One major difference between GTDInbox and most of the other task+email systems out there (inc. Google Tasks) is that GTDInbox turns an email into a task. Those other systems encourage you to create a task, and add an email to it.
We’ve thought about this on and off over the years, and even flirted with the idea of creating standalone tasks within our system.
But, it has just never made sense to us.
Tasks buried in email are unique creatures. They are fast flowing, they are small, they are often half defined and part of a bigger picture. Most are quick to solve, and a significant number require collaboration with others to solve (delegate, ask for help, etc.). They are simply not traditional tasks; and therefore do not cleanly fit into traditional task management systems.
I think the point is, it is economically senseless to try and create a task for every email (or every couple of emails). It requires considerable effort – and therefore time – to think up a task name, to connect it with the email, and to manage it. The reality is that most email tasks are processed too quickly to make that effort worthwhile. We just want to say “this email is an action, don’t let me forget it, help me understand where it fits in, and help me respond better”.
The one arguable benefit of creating separate tasks is to help understand where individual emails fit into the bigger picture. But GTD gives us a clean and simple mechanism for that: Projects. Your projects are descriptions of tasks (P/CreateForecastForPete). And in Gmail, labels fit far more quickly – and flexibly – into your workflow than cumbersome separate tasks.
Put simply, our mantra of “emails are actions” is not about to change. Nor is our desire to stay lightweight and in harmony with Gmail. It’s not for everyone, but it’s simple, it’s fast, it requires minimal effort and it’s the optimal – native – solution for effective, organized communication.
(I should make it clear I’m not against traditional task managers. But I am saying email is a different beast and requires something better suited to its true nature. Certainly, for some kinds of task buried in email it makes sense to ‘export’ them to a bigger system. Just not the majority.).
I’ve been a fan of GTDInbox since a couple of years, and I initially asked Andy for having stand-alone tasks inside GTD, too: his answer, thati is the same you’re reading above, fully convinced me, as I discovered, for everyday to-do list, a complementary task management system called RememberTheMilk.
RTM has it’s own FF add-in that exposes your task list (with MUCH more flexibility than standard Gmail tasks) at the right of the screen. You can configure your settings in order to have a RTM task automatically created (with due date and alerts -yes, via SMS too) when you label a mail as an Action.
In a sentence, I agree that GTDInbox should remain focused on mail processing, others task mgmt system exists and integrates well with it and the general Gmail.
Thanks Ste
I believe Nozbe is a good alternative too – and if you do team stuff, Basecamp is great.
Referring to the comment above about RTM and tasks… Yeah, I looked at that too. Really tho, the only feature I need from RTM is to be able to put due dates on things. I am an ADHD guy, and having two to do lists means I’m twice as likely to look at neither one. I’ve used my inbox as a to do list for a long, long time. I love this model. And I think the fact that you can create items that are basically emails to self makes it a lot less reactive. I use that a lot. I’d love to be able to put due dates and priorities… but I can sort of do priorities with stars… Leaving only the due date question. I like how I can create a GCal entry while creating a task, it gets me a little of the way there. A tight integration between both, where items due on a date were automagically in the cal too would be just the bees knees! I bet the abstraction problem is of about the same complexity…
Even so, this is such a cool tool.
Most tasks I do starts with a mail (or I ask someone over the phone to mail me the details and make sure I don’t forget it). Stand alone tasks would not be helpful for me. It would just be one more list.
I could agree on that I sometimes miss being able to pin the task/assignment to the calendar.
BUT simplicty is more worth than “completeness”.
I have tried to eliminate any external task and project management systems for four reasons:
1. Any email represents an action, even if the action is simply deleting it or reading and filing it, so keeping all actions in email simplifies and disambiguates my work flow. I don’t think of emails as bits of information. They are tasks to be dealt with.
2. In my business (book publishing), most tasks and projects arrive via email, not just small ones that I can do quickly. By using labels to identify projects and subprojects, I can keep track of everything in email. For instance, under a specific project there might be emails to and from multiple persons, and they might also be marked as actions, next actions, waiting on or someday with appropriate due dates assigned for follow up.
3. Using 43 folders to assign due dates eliminates the need to keep an external calendar for tasks. This lets me reserve my calendar for meetings and major tasks that I have blocked out time for.
4. Since I spend a lot of time away from my laptop, by keeping all tasks in Gmail, I can work on them and respond to requests for action via my mobile (I use a Blackberry but that doesn’t matter). Then when I sit down at the laptop, all I have to do with most of the emails in my inbox is label and file them. I don’t have to match them to an external task management system. I have used several CRM systems, and after a few days of emailing away from them, I had to spend hours attaching the emails to the contact records. This was very unproductive. Using Gmail and GTDI as my core tools for communication, project management, task management and contact management keeps my work very mobile and quick so I can spend my time getting things done instead of updating records.
Hi Peyton!
43 folders for due dates, could You Please elaborate on how that solves the time aspect of tasks?
(Days of Month + months, suddenly strikes me…so You assign a day and a month “folder”)
/Martin
Martin, let me try to reply my way to handle the 43 folders (I use fewer folders, but let me tell you first how to do 43). You simply creates 43 contexts, 12 for months and 31 for days, e.g. X/Month/01, X/Month/02, …, X/Day/01, X/Day/02 (I use X/ for contexts) (you may keep the /Month /Day or or use X/@01 for days and X/#01 for months and days, to make it shorter). Then, you simply set the folder of an email by setting the folder’s context. So, if you want to push the email until month 10, you set its context to X/Month/10 (same for days).
Then, every day you “open” the day’s folder by checking the corresponding context. For instance, on day 12 you ask gmail to list you all emails tagged X/Day/12. You can easily push again the email by reseting its context.
What I do? I simplified this to X/NextWeek, X/NextHalfMonth, X/NextMonth, which I open on Mondays, 15th of a month, and 1st of a Month, respectively. This granularity works great for me (you can simplify it further or go further toward the 43 folders, your choice). The more tickle bins you have, more days you have to process the folder. With my way it is at most 6 times a month, which works for me.
Excuse me if I´m missing something. I´m just starting with this implementation of GTD (but been using GTD for some years now).
I think the most value of creating tasks in GTD is to define exactly WHAT is you have to do, so when you go and look at your list, you can easily decide what you are going to do right now. Having a list of DOABLE stuff is what prevents you from procrastinating.
I think that if you have to go through every email you assigned as a task, read it an think all over again what is that you have to do, you´ll be really exhausted after the first half docen… and will probably start to procrastinate again.
I´m not saying I´d like to have a task list, but I think there should be some kind of EASY way to process the incoming email in a way that when you assign that email to be an Action or Next Action, it contains very visibly what the action is.
Please let me know your opinion about this, as I said, maybe I´m missing something.
Mariano
Hi Mariano,
I very much agree. Right now, the informal approach is to ‘reply to self’ on an email, with notes about what you want to do next.
But looking to the future, we’re planning on adding Notes on an email (to say summarise what’s important) and on a Project (again, to detail key next actions) – but it’ll be very free form.
The other thing that we’re evaluating right now is the role of ‘goals’ (name to be decided), which are more high level and used to define what it is you’re aiming to do today; which would then be connected to projects/contexts and emails.
So, while I absolutely stand by the fact that GTDInbox considers the email itself to be the task (and will not be doing separate task objects, as are not productive); we are looking at high level ways of connecting those emails with your goals.
I create an event , in a google calendar called tickler, which I have set up to send me an email reminder around the time I want to look at it again