Creating My ToDo List Through Jott And Gmail

I have tried a number of to do list programs that are on the internet (tada list, remember the milk, toodledo, voo2do, even my netvibes start page). I have accounts with all of them. In fact, I don't feel productive unless I've opened an account on a new Web 2.0 To Do list program within the last week.

But there's one system I use that I keep coming back to. It is a combination of Jott and Gmail.

As you may have read in a post I put up yesterday, I love Gmail. It is my email conduit of choice. It's easy to use and organizes my mail in a way that I can find things I'm looking for. Plus, Google gives you nearly 3GB of memory so you can hold on to your emails and not worry about running out of room.

I also have become a fanatical Jott user. Jott is a cool piece of software that allows you to call in from your cell phone (or any phone you set it up for) and record a message. That message is then transcribed and sent to you as an email or an SMS. It changes your voice to text. Jott has just rolled out some incredible updates where you can send a note, not only to yourself, but to other people who's email addresses or SMS #'s you have loaded into your contacts. Send a message to one person, or a group of people. It's super easy. And did I mention that both Jott and Gmail are FREE?!?

Now for the moment you've all been waiting for...here's where the two meet and create my to do list.

1. If you don't have an account with Gmail, you must set one up by going here.

2. Once you have logged into your Gmail account, go to the "Labels" box on the sidebar and click on "Edit labels".

3. In the entry box marked "Create a new label", type in the name of your label that you will store all of your to do's and hit enter. (Mine is called "*TODO" - the asterisk keeps the label at the top of the list of labels in the sidebar).

4. Now go to the top of the screen and click on "Settings" then "Filters" then "Create A New Filter".

5.  In the "From" box, enter the email address "notify@jott.com". In the "Has the words" box, enter "[Jott to Self]" (Note: you must enter this phrase or every email from Jott will be labeled as a to do.)

6. Click on the "Next Step»" button.

7. On the new page that comes up, you will choose an action. Select the "Apply the label:" box and select your to do label you created from the pull-down menu.

8. Click on the "Create Filter" button.

You're all set. Everytime you call Jott with a to do, the email will be routed through you gmail with your "to do" label on it. It works like this...

1. Figure out what your to do is. (C'mon, you've got to have something to do!? Let's say I need to remember to make reservations at a hotel).

2. Simply call Jott (set up an account and then dial 1-877-568-8486 from the phone you set up on the account).

3. When the recording starts, it will ask you who this Jott is for. Say "me!"

4. Record your message after the beep: "Remember to make reservations at the hotel."

5. Hang up. Your Jott will arrive in your email shortly.

Whenever you want to view all of your to do's, simply click on the label in your sidebar. When you complete a to do, you can delete the email. There are numerous ways to tweak this system. If you've done something a little differently. Leave a comment below.

Comments

[samsung]

Just wanted to know are the messages done by the software or humans???

[Tracey R.]

Maybe this is a silly question, but what IS the best set up between Jott, RTM, gcal, and gmail (and Sandy)? I've seen so many permutations that I'm afraid I'm layering too many things on the pile and it will all collapse. Looking for the sleekest way to get a task called in from Jott to appear on both RTM and gcal (to filter into my dynamic desktop calender), and then have Sandy remind me. Oh, and be filtered by task type (business, personal, family, etc.)

[Bernard Farrell]

Thanks for the information about using Jott to GTD. I was stuck on the basic Reminder facilities for right now.

If you get misjotted at some stage, please let us know. http://misjott.com.

[tim]

I believe the posts are transcribed by humans. So don't give away any family secrets.

[RK]

Just wanted to know are the messages done by the software or humans??? Coz some messages are personal and confidential how much could jott be relied on??

[tim]

@Brian:

What a great idea! You've taken this thing to a whole new level. I'm a big fan of using the "+" with my gmail address. It is a great way to filter information. Thanks for the tip!

[Brian Fegter]

I use gmail for a to do list. I set up several categories with a period in front of the category name so it stays at the top of my label list (i.e. .work, .home, .calls, etc.). There is an awesome way of filtering without having to provide some sort of text in the message body. The way I get Jott to drop these into my labels is sign up several different emails on my contacts. Such as:

brian+work@gmail.com (filter this address to go right to your work label)

brian+home@gmail.com
brian+calls@gmail.com
brian+bills@gmail.com

Jott thinks these are all different emails, but really it's just my one gmail account. So when it asks who do you want to Jott, I say, HOME, CALL, BILLS, WORK, etc. Works like a charm. Hope this helps someone!

[Larry]

Just tried it. I took it a little further by having my Gmail filter forward it to my Remember the Milk inbox. Works great!

[Michael Vu]

Great!!!

[tim]

mason.

That is such a great idea...I will have to try that. Gmail is awesome!

[Mason]

Pretty cool.

Here's another cool little trick with Gmail. Say appointment and a time and date and Gmail will offer to add it to your calendar automatically for you.

"Appointment. Dinner with John at Sokolowskis on March 30th 6PM"

All you have to do is accept the offer on the right to add to your calendar.

[Ralph]

Boy this would be perfect IF you could also "jott" from other email addresses and even IM handles, via something like http://imified.com/. Sigh.

[tim]

@jgonzalez - very cool. Jott will also send you an SMS if you set it up that way. I like to keep my todo list in gmail. There are so many things you can do with this progam. Viva Jott!

[jgonzalez]

very nice set up, well what I added is using jott as text messaging by using teleflip.com (11231231234@teleflip.com) it works but it takes a little bit to transcribe. So you could send a text message without actually typing anything.

[tim]

Jim G, I agree! I use the GTD Gmail add-on and it has made Gmail even more of a productivity tool for me. One other thing I've done is set up a filter so that any email that I send from myself "[email name]+task@gmail.com" and add the "+task" goes into my TODO box.

[Jim G]

Use this with the GTD Gmail Firefox add-on and take this to do thing to the next level! I already use GTD to manage tasks nicely within GMail.