Stop Using Your Inbox as a To-Do List | Hacker News Reader

Stop Using Your Inbox as a To-Do List

blogs.hbr.org

10 pointsBrajeshwar11 comments

"Stop Using Something Which Works Perfectly Fine For Millions Of People Because We Have Compiled A Few Obscure Alternatives You Should Use Instead"

Excactly my thought.

Most of these command-like "advice" posts here lack a real reason why I should stop doing what I do. I have the feeling the author just writes down a piece of text about some tools and than adds some gerenic reasons on top to justify the rest.

Somebody will respond with a "Start using your inbox like a to-do list" as a retort in order to promote their gmail extension that turns your inbox into a to-do list. And so will continue the never-ending cycle of advice as self-promotion.

- I use Thunderbird. - I created a folder in my Gmail Inbox named after me (Jugurtha). - I created a filter that puts any e-mail I send to myself in that folder. - I just e-mail myself, and the mail gets to Jugurtha. - A specific thing gets a thread I add to as I go. Ideas, websites specific to that topic, etc.

I also used to have a "Next" spreadsheet on Google Drive with coding colors. Green is done. Red is not done. Orange is halfway (with a remark in a third column saying why exactly it's not done yet, so these are next tasks).

Inbox is a crappy todo list I will agree but it's not without utility. I keep my inbox as an incoming queue for my todo list. Sort of like a backlog. Everything gets deleted, replied to and deleted or promote into a ticket (billable). If its an order confirmation it just sits in there, flagged.

I use Apple Mail for mail and Trac for tickets and have a hack job of an automator action to move mail to tickets.

I completely agree.

I like to think of it like the ED at a hospital. Anyone can walk in the front door (send you an email), but you need a triage nurse to organize patients, figure out what each one actually needs, and prioritize them appropriately. Otherwise, you'd just be picking the patient that looks the worst (most urgent) to treat at any given moment, which is not the most effective way to treat patients (the most efficient way to conduct business).

Email is a LIFO stack (perhaps a FIFO queue for some clients), but neither of these is inherently a reasonable way to prioritize the patients who need care, or tasks you actually want to do today.

I think we're all stuck with using the inbox as a place for todo/tasks. But it isn't as gloomy as it sounds. The real power of email lies in it's ability to push/pull tasks seamlessly. All you need is an email address. I think I've found a solution that does this very well :)

I love using my Gmail inbox as a to-do list, but it could be a better experience.

This thread inspired me to finally give it a shot to see where it goes instead of waiting for somebody else to build it.

If you keep your folder structure sane, I find email quite brilliant for it.

What I find waste of time is reentering emails into task app or CRM and then hopping back to email, to find the context.

Same for me. If a request comes in via email, it stays there - takes more time to copy the request to somewhere else and then find the email again to reply to it.

My (work) inbox consists only of emails that either require me to do something or reply to them. As soon as I reply, it's moved to a different folder.

Yes! Personally, I use a tickle folder system within my email and it keeps me very organized. I would love to automate a large chunk of this but haven't found a good way to do this.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com