Welcome!  English (US) Language Switcher

Automated ordering with RTM and Gmail

mehardin Pro says:

I have been diagnosed with sleep apnea, and sleep with a CPAP machine each night. The masks, tubing, filters, and headgear can be replaced at different intervals according to insurance guidelines. I have a hard time remembering when to order what, so I asked my provider to just order everything for me as soon I become eligible for a replacement. She said she didn't have the software for that. Immediately I thought of RTM.

I ordered one of everything on Monday. I made a three repeating tasks, one for the items that could be ordered once per month, one for the items that could be ordered every three months, and one for the items that could be ordered every 6 months. I set each item with a due date of today at 12:01 am. I immediately checked them complete since I'd just ordered, so now I'll be reminded to order each as soon as insurance will replace it. But thanks to email reminders and Gmail, it gets better.

I've set up a filter in Gmail for emails that come from remind@rememberthemilk.com and contain the word "CPAP" to be forwarded to my provider, with a "canned response" containing my name, address and phone number. Now not only does RTM remind me to order these items, but in partnership with Gmail, it will actually order them for me. All I have to do is check the item off whenever it shows up as overdue.

Posted at 6:11am on November 4, 2009

rajjan ProPower Poster says:

Really clever setup, having RTM/Gmail ordering these items automatically for you sounds ideal! Actually, you don't even have to mark these task as completed, it will work anyway.

Posted 2 years ago

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

Indeed; a very clever use of both systems!

rajjan, you'd need to mark them completed so the next instance would send a reminder.

Posted 2 years ago

mehardin Pro says:

Yes, it works without marking them complete, marking them complete just keeps them from cluttering my list.

Posted 2 years ago

mehardin Pro says:

Well, on second thought, you DO have to mark them complete for it to keep working, because the repeat value is set up to repeat X months AFTER completion. But if I'd set them up with "every x months" instead of "after x months" them marking them complete would be unnecessary.

Posted 2 years ago

mehardin Pro says:

Ok, one more necessary tweak. I guess I should have tested it better before my initial post. The "canned response" is sent back to remind@rememberthemilk.com and is not added to the forwarded reminder that is sent to the vendor. So.. It's necessary to include your own name and contact information in the task name, so it's included in the forward sent to the vendor.

My task name is:
Order CPAP mask for firstname lastname DOB mm/dd/yyyy 404.555.1212 #Personal *after 3 months

Posted 2 years ago

Log in to post a reply.