I love this idea, so I made it. It took about 10 minutes to build and test as a Shortcut. https://twitter.com/JordanMorgan10/status/1336345878194434056

It picks a random item from the list and creates a Reminder — unless one already exists, in which case it gently reminds you about that one.

Set up a Personal Automation to run it every morning (without asking).

Want to try it? Here you go: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/6a5328a89bcb44b19e05ecb30b4730d8

Thanks @JordanMorgan10 for the inspiration!

Building something simple like this is a great opportunity to think about user experience design. It's easy to randomly pick from a list. But then what? An alert? A menu with options? Quietly add a reminder? What experience feels right for this "app?"

I tried a few of those and settled on adding a Reminder, with a notification announcing the process. But what if there's already one there from yesterday? This "app" is supposed to help me feel good, not accumulate a sad list of untended tasks.

The bulk of this Shortcut's 11 Actions are about these user experience considerations. The basic functionality is supplied by just two Actions. I suspect this 2–11 proportion of functionality to affordances is about right for my more complex Shortcuts as well.

But the main point I wanted to make was that there's a wonderful, rich space between "automation" (performing repeating tasks) and full-blown apps. @JordanMorgan10 had this idea, and would not exist as an app, but it can exist as a Shortcut...

...but probably only for folks comfortable with how Shortcuts work. I think there's ample room for some Shortcuts to behave a bit more like apps. I want to share them with folks who would never otherwise know what the Shortcuts app is, and have them Just Work.

Perfect illustration of the choices available when building something "simple" like this. How should it work? What should it feel like? What does the user expect, and what will delight them? https://twitter.com/mattcassinelli/status/1336462134796902400