Collecting Tasks

by | Jun 12, 2022

Remember the Milk has some great options to help you collect tasks via email, text messages, phone, and online. The following are our favorites. Look these over, decide which ones apply to your situation, and give them a try.

Adding New Tasks

  1. Click Inbox (left pane) or the Unprocessed Smart List (left pane).
  2. Press “t” to add a new task. A blank task will appear on the page.
  3. Type in a brief task description. Don’t bother scheduling it. Just write down enough information in the title to get the task off your mind.
  4. Press Enter.
  5. Press Y to add a Note if you need to record more information about the task.

Caution for Remember the Milk

Make sure you click the Inbox or Unprocessed Tasks list tab on the Tasks page before collecting or triaging. This ensures that tasks don’t get put in the wrong lists.

Quick Add Bookmarklet

Quick Add is a pop-up window which allows you to quickly collect tasks to your Inbox. It is ideal for quick collecting. Access it as a bookmark in your browser:

  1. Go to the Services page (link at the bottom of your RTM page), and click the link for Quick Add Bookmarklet.
  2. RTM will display a help page.
  3. Choose the instructions for the browser you are using.
  4. Add the bookmark to the top of your browser.

To use the new bookmark, just click it.

Email Tasks to Yourself

To collect quickly via email, send a quick email to your RTM email address with the details. The email will become a task in Remember the Milk. See creating tasks from email for more information.

RTM For Gmail Add-on or Gadget (Only if Using Gmail)

Your RTM for Gmail Add-on or Gadget should already be set up if you selected Gmail as your email service. See RTM’s instructions on using it to add tasks via emails or from inside Gmail.

TXT Messaging

You can text tasks to yourself by sending them to your RTM inbox address. You can find the address in Settings > Info > Inbox Email Address.

  1. Create a new contact in your Cell phone (such as RTM).
  2. Instead of entering a phone number, enter your RTM Inbox Email Address.
  3. Save the contact.
  4. Send a text message to your new contact (your RTM inbox) with the details of the task you are collecting.

To record relevant information, use the same email codes you would use when forwarding emails to RTM. Remember that when you text a task to yourself, you are only collecting, not processing the task.

Home Pages, Sidebars, and Other Services

Remember the Milk has dashboard gadgets (widgets, modules, etc) for a whole variety of customizable homepages/dashboards. Don’t install them. Don’t use them. It is much easier to manage your tasks from the RTM website (or RTM Mobile) than it is on your homepage.

While it is possible to get RTM widgets/gadgets for your desktop sidebar, we don’t recommend it. You can see your RTM tasks, but the other gismos on these sidebars make them a distraction, and the RTM widgets/gadgets tend to only give you limited access to your tasks.

If you insist on using a sidebar with RTM, here is what we suggest:

  1. Remove all news, RSS, stock ticker, and other feeds. Fresh distractions all day long.
  2. Remove gadgets that preview your email inbox. Addicting distraction.
  3. Remove any and all games. Distractions.
  4. Remove quick notepads and non-RTM task lists. Unless they collect to RTM, these are extra collection points.
  5. Include a view of your tasks, as big as possible.
  6. Include a view of your daily Google Calendar agenda (but only if you use Google Calendar).
  7. Only include gadgets/widgets that actually help you accomplish work (resources). Remove any gadgets—other than your task list—which use up your time.