I used Google Tasks to turn my Gmail inbox into a to-do list, and now nobody can stop me

I have long used my Gmail inbox as a to-do list, scoffing at those who think it's a bad idea. But as my career progresses, the number of emails increases, and long-term responsibilities follow, and I start to struggle with one or two emails a day. Is it time to give up? no way! There must be a solution.

The answer is: Google Tasks. Although this tool has been around since 2008, it is easily overlooked. In your browser, it won't even appear when you click the Google app icon (a three by three grid) at the top of your Gmail inbox. Despite the lack of publicity, Tasks has quickly become an indispensable tool for me when managing the DIY column of PopSci.

How to Move Email to Google Tasks

One of the biggest problems with my inbox to-do list is that it is nearly impossible to remember what each email means to me. It doesn’t work to mark them with colorful stars – I still need to browse the entire list and actively remind myself of what each star means and what specific actions each email needs to take. Now, with just a click or a click, I can send important mail threads to Tasks.

Select or open any message in your browser and you will see the

Add to task icon at the top of the screen, which is located between the options that allow you to delete messages or mark them as unread. It looks like a circle with a check mark and a small plus sign. Click it and your mail thread (or thread) will move to the list of tasks displayed on the right side of the screen. I like to keep this list on while working, but if you turn it off, just click on the task button to the right (a blue circle with yellow and white style check marks).

In the Gmail app, you will find

under the three dots in the upper right corner of the screen to add to the task . You also need to use a task app built into Android or downloaded as a free iOS to use this utility on your phone.

How to edit Google Tasks

However, you are not done yet. Unless you like the task's duplicate email subject line, you should click on the task itself and rename it to something you remember. For example, I can't recall the reason why I saved the task called "Re: Fwd: Fwd: Re:

PopSci DIY's June proposal and May invoice for projects 1 and 2". No, this will be saved as "Proposal for Evaluation Andy".

Selecting tasks in your browser or application will also provide you with additional editing options. You can choose a deadline and time, and decide whether it will be a repetitive task that repeats a certain number of days, weeks, months, or years. However, you cannot create irregular events, so if you have events that are repeated every Monday and Friday (such as employee meetings), you must create separate tasks. To include more information, change the

Details field to add any comments.

[Related: Best Tips for Working from Home]

Whatever you do, the task will be associated with the original mail thread through an elliptical button containing the subject line and envelope icon. Click this button and the relevant email will open in your inbox.

However, it is important to note: I recommend using Tasks only for emails where you are fully responsible for subsequent operations. If you have a lot of tasks and leave yourself a reminder "If Jess doesn't reply, follow up", then there's nothing in the email itself to say when you've linked it to the task for a week. If Jess does reply and the email continues and you don't track it, you may get lost and end up sending unnecessary follow-up emails.

How to organize your Google Tasks list

Unless you have customized Tasks, each new entry will appear at the top of the list, whether you are adding a task directly from the email, the in the Tasks list, or the Plus button Add it. Google calls this organizational scheme My Order , which allows you to move by selecting a task, clicking the six points to its left and dragging it to the desired position. Each task in the list. In the application, hold down the task and drag it. This strategy can be useful if you prefer to sort tasks by importance. Another option is to click the main menu button

(three vertical points next to "Add Tasks" in the browser, or three horizontal points in the lower right corner of the Tasks mobile app), and then in

Select Date under Sort. When you assign a date or time to a task, the most recent deadline will be displayed at the top of the list, and anything without a date will be displayed at the bottom, including the new task. You can also create a subtask by clicking on three vertical points and clicking next to the task you selected in your browser. In the mobile app, open the task and click

Add subtask

. The app also allows you to hold items against each other and drag them, then indent them to create subtasks. This would be very useful if the email thread asks you to do multiple operations, but in my experience it works much better in the application. If you have many tasks, you can organize them further by creating multiple lists. Simply click on the drop-down menu at the top of the Tasks sidebar in your browser, or the three horizontal lines in the lower left corner of the app, and click to create a new list . You can rename any list by going to the main menu and selecting

Rename the list

. For example, you can use this feature to separate a list of things that need to be done at home or at work, or a list related to different projects.

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When you complete a to-do item, click the circle to the left of each task to mark it as completed, and the completed items will fill the list of completed tasks at the bottom of the list. You can view them by clicking the location where has been completed, or mark them as incomplete by clicking the check mark to return them to your list. Delete the entire inventory by going to the main menu and selecting Delete all completed tasks .

Advanced Google Tasks Tips

As you become more familiar with Tasks, you may want to get to know more. Keyboard shortcuts are one way to improve efficiency of to-do items. Google provides a list of these shortcuts under the main menu button of your browser, but you can access it faster by pressing Ctrl / on Windows or Cmd / on your Mac it.

However, I'll list some nice to-do list shortcuts here:

• Mark the task as completed or not completed: Space bar
• EnterEnter
• Exit editing mode: Esc
• Delete task: Backspace

If your list becomes difficult to handle in Gmail, you can also scale up. TasksBoard is a desktop app for Google Tasks that allows you to manage your lists on a large board while sharing them with others and exporting them to Google Sheets (among other features).

There is also a Fullscreen for Google Tasks, a Google Chrome extension that works like a new browser tab or desktop application in a window. But if you're like me, you'll probably be happy with the simple Tasks sidebar in your Gmail inbox - at least for the time being.

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