ForumsGetting Things Done®Gmail, GTD and Toodledo.. I may stop using Toodledo


Gmail, GTD and Toodledo.. I may stop using Toodledo
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Kenny Schiff

Posted: May 24, 2010
Score: 0 Reference
Wondering whether others are struggling using Gmail alongside of Toodledo. If this is a topic of interest to you, check out my blog entry on this Of Gmail, GTD, and List Managers... Can Gmail Reliably be Your Trusted System? Your dialog on this would be appreciated.
Dave

Posted: May 24, 2010
Score: 0 Reference
This makes sense depending how many of your tasks depend on email. For me, not so many. I am surprised Google hasn't released a better task mgmt system since they already have the function of creating a task with an email. Google tasks good for just a basic list. It would have been nice though to have your tasks and email integrated so you could do everything from one window.

Now I use a hybrid system where Toodledo is for my tasks, and then I created context labels in gmail for emails that I need to respond to or are waiting on. It isn't overwhelming since I don't have that many emails to process since I really don't use email for work.
CJD

Posted: May 24, 2010
Score: 1 Reference
I am classic ADD adult and all my life I have struggled with tasks and dates. I have tried tasks via Palm OS, Nozbe, remember the milk, Vitalist, Central Desktop...
I have been with Toodledo for over a year now, and as much as I wish the interface were prettier and that projects were handled better, for what I need I have to run Gmail, Outlook and Toodledo separately. It has helped me tremendously.

My devotion to Toodledo is the email function. I have a pro account. And when I have an email that I can't respond to immediately (I have many) I forward it to toodledo. You get all attachments, you get all the email and it is placed in toodledo automatically.

------
To: CJ
From: Knucklehead
Subject: Presentation tomorrow
Hey CJ,
I have a presentation tmw in the conference room. I need a Laptop and a the right cable thingys, and the projector and wireless keyboard and mouse. Presentation is at 10am.
I attached a pdf of the room layout.
Thanks, Knucklehead
--------
To: Toodledo
From: CJ
Subject: Knucklehead Presentation tomorrow * *tech #tomorrow $next ^9am !!

(*=Star, *tech= Tech folder, #tomorrow obvious but notice you don't have to remember the date. Status=next action (don't have to put the full status) Starts 9a and is !! High priority (notice I add Knucklehead's name to the subject for clarification in Toodledo.
-------------

Honestly for me it can't get easier to enter tasks (other than Jott which I use while I am driving). I don't have to pick up the mouse, I quickly learned the syntax.

An honestly sometimes I have two phones ringing and a video phone. Sometimes I just forward the mail with an asterick to put it in the star list where I can triage it later. Or you can default into an in box.

So from Toodledo, the email has multiple ways I can get it and prioritize it and I have an archive forever. Also it has attachments.
--
I have an iphone which I don't use as a phone (dont' care for it) but it has a great toodle interface.
I use a Palm Pre and someone is developing an app. But the web interface is fantastic.
Douglas

Posted: May 25, 2010
Score: 0 Reference
Posted by CJD:
My devotion to Toodledo is the email function. I have a pro account. And when I have an email that I can't respond to immediately (I have many) I forward it to toodledo. You get all attachments, you get all the email and it is placed in toodledo automatically.


This approach has been a pretty big help for me as well. When I see something, but can't act on it right away ... if I don't log it somewhere, it simply won't get done. But firing up my to-do list organizer is also a distraction when I'm trying to plow through 200+ emails in my inbox first thing in the morning.

I bought a copy of MailActOn (I'm on a Mac) for use with Mail.app. Now, as I am reading each message, a simple CTRL-T and it will automatically get forwarded over to my Toodledo email address in the background with no more effort on my part. I can fire through my inbox extremely rapidly now ... the quick one-line, not-much-thought responses I take care of right there ... the rest, get shot over to Toodledo in this way.

Of course, when it gets into Toodledo, it's not really categorized, the titles aren't really great, etc. I actually *like it this way*. I have a custom Search saved called "Inbox" which contains everything that has no context, no folder, no start date, and no due date. When I get 5-15 minutes to focus on nothing but my to-do list, *then* I go into that inbox and categorize, process, rename, clarify next steps, etc. I get to "inbox zero" within a few minutes most days. And now, everything is on my list.


This message was edited May 25, 2010.
kressnerd

Posted: Jun 08, 2010
Score: 0 Reference
I tried Kelly’s approach together with Gmail’s multiple in-box feature and stopped using it only after some days. It just didn’t felt right and the e-mail tasks piled up. I couldn’t handle it in my familiar order.
Somehow I had the impression that having e-mails tasks is a kind of un-GTD. (I’m not talking about the e-mail-to-task feature in Gmail, Outlook or, as forwarded e-mail, here Toodledo)

I like having my lists again separated form my e-mail in-box here in Toodledo. Usually I access these lists via the Google Gadgets for Gmail and Google Calendar.
Dave

Posted: Jun 09, 2010
Score: 0 Reference
Here is an excellent blog post on how this guy uses Toodledo to get his inbox to zero. He has other good posts on using Toodledo and trying other gtd apps. Highly recommend, it helped me out a lot. Oh yeah, I am not promoting him or know who he is, just got this off of a tweet.

http://jasonschleifer.com/2010/05/29/using-toodledo-for-gtd-and-inbox-zero/
jason.schleifer

Posted: Jun 15, 2010
Score: 0 Reference
Thanks for the link dave! :)

I've been back and forth and round the block with numerous todo systems and keep coming back to toodledo for it's excellent feature set.

in fact, at work i wrote a quick python script to help me add a bunch of tasks quickly. It uses the ability for toodledo to receive an email and make it a task, and just speeds up my workflow. I simply type:

td

in a shell and it prompts me for tasks. I just keep entering them until I hit return twice.. eg:

% td

buy some milk @shopping #today
buy some chocolate @shopping ! #today
review kevin's shot
review mark's shot
send email about team to sue %sue @email #tomorrow


Then it sends all of these to toodledo and they drop right into my inbox where I can process appropriately.

I'm diggin it. :)
jquark

Posted: Jun 17, 2010
Score: 0 Reference
Hi Jason,

I am a python user and am very interested in your script. Would you be willing to share it? I could of course leave a credit to you in the source code and certainly wouldn't distribute it without your consent. Thanks! This is a great thread; I haven't fully taken advantage of the email feature to date.
BENJAMIN.HOUGLAND

Posted: Aug 16, 2010
Score: 0 Reference
I am also interested in the python script, can you please send it to me. I will give you all credit.

Thanks
Pascal Zweipfenning

Posted: Sep 29, 2010
Score: 0 Reference
I'm usig Tooodledo in combination Gmail and ActiveInbox addon. When I send a mail to my Toodledo account I always include URL of the specific mail on the first line (just copy/pastfrom the address bar). This gives you a direct link from Toodeledo to the mail in GMail, so no searching for the linked mail is required.

Pascal.
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