Pro Tip: Create Tasks Directly from Email Messages

Gmail provides us with many different tools to optimize our organization and productivity. Last month, for our Pro Tip we looked at how to to keep your chat messages organized within email threads by replying via chat. This month we are going to build off of this organization theme. Gmail’s Tasks help us keep track of the things we need to do. We use Tasks to create lists of items, set due dates, and notes. One feature of Tasks that is often overlooked is the ability to add Gmail messages directly to Tasks. If someone sends you an email with a list of things to do, or important information, this shortcut will save time as you can transform the message into a task item.

Create a task from an email message using the following steps:

Open the email you would like to turn into a task.
Click the More drop-down and select Add to Tasks. Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut Shift + T.

Your Tasks should automatically open in the bottom right, but if it does not, then select Mail and then Tasks.

The subject of your message is now a task item. You can view the Related email directly from the task. Clicking on this will open the email Next Weeks Meeting. No more copying and pasting emails into Task!

Select the arrow to edit details. From here you can set a due date, add notes, view the related email, or move it to a different task list. All of your favorite features in one spot!

Tip: Keeping a detailed task list will help boost your productivity, and setting the due date will automatically sync with your Google Calendar.

Open your task list in a new browser tab by selecting the pop-out arrow. Now you can drag the corner of the task list to make it larger, or move it to a different part of your screen.

Use this Pro Tip to help save time when creating Tasks. If you have any questions on this feature or any other Google Apps features, we invite you to ask our experts during our weekly Blog Chat, every Thursday from 11-12 est. Visit our website www.ditoweb.com to discover the Google Apps for Business training opportunities available to you and your organization.