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> Why use email as a to-do list, when it's obviously so poorly suited for the role? Why not use email for things email's good at, and use one of the wide varie

by creshal 11y ago

> Why use email as a to-do list, when it's obviously so poorly suited for the role? Why not use email for things email's good at, and use one of the wide variety of to-do list tools for task tracking? I've no idea. Some mail clients even give you one-click ways to directly turn emails into todo tasks (ex.: Thunderbird with Lightning, and I think Outlook as well).

greggyb 11y ago
Outlook certainly does, but the problem remains that an email has a defined grain, the message. Tasks might be much more granular. It's not very easy to make multiple tasks out of a single email, nor track progress separately on those tasks. I'm currently in the progress of streamlining my to-do list, but it's currently a private git repo of text notes, with some shell scripts to extract to do items from arbitrary notes in the notes directory. I'm probably going to start using emacs's org mode for this capture and tracking. I use a few lightly nested folders in Outlook (most are single level hierarchies) and I use the to-do flag simply to make the emails related to my actual to-do list easy to recall. Task tracking is external to email, and the to-do is simply a holding area for "sorted, not completed".
smacktoward 11y ago
Because email is a tool you already have. "Go get a proper application for that" entails a lot of work, including things that can be cognitively difficult like sifting through the giant sloshing sea of half-finished code that is the Internet to pull out a few good candidates. So it's not hard to understand why using a tool you already have (and already understand) would be more appealing.
- aaronem 11y ago
  I suppose it doesn't have to be a proper application; I've seen people manage to-do items in Windows Notepad and it seemed to work for them, God knows how. I tend to think in terms of task list management tools because I've gone to the trouble of setting up a CalDAV server and integrating all my computers and devices with it, but the general point could (and, as you point out, really should) be less "you need to go find an app" and more "try thinking about to-do lists in any terms other than email, because anything else will probably be less painful".

by creshal 11y ago

greggyb 11y ago

Outlook certainly does, but the problem remains that an email has a defined grain, the message. Tasks might be much more granular. It's not very easy to make multiple tasks out of a single email, nor track progress separately on those tasks. I'm currently in the progress of streamlining my to-do list, but it's currently a private git repo of text notes, with some shell scripts to extract to do items from arbitrary notes in the notes directory. I'm probably going to start using emacs's org mode for this capture and tracking. I use a few lightly nested folders in Outlook (most are single level hierarchies) and I use the to-do flag simply to make the emails related to my actual to-do list easy to recall. Task tracking is external to email, and the to-do is simply a holding area for "sorted, not completed".

smacktoward 11y ago

Because email is a tool you already have. "Go get a proper application for that" entails a lot of work, including things that can be cognitively difficult like sifting through the giant sloshing sea of half-finished code that is the Internet to pull out a few good candidates. So it's not hard to understand why using a tool you already have (and already understand) would be more appealing.

aaronem 11y ago
I suppose it doesn't have to be a proper application; I've seen people manage to-do items in Windows Notepad and it seemed to work for them, God knows how. I tend to think in terms of task list management tools because I've gone to the trouble of setting up a CalDAV server and integrating all my computers and devices with it, but the general point could (and, as you point out, really should) be less "you need to go find an app" and more "try thinking about to-do lists in any terms other than email, because anything else will probably be less painful".