You can turn emails into tasks by forwarding them to Toodledo. This also works for collecting brand new tasks. This means that anywhere you have email access, you can collect, triage, or process.

You should already have created a Toodledo contact in your email system for forwarding tasks to Toodledo.

You Can Triage “Hot” Emails Immediately

If you want, you can fully or partially process “hot” triaged email into Toodledo as you encounter it.

To process “hot” emails as you send them, use the email processing codes described below. The “Star” command is particularly valuable for flagging things that must be done today (Do Today).

Email Processing Codes

Get Them Right!

It’s important to get these codes right, or tasks may only be partially processed or even truncated by Toodledo.

To collect, triage, and even fully process a task, type special email codes in the Subject line to set smart dates, contexts, tags, and more. You can see the complete list online, but here are all the codes you need for TRO:

Email Codes Meaning
Subject Name the task (the email subject line is the task name)
* Do Today (Star) by itself, not touching words or symbols
>MM/DD/YY or date name Soft date (Start Date), like 4/30/12 or Thursday
#MM/DD/YY or date name Hard date (Due Date), like 5/1/12 or Friday
@Major Context Major Context, like: @(Work)
%list of tags Tags, like: %Calls, Errands, Bills
~length Length, like: ~30min
! or !! or !!! Sort order for Do Today list (Priority 1, 2, or 3)
&repeat Repeat (e.g., &weekly, see list of phrases that work
*folder name Folder (for large project support, like: *Remodel
location name Location, like: -Store
Not supported Someday/maybe (-1 Negative Priority)
Email body Notes. Everything in the email body is included in your notes.

Toodledo Email Examples

Project / Next Step

Use a slash with spaces on either side for all EMAIL project steps, even if you do not use any Toodledo email codes.

Remove all unconnected dashes (with spaces on either side) from the email subject before emailing to Toodledo. Otherwise, everything after the dash will be removed from the task title, and the task title may not make sense. (Toodledo uses the dash to signify “locations,” which field is not used in the standard TRO setup.)

NOT:  Project Name – Next step
YES:  Project Name / Next step

Creating a new task via email:

(Email subject line)
Acct Reports / WF Tom fax reports >tuesday #friday @(Work) %1Tom
 
(Body of email may contain future next steps and notes)
When reports come in, Susan wants to see them pronto.
Look for $1,200 error
Note to self: This was requested by Matt last month, urgent

Forwarding an email as a new task:

(Email subject line is the default task title)
RE: You need to see the dentist ASAP #wednesday @(Personal) %Calls
 
(Body of email)
(Original or new/edited email body text is saved in the task notes)