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Using Outlook Signatures to Create Tasks Quickly

(closed account) says:
I get a lot of email at work (like you, I'm sure). A lot of the email I receive are things I need "To Do" at some point. I used to work off my Outlook email inbox AND my RTM list. Then I figured out a very simple yet powerful way to make them play nice.

I created an Outlook Signature like this, called RTM:

Location: Work
List: (w) Daily
Tags: next

---

Next, I created an Outlook Contact called "RTM" that contains my Remember the Milk personal email address.

When someone sends me an email that I would like an RTM task for, I do this:

1. Click Forward.
2. Select (or type) the RTM contact in the To: field.
3. My default signature appears at the top of the forwarded message. I click on the Signature button in the Message window and change it to RTM. The RTM signature appears. By having the 3 dashes at the end of my RTM signature the message body will be inserted as a task note!
3. Click Send.

The task shows up in my (w) Daily list, tagged as "next" for my Smart List with the task name set to the subject of the email (which I sometimes edit if it is too vague before sending), and the body of the email is neatly placed in the Notes tab.

I have also created other RTM Outlook signatures for different situations such as "RTM High Priority" for those tasks that need to get a "1" set for their priority and a separate RTM signature for each list I forward mail to.

Using this technique allows me to get to a "Zero Inbox" zen-like state and places all my tasks in one central location. Enjoy!
Posted at 6:21pm on June 15, 2010
marcbetts says:
That's great! Thank you for the tip.
Posted 13 years ago
johnmazz says:
Cool, I just set up my gmail account to do the same thing with their Canned Responses feature.
Posted 13 years ago
nkirsch says:
If you are using Outlook 2010, you can create a "Quick Step" which makes this even easier:

Action: Forward an Email
Email Address: Your RTM email
Text: (Your text above)
Check the box "Automatically send after one second"
Add a shortcut key

Nice suggestion.
Posted 13 years ago
brumley says:
Great tip. I use gmail and didn't even know about canned responses until johnmazz's post.
Posted 13 years ago
emily (Remember The Milk) says:
Just wanted to mention that this was a Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner -- blevinweb, we've upgraded your RTM account to have a free year of Pro. :)
Posted 13 years ago
pelowski says:
This is a great idea. Rather than using the signatures however, I've chosen to do it using Quick Parts in Outlook. This will allow me to have as many quick RTM task templates as I want and then just by typing a quick abbreviation for it and then hitting the F3 key, it's pasted right into my message.

The following link has some info about how to use Quick Parts.
http://lifehacker.com/5031083/save-time-and-typing-with-outlook-2007s-quick-parts
Posted 13 years ago
(closed account) says:
This is great, thanks so much for sharing... you may have well saved my professional life!!!
Posted 13 years ago
cmklar says:
Thanks so much blevinweb!

In case anyone ran in to the same issue.

the RTM fields need to be highest in the email, like:

------------
To: RTM
Subject: Follow up w/ John

Location: Work
List: (w) Daily
Tags: next

---
Here you can write your notes
or have any other emails in this thread...

----------------------------
Posted 9 years ago
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