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I love Gmail Tasks. It’s my to-do list of choice for its simplicity, portability, and (of course) integration with Gmail. If you’re a fan of Google Chrome, you can also easily add Tasks as an application directly on your desktop.
Enable Gmail Tasks
First things first, if you have not already enabled Tasks in Gmail, it’s time to do so. Within Gmail, go to Settings –> Labs. Scroll down until you find Tasks, and switch it to Enable.
You will now find a Tasks link near your Contacts. This is all fine and dandy, but now let’s see how you can quickly make it a stand-alone application.
Integration with Google Chrome
Google Chrome has the slick ability to turn any page or site into its own application, similar to Fluid on Mac OS X. With Chrome, we can turn Tasks into a standalone app with just a few clicks. I find it handy to have my to-do list separate so I don’t get distracted with e-mail or Google Chat while I’m working.
Here’s how to do it: Launch Chrome and go to https://mail.google.com/tasks/ig. If it asks for a username and password, check the box to remember it. You should now see a full-browser version of your Tasks, but we’re not finished yet!
Go to the Page Dropdown Menu and click Create application shortcuts.
A Google Gears window will spawn. Tell it where you would like the shortcuts placed, and hit OK.
That’s it! Whenever you open your Tasks shortcut, it will take you directly to your to-do list, no distractions needed. I do suggest resizing the window to something more manageable.
Get Google Chrome.
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I found a better way to do this, without needing google Chrome installed.
What I did was right click on my windows taskbar and go to the Toolbars> submenu, click on the “New Toolbar…” button.
In the field for the location, just past the link:
https://mail.google.com/tasks/ig
And press Enter.
Then you will see a new toolbar on your windows taskbar (it may be collapsed). Now take that toolbar and drag it to your desktop. It will create a window on your desktop.
This window will always load with windows, and if you logged in with internet explorer and saved your passwords and username for your gmail account, then it will log in automatically.
What’s nice is it sits on your computer and loads up to remind you what to do and I believe there’s an option to even make it sit on top of all windows if you like.
Cheers,
// mike
Nice, Mike. Thanks to Brian also for the excellent tip. Nice site.
Here’s the “canvas” version of Tasks, a bit of an improvement over the gadget version in fullscreen: https://mail.google.com/tasks/canvas
Also, I’m looking at keyboard shortcuts. I’ve found these:
Tab / Shift+Tab — Moves right/left (“subtasks”)
Ctrl + Up/Down — Moves up/down
Shift + Enter — Edit task details
Alt + Enter — Marks task as complete
In Gmail only:
G, K — Open Tasks, or shift cursor from Gmail to Tasks
Shift + T — Create task from open message
Shift + Esc — Shift the cursor from Tasks to Gmail
Esc — Close Tasks
Are there others? I haven’t found any.
I also put Tasks in my sidebar (Firefox) — see Lifehacker if you don’t know how (very easy). This way I can have one Task list open in the bowser window using https://mail.google.com/tasks/canvas , and a second list in the sidebar. Is this possible to do in Chrome? (I don’t think so.)
I find I keep 5-6 lists going. Would be very nice to have a keyboard shortcut to switch between them.
Anyone else with Tasks tips/tricks? I sure hope Google is still developing Tasks, inc. shortcuts. “Remember the Milk” was just too complex, and ugly to boot. And you know Tasks will always be tightly integrated with Google stuff.
Thoughts, anyone?
Brian, is there a way to get email responses to comments at this site? I see the Comment RSS, but I don’t want to read all comments from all posts, you know? ty
Brian — I just realized I have an RSS extension for Chrome that gives the option of just subscribing to the comments in this post — voila.
Thanks for the tip, Mike!
Pure awesomeness! Thank you for the tip. Been looking for this kind of feature for a while now.