Sunday, July 6, 2008

GTD with Quicksilver and Gmail

Getting Things Done (GTD) is a methodology, authored by David Allen, for, well, getting things done with minimal stress and maximum efficiency. It worked really well for me when I learned about it a couple of years ago, but I fell off the horse and I've recently started getting back into it. I have been hunting for a GTD tool with the following characteristics:

  1. I can get to it from "anywhere" (i.e. it's web-based)
  2. It has a nice mobile version
  3. It has great desktop integration so I can literally manage my action items with a few keystrokes
  4. It's free (or practically)
So far, I haven't found a tool that satisfies me on all of the above fronts. I have extensively test-driven Remember The Milk (RTM) and Vitalist, but I don't like having to pull up my browser, go to the site and navigate the UI with my mouse to enter a quick action item as I think of it. I am a huge fan of Quicksilver (i.e. I'm a Mac user), and I love being able to rapidly carry out various actions with a few keystrokes, without having to switch windows.

With that in mind, I have figured out a way to quickly add tasks to my RTM or Vitalist inbox with a few keystrokes. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a "hack," but it's a gem nonetheless.

Prerequisites
  1. Sorry PC/Linux users - this will only work on a Mac with OS X Leopard (it might work with earlier OS X versions, but I can't attest either way).
  2. The instructions below should work with any web-based task tool that has an email address for the task inbox. I know that RTM and Vitalist both have email addresses, and probably others do as well.
  3. Quicksilver with Apple Mail Module installed (lifehacker has an article showing how to use it). If you use Gmail, make sure you install the Gmail module as well
The Step-by-Step
  1. Get the email address of your task inbox and add it as an entry in address book (give it an easy to remember nickname)
  2. Invoke Quicksilver.
  3. Type a "." and start entering your task description; hit tab and type "email." Then hit tab again and enter the nickname of the address book contact you entered. Hit "enter"
  4. This will automatically send the message if you are in apple mail, or open up a "compose" screen in your browser if you use gmail. If the latter is the case, simply hit tab, then enter to send the message to your task list.

That's it! Hopefully the time you spent reading this short post will be more than made up in time saved entering tasks. ;-)