Stop Setting Reminders for Everything (University Edition)
Fall Independence Series
Stop Setting a Reminder for Everything
By Candice Lapin, Founder & CEO, The Ladder Method
If your phone has twelve reminders set for the same paper — one from the day it was assigned, one from three days later when you saw it again and felt a flicker of guilt, one the night before, one the morning of — you are not alone. You are also probably not managing that assignment as well as it feels like you are.
Somewhere along the way, “set a reminder” became the default response to almost anything you don't want to forget. A reading. A form. A shift swap. The result, by midterms, is often a phone that buzzes constantly and a mind that has quietly stopped listening to it.
That is not a discipline problem. It is what happens when a tool built to interrupt you gets used as a substitute for actually planning.
Why More Reminders Stop Helping
We teach students at The Ladder Method that reminders and planning are not the same skill, even though they feel related. A reminder tells you something exists. It doesn't tell you when you're going to do it, what you need first, or how long it will actually take. Add enough of them and you end up with a phone full of alarms and no actual plan underneath any of them.
- Working memory has a limit. Holding five different due dates in your head while trying to focus on a lecture means something gets dropped — usually the thing that felt “handled” because you'd already set a reminder for it.
- Constant alerts train you to react, not plan. Every notification interrupts whatever you're doing. Across a semester, that adds up to real hours lost to context-switching instead of actual work.
- Time blindness makes “later” feel safe. A reminder firing at 9pm doesn't help if you genuinely believed, an hour earlier, that you had more time than you did.
And here's the part that's different from high school: nobody is checking in on you here. Teachers and parents used to catch what you missed. In college, the whole loop runs through you — which is exactly why one predictable check-in matters more now, not less.
The Goal Isn't Fewer Things to Remember
The goal is not to somehow have less going on. It's to build one reliable moment each day where you actually look at what's ahead, instead of finding out about it one buzz at a time. A single predictable check-in does more for your follow-through than any number of scattered alerts ever will.
Build Your Check-In This Week
You don't need a new app, a color-coded system, or an hour of your evening. You need one protected window, five to ten minutes long, and a little honesty about what's actually due.
- Pick one time you can realistically protect every day — right after your last class, or right before bed.
- Open whatever you use to track assignments (planner, notes app, calendar) and read through everything due in the next three days.
- Write down the one thing you'll start first tomorrow.
- Turn off any reminder set “just in case.” Keep only the ones tied to a fixed time — a class, a meeting, a shift.
Attach the check-in to something that already happens every day — closing your laptop, walking through your door, brushing your teeth. The existing habit becomes the cue, so you're not relying on yet another notification to remind you to stop relying on notifications.
When You Notice Yourself Reaching for One More Alarm
The pull to add just one more reminder is real, especially right after you've forgotten something. Try a small script instead of another alert:
“I don't need to catch this right now. I have a check-in for that.”
Say it, then actually close the app. The check-in only works if you trust it enough to stop double-covering yourself in the meantime.
If the Habit Keeps Slipping, Make It Smaller
If you keep forgetting the check-in itself, that's not a sign the system is wrong for you — it usually means it's not attached to anything sturdy enough yet. Stack it onto something you already do without fail, like leaving the library or plugging in your phone for the night.
If you do the check-in but still get distracted mid-task, keep it to reading your list and picking one thing — not solving everything in that window. And if weekends throw off the whole rhythm, a two-minute glance at what's due Monday is enough to keep the habit alive without asking your weekend to run on a weekday schedule.
This Isn't About Never Missing Anything Again
You will still forget something eventually. The goal was never a perfect memory — it's not needing twelve alarms to trust that you'll follow through. A check-in you actually run every day beats a phone full of reminders you've learned to tune out.
For more strategies like this, visit The Ladder Method — built for students figuring out their own systems.
Visit The Ladder MethodKnow someone drowning in reminders? Forward this to them — sometimes the shift just takes hearing it from someone else.
P.S. The goal was never zero reminders. It's reminders that actually work — for the pace you're keeping now, not the one your phone assumes you're on.
