Use Outlook Calendar to Get Constant, Serial-wise Reminders

We usually rely on reminders to not forget important to-dos. But that one-off reminder might not be enough sometimes. You take out of sight once, and it’s out of mind before you know it. This is when you need to be bombarded with constant reminders to make sure that your brain doesn’t have the luxury of being forgetful when it comes to those essential tasks.

One of such essential tasks for me is paying my credit card bills. Just a single reminder? Doesn’t even serve as a nudge, forget pushing me to log in to my bank.

What I need in such a scenario is a process that would tell me each day, “You have N days to pay your bills”. Now, I use MS Outlook as a to-do tracker and it does not help me create such routine reminder. So, I thought I would use my calendar instead, that read to me like the one shown in the example below.

Our article is a guide on how to create such calendar entries. And, you need a guide because a simple calendar appointment won’t help you create such countdown tasks.

Part I: Create a CSV File

The key to creating such calendar entries is by making a file of comma separated values and then importing it in to the MS Outlook calendar.

Create an MS Excel file and punch data as per your requirements. The column headers, Start Date and Subject are a must.

The dates here, should go in ascending order and the number of days should go in descending. To quickly fill up such series you can use the trick we have discussed in a separate post.

Note: If you wish to add more fields to the file you may create a blank calendar, export it as a CSV file and study the supported fields.

When you are done, save the file in CSV format. That is because you will be importing it to your calendar later.

Part II: Import CSV File to Calendar

Now, you will need to import the file values to your calendar on the MS Outlook tool. We are using MS Outlook 2013 in our example. The steps would be more or less same in lower versions as well.

Step 1: Navigate to the File menu and click on the Open & Export section on the left pane. Then click on Import/Export on the right side.

Step 2: On the next window, choose to Import from another program or file. Click on Next.

Step 3: Then, select the file type. In our case it has to be, Comma Seperated Values. Click Next again.

Step 4: Browse to the file that has your calendar data like the one we create in Part I above. Click Next after having chosen the correct file.

Step 5: Choose the calendar where you wish to import the new calendar entry and then hit on Next.

Step 6: Double check if the import file is correct. Also click on Map Custom Fields to verify if the Subject and Start Date headers have been mapped correctly.

Step 7: After having verified the custom fields, click on Ok and then click on Finish. Within seconds the entities will sync and reflect the changes as was shown in the sample calendar.

Conclusion

For a person like me such reminders make a lot of sense. I work day in and day out with calendars and they help a great deal in consciously and constantly reminding about something important that I need to know over a period of time.

Try out your requirements and ask us if you are unable to get through a specific setting.