I find myself having to set future reminders to basically ask myself if someone has gotten back to me by a certain date. For instance, I send John a note on Monday which I know requires work and action on his part, but for me to be accountable for deadlines, I need a reminder on Friday to ask myself if John has followed up by then. Maybe he already has, in which case it's moot, but if he hasn't, I want to be sure to follow up with him to check in.

The way I typically handle this is to create a [short] appointment on my calendar, "showing as" free, and with a reminder about the appointment.

*The reminder is really all I need*. So my question is about whether I have to go through the process of setting up an appointment to achieve what I want to do here.