How to Set Up Email Reminders That You'll Actually Act On

Setting up email reminders is simple in Gmail and Outlook — a few clicks and a time is set. The harder problem is that email reminders often don't work. They arrive in an inbox that already has 200 messages, get scanned and left unread, or trigger at a moment when you can't act on them. Here's how to set them up properly, and when to use a different channel.

Setting Up Reminders in Gmail

Gmail doesn't have a dedicated "Set Reminder" button, but has three built-in options:

Option 1: Snooze an Email

This is Gmail's most underused feature. Hover over any email in your inbox — a clock icon appears on the right. Click it and choose when to have the email reappear at the top of your inbox: later today, tomorrow, next week, or a custom date and time.

Use case: You receive an invoice on Tuesday that you need to pay on Friday. Snooze it to Friday at 10 AM. It disappears from your inbox until then.

Option 2: Google Calendar Event with Email Notification

1. Open Google Calendar
2. Create an event at the reminder time
3. Click "More options"
4. Under Notifications, change "notification" to email and set the time
5. Save

You'll receive an email notification at the specified time. Add multiple notifications (30 minutes before, day before) for redundancy.

Option 3: Gmail Add-ons

• Boomerang: Schedule emails to send later, get follow-up reminders if you haven't heard back, and "boomerang" emails to reappear at a future time
• Right Inbox: Similar functionality with send later, follow-up reminders, and recurring emails
• Mixmax: More powerful, used by sales teams for email sequences and follow-up tracking

Setting Up Reminders in Outlook

For Individual Email Follow-ups

1. Open or select the email you want to follow up on
2. Click Home → Follow Up → Add Reminder
3. In the Custom dialog, set the date and time
4. Check "Reminder" and click OK

A pop-up appears at the specified time. The email is also flagged in your inbox as a to-do.

For Recurring Reminders

1. Click Tasks (or To-Do) in the Outlook sidebar
2. Create a new task with a subject (your reminder text)
3. Set a Due Date and Reminder
4. Click Recurrence and set your pattern
5. Save and Close

This creates a recurring task that fires a pop-up reminder on schedule.

For Meeting-Based Reminders

Outlook calendar events support multiple reminder notifications (5 min, 15 min, 1 day, 1 week before). For important deadlines, set a 1-day reminder and a same-day reminder to create a two-stage alerting system.

The Honest Problem with Email Reminders

Email has a 20–30% open rate for reminder purposes. That means for every 10 email reminders you set up, 3–5 will be seen and acted on. The others will be archived, left unread, or noticed but not actioned.

The core issue: email reminders compete for attention. They land in the same inbox as newsletters, work messages, and promotional emails. The signal-to-noise ratio is low.

"I had a calendar reminder set up to follow up with a client three times. I saw the email notifications all three times and meant to reply. I didn't actually reply." — a pattern every knowledge worker recognizes.

When Email Reminders Work Best

Email reminders are most effective when:

• The reminder is for something non-urgent where a 20% action rate is acceptable
• You're already heavily email-based and check it constantly
• You need a paper trail (an email reminder creates a record)
• The reminder is going to someone else's email (client appointment reminders)
• The reminder supplements another channel (email + SMS is more reliable than email alone)

When to Add SMS as a Backup Channel

For reminders you genuinely can't miss — medication, critical deadlines, time-sensitive client follow-ups — SMS is a more reliable primary or backup channel.

YouGot delivers reminders via SMS with a 98% open rate. Set it up alongside email for high-stakes reminders:

Text me every Monday at 9am to review last week's open tasks and follow up on anything overdue.

For work follow-ups and client reminders, visit yougot.ai/small-business or yougot.ai/freelancers.

Try These Email Reminder Setups

Here are specific reminders that work well as SMS-backed reminders in YouGot:

• Remind me every Tuesday at 10am to send the biweekly invoice to all active clients.
• Alert me 2 days before any proposal is due to review the final draft.
• Remind me every Friday at 3pm to follow up on any emails I haven't responded to this week.
• Text me the morning of any client call at 8am to review my notes.
• Send me a reminder on the 1st of each month to check if any contracts need renewal.

See yougot.ai/#pricing for plan options.

Comparison: Email vs. Other Reminder Channels

Channel	Open rate	Persistence	Works offline?	Best for
Email	20–30%	Low (inbox competition)	Yes	Paper trail, non-urgent
SMS	~98%	High (stays in thread)	Yes	High-stakes, time-sensitive
Push notification	15–25%	Low (dismissed easily)	Requires app	App-native tasks
Calendar pop-up	40–60%	Medium	Requires computer	Work meetings

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I set up an email reminder in Gmail?

Gmail doesn't have a dedicated reminder button. Use: (1) Email snooze — hover over a message and click the clock icon to have it reappear later. (2) Google Calendar event with email notification. (3) Add-ons like Boomerang for follow-up reminders.

How do I set up reminders in Outlook?

Open an email and click 'Follow Up' → 'Add Reminder.' Set a date and time. For recurring reminders, create an Outlook Task with recurrence settings.

Why do email reminders often fail?

Email reminders compete with every other message in your inbox. A 20–30% open rate means most email reminders aren't acted on. For high-stakes reminders, use SMS as a primary or backup channel.

Can I set up automatic email reminders for clients or customers?

Yes. For client appointment reminders, SMS services like YouGot or email platforms like Mailchimp handle automated sequences. For individual follow-ups, Boomerang adds scheduled reminder capabilities to Gmail.

What is the difference between an email reminder and an email follow-up?

An email reminder alerts you internally to do something. An email follow-up is a message sent to someone else. Both can be automated, but they use different tools: internal reminders use snooze or task features; external follow-ups use scheduled email or CRM automation.