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Calendar Reminders: Nagging Alerts vs Forgetting Appointments

I am looking for a better way to remember appointments. I have just switched from android to iPhone and previously I had my phone set to constantly nag me with a melody until I snoozed or dismissed a calendar alert. This helped me to always remember things even if I was away from my phone or had loud music playing. (App was called Calendar Snooze). However, it had the side effect of annoying others if the alerts were left playing too long. (That happened a lot).

The only other alternative is to be constantly checking my calendar. But this seems distracting and I might still miss things.

Another trick I do is to create 3 alerts for each calendar event. 1day, 2hours, and 30mins before start. This reduces the chance I'll forget an appointment, but is a bit distracting and cumbersome.

Really what I needed is an assistant that makes sure I am where I need to be at the right time.

Any ideas?
 
timjamesbrennan said:
Another trick I do is to create 3 alerts for each calendar event. 1day, 2hours, and 30mins before start.

How do you do it? I use this technique but I can define only 2 alarms for the event in the built-in calendar!
 
I do it similarly:

- one quiet message to my list manager app 15 hours in advance, which makes sure that in my morning quick review I get the action up on my "focus list" for today, and I will see it whenever I check my list for actions to do.

- one alert (sound/message) 65 minutes in advance
 
TesTeq said:
How do you do it? I use this technique but I can define only 2 alarms for the event in the built-in calendar!

Fantastical for iPhone allows more than 2 default alerts. Or google calendar can be set up this way on desktop
 
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