From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Eric S Fraga Subject: Re: automatically convert email inbox into TODO's? Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2011 23:47:16 +0000 Message-ID: <87lj2d2517.fsf@pinto.chemeng.ucl.ac.uk> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Return-path: Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=49164 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1PgQhP-0006Cs-8L for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 21 Jan 2011 18:47:24 -0500 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1PgQhN-0003CI-PM for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 21 Jan 2011 18:47:23 -0500 Received: from vscani-e.ucl.ac.uk ([144.82.108.33]:46540) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1PgQhN-0003C7-IZ for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 21 Jan 2011 18:47:21 -0500 In-Reply-To: (Bill Jarrold's message of "Thu, 20 Jan 2011 23:16:00 -0800") List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: Bill Jarrold Cc: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org Bill Jarrold writes: > Hi, > > Emails in ones inbox can be viewed as TODO's. [...] I can't help you in your question of converting emails to TODOs but I can say that some (including myself) will argue that using emails as a todo list is the wrong thing to do and leads to disaster (as I think you are finding if you have 1000s of emails sitting there). 2 or so years ago, I was in the same situation. When I hit >2000 "emails as todo items" in my inbox, I knew something was wrong. I switched to a 0 inbox approach with org mode. Every email is processed when I read it. Most get dismissed (and I use gnus which automatically expires my emails with an expiry period that depends on what folder the messages are in); the ones that require action are either handled immediately (by doing something and responding) or are converted to an org todo item by simply highlighting the whole message ("h C-x h" in gnus) and doing an org capture with a todo type (C-c c t). The key, however, is to ensure you have a good automated mail splitting approach which means you only have to read the emails you expect to read at any particular time. I use gnus to split my incoming mail but I used to use procmail and then maildrop. Mail gets sorted into a number of folders (~6) including workplace ones, mailing lists (like this one), hobbies, family, etc. Anyway, I hope some of this helps. It has helped me: my mail folders now typically have a handful of "ticked" emails acting as todo items (there is always the odd exception to any set of rules...) but no more. Org is necessary for this and I couldn't have moved to this approach without it. cheers, eric -- : Eric S Fraga (GnuPG: 0xC89193D8FFFCF67D) in Emacs 24.0.50.1 : using Org-mode version 7.4 (release_7.4.231.ge879)