here.
9:59 First off, Close. Next. Tech items. Next, gifts for others. Don't forget that when you create columns, you can easily move or reorganize them into any order you want by clicking in the open space above the column and dragging it left or dragging it right. You can't change the name of the others column. If you do, you'll get a brand new others column. The others column is always there as the catch all of anything that you add in. But as I look at stuff, I can easily come in and grab the things that are close and put them into the clothes section, grab the things that are gifts. Move them into the gift section and grab anything that's tech related and move those directly over to the tech column. A couple of things to be aware of when you're
10:45 working with reminders. If you click on the titles, it's going to think you want to edit that reminder or that title. So when you're moving something, find the open space within the reminders, usually at the bottom or the left or just underneath the circle. And by doing that, you can easily move things around. If you click on the title by mistake, just click away from that reminder and come back to grab it from the open space. The same is true when you're moving the columns. Grab it from the open space because if you click on the title, it thinks you want to retitle it. So just click away from it. Grab it from the open area and you can easily move it around anywhere you want. This can take this overwhelming list and simplify it so that I know what's gifts, what are clothes, what's tech, or any other category you want to create a column to help it organize.
11:31 And for my last example, let's go over to my course process list. I've created an awesome iPhone course, and in that course there's multiple videos, and I've had to create a process to follow the videos through to make sure I don't leave anything out and everything works properly. I created this board by coming in, turning on columns, and adding columns for each step in the process. Now as I work on a specific video and I'm done planning it, I can move it from the plan stage over to the shoot stage. When I shoot it, I can move it over to the edit stage. Once I edit it I can move it into the transcript section, create my cheat sheet for it. Move it over to the summary section and eventually add it to my list of completed videos. When you're dealing with a complicated project
12:17 with all sorts of separate pieces that are going to move through a pipeline using the column view for reminders is a lifesaver. It just makes it so easy for me to see everything that I have yet to do and where each piece is in this process. There's so many amazing ways to use columns and reminders, whether you're using it to track a process of a particular project, or using it to keep track of your entire team to make sure you always know what tasks each member of your team is working on or to make sure that you know which store to buy which products at when you go to the grocery store. or to separate all the movies that you want to watch into their separate streaming platforms. There's a ton of amazing examples, but in a moment I'm going to drop my MacWhisperer power tip, which is my favorite way to use
13:03 columns within reminders. But before I reveal that power tip, did you get value from this video? If so, give it a thumbs up so that other people can easily find it. And if you've got a question, a comment, a suggestion, I'd Drop it down in that comment section. You might have some amazing use for columns that I never considered, and it might change my life. I love to hear from you guys, and I'll always respond to any comment that you leave. And if you haven't subscribed to my channel yet, maybe you're waiting for a sign. There's one. There's a couple down there. Click that subscribe button and hit that notify bell so that you're always alerted when I drop new content. And with that being said, it's time for the Power Tip.
13:50 We all love Christmas and giving gifts in the holidays, but let's be honest, keeping track of all of the people you want to give gifts to can be a little complicated and can take some of the fun out of the season. But we can fix that with Apple Reminders and Columns. In this example, I have a list of all the different things that I've I've been thinking about getting for different members of my family. As I said earlier, I keep track of all sorts of products online, and I drop them into specific lists so that I can find them when I need them. In this case, it's getting close to Christmas time. I ought to start organizing this list based on who I want to give things to. It's easy to do. Start by changing the view to View as Columns, and then come in over here and add separate columns for each member of your family.
14:42 As you add all of your separate family members, in some cases you might have family members that have large sub families. For example, my brother has got his wife and two kids. I don't necessarily want to create columns for everyone or this is going to become completely unwieldy. But I can easily come over here and create a list called, Sean, and Family. And then I can use tasks and subtasks within that column. So here, I can come in and I can say, and add each of the separate people. Now when I find something that I like, I can either drop it into a specific column, or I can take it and add it into one of these subtasks, That way I have a very clear perspective on who's gotten gifts, who I still need to Search for Christian, sorry, but at 17, it's a little bit
15:27 hard to figure out what you want, and easily keep track of all of these separate pieces just by moving them around into these columns. Once you purchase something, you can turn it off just by clicking there, and it'll disappear. But if you didn't buy that gift for the person this year, Maybe you want to buy it next year. And this brings us to a whole new concept called templates. You can templatize any one of your lists and a Christmas gift list is a perfect example for something to create a template for. Why? Because every year you're going to need to pick up from where you left off, but you don't necessarily need that list amongst all of your other reminders. for the other 11 months out of the year. To create a template, you come up to the file menu here and you choose where it says Save as Template.
16:15 It will take things exactly as they are. You can give it any name and click Save. You can choose to have completed reminders included or not. I prefer not to. Let's click Save. Now, when Christmas is over and everyone's gotten the gifts that they've gotten. I can come in and I can delete this list without worrying about it at all. Then as we get a little closer to the holidays next year, I can click on my add list button here, go into the template section, find the right template, and just bring it back in and it will show up with all the separate people that we've created. Now sometimes a template will show up in list view but we can easily change it over to column view and here we've got Julie and Christian and Dad and Phoebe and Mom and the gifts that I haven't gotten them yet and all of the other suggested gifts that I've got on this list.
17:03 It makes it super simple and super easy to delegate who gets what gift and keep track of a large number of potential gifts. without losing your mind. So that's what we've got for today's lesson, all about how to use the column feature in Reminders to simplify and organize everything. I'm Dylan Stewart, The MacWhisperer, and it's my passion and profession to help you get more done with your Apple products than you ever thought possible. And I'll see you next time.
