I’ve Got a Monkey on my Back
Sunday, July 1st, 2007
It just keeps at me. I either have to kill it or write about it.
And it’s all because of Erin, a colleague in our Phoenix office. She put this monkey on my back.
When I received the first one, I thought “what did she find now”…see Erin finds the most interesting things out there. But I got pulled into meetings and didn’t think much about it again. But I got another one yesterday. And today. This Monkey on my Back is relentless. And it has a deadline.
The idea behind the Monkey on Your Back application is pretty cool, and injects a dose of fun into something as boring as reminding people to do something.
While, there are several great Websites out there that promise to help you organize tasks and to-do lists, Monkey On Your Back is a different kind of reminder service: the type you use to remind other people to do things for you. It lets you create custom reminders and send them to people on the date of your choice.
Email reminders are sent 1, 2, 3 and 7 days before the due date, and weekly before that. Recipients of Monkey on Your Back reminders can mark tasks as completed and add comments (or they can kill the monkey).
Signing up for an account at Monkey On Your Back is free and once you’re signed up, you can start sending out email monkeys to do your bidding — to pester your family, friends and coworkers to finish their tasks, make sure the chores are done. When you send monkeys to your friends, they’ll get a chance to sign up for the site.
The free level of the service lets you have 5 active monkeys at one time. All received and sent Monkey on Your Back reminders can be managed and reviewed centrally. There’s a paid level that gives you more options.
It’s a potentially useful (and annoying) tool that’s simple to use. I sent one to my 15 year old daughter tonight to clean her room. We’ll see if it works on her.
As for me…well Erin, I beat my Monday 5pm deadline. And I’m thinking about all kinds of ways I can use the monkey on others.
