Gmail Gets a To Do List
Believe it or not, but someone at Google finally realized how helpful it would be to add a to do list to the Gmail e-mail program. It’s called Tasks and it’s now available in Gmail Labs (to get there, click on the beaker icon next to Settings in the upper right hand corner of your Gmail account). When you enable Tasks, it appears as a link in the left hand column under Contacts. Click on the link and a box will pop up in the lower right hand corner, just like it does when you use GTalk. You can add tasks, reorder them, cross out completed tasks, switch to a new list or even pop the box out to keep it on your desktop. How cool is that?!
Tasks is a simple feature, but it’s really useful for people who keep Gmail open all the time. In general, I’m not a big user of to do lists. It’s not because I don’t need them, but because they require me to open a separate application or go to a dedicated Web site, such as Remember the Milk.
Having a dedicated Task Manager inside Gmail is a much better option! And with Tasks, you can now turn any e-mail into a task by selecting it as an action. You can also add a due date for each task. Plus, adding items is as simple as clicking on a vacant part of the box and typing. It’s really just an easy way to accomplish the tasks you need to get done each and every day.
Since e-mail is how many of us get things done, both in our personal and professional lives, why not add a list of things you may not be able to get done via e-mail. You know, maybe something like dinner reservations. Yep, Tasks can help you with that too. Give it a try today and see how easy it makes your life!
~ Ramachandran Kumaraswami
