It doesn’t matter the way you organize your stuff around the house, you never seem to be able to find anything at the time you need it. And it’s even more difficult to find something you put away months ago, such as your Christmas lights, Halloween decorations, or anything specific that you don’t use every day. Thankfully, Cortana can now also help you to keep tabs of things.
Cortana on Windows 10 is your personal digital assistant that can perform an array of tasks, and while most people use it to get weather and traffic information, track packages, create appointment reminders, you can also use the assistant to keep tabs of things you put away around the house.
In this Windows 10 guide, you’ll learn the steps to use Cortana to always remember where you left your stuff using specific settings when creating reminders.
Cortana photo reminders can help you keep tabs of whatever
While Cortana always included the feature to create reminders, starting with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, the assistant introduces a few new improvements, including the ability to skip date and time and add a picture to reminders.
These new options can help you to create specific reminders that you can use to track anything around the house. For example, for things that you don’t use every day, you can simply create a picture reminder.
If you want to be reminded where you left something (e.g., Halloween decorations or Christmas lights) months from now, you can create a picture reminder with a date and time, so Cortana can let you know as the holidays approach.
In addition, thanks to Cortana cross platform ability, you don’t need to carry around your laptop or webcam to take a picture. You can actually use the Cortana app on your tablet, Windows 10 Mobile, Android, and iOS device to create photo reminders.
How to create Cortana photo reminders to track whatever around the house
To track things around the house, so you can later recall where you left them, do the following:
- Open Cortana on your phone or tablet.
- Click the microphone button to enter into listening mode.
- Type or say the following command example to create a photo reminder: “Set a reminder: Christmas lights are in the garage, in the red plastic box.” Like in the example, make sure to clearly note the name of the object and location.
- Click the reminder to edit.
- Click the Camera button on the bottom of the app.
- Select Camera from the list.
- Take a picture where you’re putting away the stuff.
- Click the checkmark button to save the image.
- If you want, click Time to set a date and time you want.
- Quick Tip: You can use natural language and say something like: “Remind me a month before Christmas to get the Christmas lights out the garage closet.” This voice command will create a reminder with your note, and with the specific date and time.
- Click the Save (floppy disk) button to commit the changes.
Once you completed the task, you can forget about it, and let Cortana to remind you. Or you can open the app and use this voice command: “Show me Christmas lights reminders”, which will bring up all the results with the specific information you wrote and even a picture to make things a lot easier.
Open Cortana on your phone or tablet.
Click the microphone button to enter into listening mode.
Type or say the following command example to create a photo reminder: “Set a reminder: Christmas lights are in the garage, in the red plastic box.” Like in the example, make sure to clearly note the name of the object and location.
Click the reminder to edit.
Click the Camera button on the bottom of the app.
Select Camera from the list.
Take a picture where you’re putting away the stuff.
Click the checkmark button to save the image.
If you want, click Time to set a date and time you want.
Click the Save (floppy disk) button to commit the changes.
Remember that you can always type your commands instead of using voice. These are only examples to get you started, you can actually use natural language and set Cortana reminders quickly for anything you want to track.
