remindmail

RemindMail: Reminder Management Tool

Welcome to RemindMail, a powerful CLI designed to help you schedule and organize reminders efficiently and effectively. RemindMail is a Python-based tool that allows you to schedule reminders for yourself and receive them in your inbox. With RemindMail, you can easily manage your To Do list, schedule one-time or recurring reminders, add notes, and view and manage upcoming reminders.

Features

RemindMail offers a variety of features to enhance your productivity:

• Easily manage your To Do list from anywhere in the terminal
• Send one-time or recurring reminders to your inbox
• Add notes or "for later" reminders
• View and manage upcoming reminders

Dependencies

• Python3
• cabinet
  • used to store JSON data; specifically, used to store the remind.md path and other important variables
• a unique, non-Gmail address specifically for this project
  • do not use an email address that you use in other areas of your life
  • do not re-use a password you've used anywhere else; use a unique password.

Setup

  python3 -m pip install remindmail

  # adjust path accordingly
  python3 -m pip install -r requirements.md

  cabinet --configure # cabinet must be configured properly

Cabinet Configuration

• cabinet is installed as a dependency.

• initialize using cabinet --configure; see cabinet's README for details.

• configure cabinet with the properties below using cabinet -e:

{
  "remindmail": {
      "path": {
          "file": "/path/to/remind.md"
      }
  },
  "email": {
      "from": "YourUniqueAndNonGmailEmailAddress",
      "from_pw": "YourPassword",
      "from_name": "Your Name",
      "to": "RemindersSentToThisEmailAddress",
      "smtp_server": "your domain's smtp server",
      "imap_server": "your domain's imap server",
      "port": 465
  }
}

• note that Gmail will not work due to their security restrictions.
• it's very bad practice to store your password in plaintext; for this reason, never sync this file.
• always use a unique email address specifically for this, and especially use a unique password.

Scheduling Reminder Emails

• type "crontab -e" in the terminal and add something like:

  • 0 4 * * * remind --generate (sends matching reminders at 4AM)
  • 0 4 * * * remind --later (sends emails scheduled for later)

• your setup may require remind to be replaced with something like:

  • 0 4 * * * python3 /path/to/site-packages/remind/remind.py --generate

• this function requires use of SMTP; please ensure you've configured this correctly.

Usage

• remind: Schedule a new reminder interactively
• remind --title 'reminder title' --when 'june 20': Schedule a new reminder programatically
• remind --title 'reminder title' --when '2024-06-20': Schedule a new reminder programatically
• remind --title 'reminder title' --when 'every 3 weeks': Schedule a new reminder programatically
• remind --title 'reminder title' --when 'friday': Schedule a new reminder programatically
• remind --title 'reminder title' --when friday --save: Schedule a new reminder programatically, saves without confirmation
• remind --title 'reminder title' --when 'every 2 Mondays': Schedule a new reminder programatically
• remind --title 'reminder title' --when 'now': Sends an email immediately
• remind -h (or --help): Displays usage information.
• remind -g (or --generate): Generates all reminders scheduled for today.
  • I recommend setting up a crontab.
• remind --later: Emails reminders that are marked with [later]
• remind --st (or --show-tomorrow): Lists reminders in remind.md that target tomorrow's date
• remind --sw (or --show-week): Lists reminders for the next 7 days
• remind -e (or --edit): Opens remind.md in your configured editor
• cabinet --config: Configures cabinet

Using the TUI to Schedule Reminders

• unless --save is used, a confirmation will appear.
• use arrow keys (or j and k in VI Mode) to navigate.
• arrow left and right to iterate through:
  • type
  • value
  • frequency
  • offset

VI Mode and Keybindings

• when the confirmation appears, use j or k to enter VI mode.
• j and k navigate up and down; h and l navigate left and right.
• use i to exit VI mode.
• use q to cancel the reminder.

Notes about Offset

• when scheduling a reminder, you can adjust the offset field to shift reminder schedules.
• For instance, one reminder may be "every 2 weeks", and the other can be every 2 weeks with an offset of 1, resulting in alternating reminders.

The offset is determined by the epoch date.

• The Epoch time is the number of seconds since January 1, 1970, UTC.
• For example, if the current time is 1619394350, then today is Sunday, April 25, 2021 at 11:45:50PM UTC.
• The "week number" is calculated by {epochTime}/60/60/24/7.
  • 1619394350 /60/60/24/7 ~= 2677
  • 2677 % 3 == 1, meaning scheduling a reminder for [W,3] would be sent last week, but not this week (or next week or the week after).

remind.md

These are some examples of how your remind.md file will look.

Good Examples

[w,1] Laundry
- this will send each week on Sunday. 

[w,2] Sheets
- This will be sent every 2 weeks on Sunday.

[m,3] Review Budget
- This will be sent on the 1st of every 3 months.

[m,3,2] Change AC filter
- every 3 months, with an offset of 2
(see notes about Offset below)

[2024-05-03]d send report
- send on May 3
- This will be deleted after it's sent, as indicated by `]d`.

[09-20,1] Get a Flu Shot
This will be sent on September 20.
By the way, anything underneath a reminder tag is considered a note and will
be sent in the body of the email.

[dow,fri] Submit Timesheet
<b>Will be sent every Friday. Reminder notes support HTML.</b>

[dow,fri,2] Payday!
- This will send every other Friday.

[dow,thu,1]c ls > /home/tyler/directory.log
- Reminders ending with `]c` will be executed as commands, rather than
sent as emails.

[d,1] 40 Daily Pushups
This is sent each day.

[later] play diplomacy board game
This isn't sent, but it is saved for later and can be sent using
`remind --later`.

Contributing

Contributions to RemindMail are welcome! Please feel free to fork the repository, make your changes, and submit a pull request.

License

RemindMail is released under the MIT license. For more details, see the LICENSE file in the repository.

Author Info

Tyler Woodfin https://tyler.cloud [e-mail]