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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

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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