Apple Reminders, if you didn’t know, added a bunch of new features over the past couple years, and at this point it’s actually a pretty complete to-do list app. It’s not perfect, though: For one thing it doesn’t offer a menu bar icon that allows you to quickly check your reminders, nor a system-wide keyboard shortcut for quickly adding a task to your list. The free application Reminders Menu Bar fixes these problems so seamlessly you’d think Apple made it themselves.
To get started, simply download and launch the application. After providing the necessary permissions, you can click the new menu bar icon to see your current tasks. From there, you can also immediately type a task and hit enter to add it to your Inbox. There’s even support for natural language due dates, meaning you can type “finish writing report tomorrow” and the app will add a task that’s due tomorrow.
Credit: Justin Pot
Today’s tasks are at the top, followed by all of your lists. You can decide which of these options you’d like to see by using the filter button at the bottom-left.
Credit: Justin Pot
There’s not much in terms of options—there doesn’t need to be—but you can configure a few things by clicking the gear icon on the bottom-right. You’ll find toggle for things like launching at login, whether to use dark or light mode, and which menu bar icon you’d like to use.
Credit: Justin Pot
You can also add a custom keyboard shortcut.
Credit: Justin Pot
Triggering the shortcut will open the menu bar icon. You can start typing a new task immediately after using the keyboard shortcut, meaning the app adds another feature that Reminders is missing: the ability to quickly add a task without opening the full application. Every major to do list I can think of, from Todoist to Omnifocus to TickTick, offers some version of this—and with Apple Reminders Menu Bar, you finally can add it to Apple Reminders too.
