Productivity with only (G)mail & Calendar - No dedicated task tracking apps required

Today I want to write about the system I use, in order to not lose track of tasks I have to complete (and actually complete them). I am a strong believer in using one less tool so I only use Gmail and Google calendar - no extra task tracking apps or similar.

Remember: What works for me might not work for you. Productivity/task tracking are deeply personal and depend strongly on your working style and type of work you do, so your mileage may vary.

The Basics - CORE

I recently watched a video covering Jeff Su's teaching CORE to over 6600 Google employees (using GMail, Calendar and Google Tasks). The basic principles are the same as what I have been using for years, without ever knowing about CORE. Since the CORE acronym is much nicer than anything I can come up with, I'll just use it as a reference from now on.

The bottom line for productivity is that you need a system that works, no matter what. Having a bad day? The system's got you and you're not loosing that task your boss just gave you, just because your baby woke you up 4 times last night and you cannot remember anything for more than 30 seconds (ask me how I know).

CORE stands for 4 steps that make up the system:

1. Capture - Store a new task/idea/note in writing so that you clear up head space for other things (and don't forget it)
2. Organize - Decide when you need to do the task, set a due date.
3. Review - Set aside some time a few times every day, to go through your queued up tasks and plan time in the calender for them.
4. Engage - The time you planned for in the previous step has come, you now execute the task.

How I follow the CORE steps in practice

The system is completely agnostic from any specific tool, so you can do it with whatever you are using right now. Regardless, I want to show you how I do it, using only Gmail and Google calendar.

Preparation: Inbox Zero

Before getting started you first have to reach inbox zero (arguably the hardest step in the entire process). If you have hundreds or thousands of emails in your inbox, archive all of them now. Don't delete, just archive them. They need to be out of sight. If you have a few emails that you still need to follow up on, great, we'll use these as your first tasks. But seriously, it shouldn't be more than a couple.

This is a good point to learn about one of two central key bindings that you need to know in Gmail. Archive a mail with e.

Step 1: Capture - Learn to send emails to yourself

The first step is to send emails for any outstanding tasks to your self. One mail per task, task in the subject line of the email. Most of my task emails end up being empty, subject-only mails. But if you need more context or want to add notes, great. You have a full email worth of room to do so.

This is where we learn the second central key binding: Compose a new mail with c. Hit c anywhere in Gmail to open the compose window and quickly "store" a task.

In the beginning it will feel super awkward to send mails to yourself, but trust me, you will get used to it.

Step 2: Organize - Setting a due date (snooze mails)

"Emails don't have due dates, how is that supposed to work?" I hear you saying. This is where Gmail comes in clutch (and you will need to find other ways of doing it with other mail providers). In Gmail you can snooze emails (and schedule send). By snoozing the email, it will disappear from your inbox until the scheduled date. This means you will be able to reach inbox zero again, even with open tasks still remaining, as long as they are scheduled.

What if my email client doesn't support snoozing?

My private email provider (Mailbox.org) doesn't support snoozing either, unfortunately. For private stuff I'm fine with just skipping the snoozing and leaving everything in my inbox, as I rarely have more than a few items there at a time. For work, I honestly don't know. Probably start using an actual todo list app 🥲.

Step 3: Review - create calendar entries

I usually spend some time in the morning, after lunch and most importantly before ending my workday going through all emails that are still in my inbox (remember, this means unscheduled/unorganized tasks). I will go through them one by one and either snooze them for an appropriate time (even if that just means snoozing them until tomorrow) or schedule a slot on the calendar where I will take care of the task. If I schedule an appointment I archive the task from my inbox, as I will be reminded by the calendar to take care of it.

Step 4: Execute - working with the calendar

Nothing to see here, just do what your calendar says needs to be done. If you scheduled some time for a task, you get two benefits:

1. You will actually have time to work on the task
2. Other people will not just take your time away, because they see you already have something planned in the calendar. Most of the time that means they will ask you first, before over-planning (or just take a different, free slot right away).

History & Credit: Emails as tasks

One of my main source of tasks are emails I receive. So in my experience it makes sense to just treat them as such. I'm not totally sure where the idea came from (it's also not super novel) but I know two sources that inspired my daily process heavily:

1. Google's Inbox By Gmail - An alternative Gmail client launched in 2014 (and killed in 2019) that was centered around the core idea of treating emails as tasks - checkbox and everything. It was (and would still be) the best email client ever created, but for some reason Google decided to discontinue it regardless. And yes, I am still salty about it.
2. My boss Benjamin Hummel - I regularly watched him sending emails to himself, as a reminder of things he still needed to do. I tried this myself after a while and have stuck with it ever since. So I definitely "borrowed" that I idea from him.

FAQ

Why don't you just use a task tracking tool?

Over the years I tried a lot of task tracking tools. Truth be told, I don't like most of them. They need their own specific key bindings and require extra steps to create tasks from mails (Gmail and google tasks can actually do that already, if you are so inclined). I am a strong believer in just using one less tool, whenever possible. It saves you from learning more keybindings, breaking integrations, having to re-install all of them when you setup a new device and just creates a messy desktop with many open apps. And especially in this case, I feel like it is completely unnecessary for tracking basic tasks at work.

What about Slack messages?

We use Slack at work and it is regularly a source of incoming tasks as well. Fortunately, Slack also supports snoozing messages, so that you can get reminded of them at a later point. I usually use snoozing if someone writes something important that I read between meetings, but don't have enough time to react appropriately to. If I need to make sure I will definitely not loose track of it I usually "convert" it to a task in Gmail eventually, as it is my main list.

What about recurring tasks?

I usually schedule recurrent calendar entries. You'll need time to work on the task anyway, so might as well plan for it now.

I need separate task lists for different things, what now?

You can label your tasks using Gmail labels and then use filters to only look at one category. You can even create filters that will automatically label emails based on the subject line, so for example you could prefix every task with TODO in the subject line and have Gmail automatically apply the Todo label. I, personally, have never felt the urge to do so though. Keep it simple.

Comments or Questions?

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