email -> TODO items?

email -> TODO items?

[Peter Davis]

I've been using org-mode for a few years, but only for a few limited
purposes. I keep TODO lists for work-related stuff, and I compose blog
posts which I then export to HTML, cut from the browser and paste into
Blogger.

Sometimes it's much quicker and easier to email myself notes on things
to do. I'd like to be able to import individual email messages, and
turn them into TODO items in one of my .org files. I use half a dozen
email clients, including mutt, which lets me easily pipe a message to
a script. I figured I could write something that would parse the
message and add a line to a .org file like:

* TODO [[file:<subject'>.org][<subject>]]

Then it would create the <subject'>.org file, insert a standard
preamble I use, and put the body of the email into that
file. (<subject'> is a filename-safe version of the message's subject
line.)

There are one or two complications, like checking for duplicate file
names, etc., but on the whole, it seems pretty straightforward. I
could do this in Perl relatively quickly. I'm not an elisp guy, but I
imagine there would be a way to pipe the message to emacsclient (or a
temp file) and do it with a macro.

Does something like this already exist? Or is there an easier way?

Thanks very much!

-pd


-- 
----
Peter Davis
The Tech Curmudgeon
www.techcurmudgeon.com

Re: email -> TODO items?

[Suvayu Ali]

On Sun, Jan 05, 2014 at 09:46:58AM -0500, Peter Davis wrote:
> I've been using org-mode for a few years, but only for a few limited
> purposes. I keep TODO lists for work-related stuff, and I compose blog
> posts which I then export to HTML, cut from the browser and paste into
> Blogger.
> 
> Sometimes it's much quicker and easier to email myself notes on things
> to do. I'd like to be able to import individual email messages, and
> turn them into TODO items in one of my .org files. I use half a dozen
> email clients, including mutt, which lets me easily pipe a message to
> a script. I figured I could write something that would parse the
> message and add a line to a .org file like:
> 
> * TODO [[file:<subject'>.org][<subject>]]
> 
> Then it would create the <subject'>.org file, insert a standard
> preamble I use, and put the body of the email into that
> file. (<subject'> is a filename-safe version of the message's subject
> line.)
> 
> There are one or two complications, like checking for duplicate file
> names, etc., but on the whole, it seems pretty straightforward. I
> could do this in Perl relatively quickly. I'm not an elisp guy, but I
> imagine there would be a way to pipe the message to emacsclient (or a
> temp file) and do it with a macro.
> 
> Does something like this already exist? Or is there an easier way?

Take a look at debbugs-org, available on ELPA.

-- 
Suvayu

Open source is the future. It sets us free.

Re: email -> TODO items?

[John Kitchin]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 2047 bytes --]

Maybe you could use some online service like Remember the Milk that offers
an rss-feed for your todos, and use org-feed to pull them in to an org
file. you can send emails to RTM of tasks. org-feed already handles the
file duplication issue.

another option might be: https://zapier.com/zapbook/email/google-tasks/

there seem to be lots of options like this.

John

-----------------------------------
John Kitchin
Associate Professor
Doherty Hall A207F
Department of Chemical Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
412-268-7803
http://kitchingroup.cheme.cmu.edu



On Sun, Jan 5, 2014 at 9:46 AM, Peter Davis <pfd@pfdstudio.com> wrote:

> I've been using org-mode for a few years, but only for a few limited
> purposes. I keep TODO lists for work-related stuff, and I compose blog
> posts which I then export to HTML, cut from the browser and paste into
> Blogger.
>
> Sometimes it's much quicker and easier to email myself notes on things
> to do. I'd like to be able to import individual email messages, and
> turn them into TODO items in one of my .org files. I use half a dozen
> email clients, including mutt, which lets me easily pipe a message to
> a script. I figured I could write something that would parse the
> message and add a line to a .org file like:
>
> * TODO [[file:<subject'>.org][<subject>]]
>
> Then it would create the <subject'>.org file, insert a standard
> preamble I use, and put the body of the email into that
> file. (<subject'> is a filename-safe version of the message's subject
> line.)
>
> There are one or two complications, like checking for duplicate file
> names, etc., but on the whole, it seems pretty straightforward. I
> could do this in Perl relatively quickly. I'm not an elisp guy, but I
> imagine there would be a way to pipe the message to emacsclient (or a
> temp file) and do it with a macro.
>
> Does something like this already exist? Or is there an easier way?
>
> Thanks very much!
>
> -pd
>
>
> --
> ----
> Peter Davis
> The Tech Curmudgeon
> www.techcurmudgeon.com
>
>

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 2872 bytes --]

Re: email -> TODO items?

[Karl Voit]

* Peter Davis <pfd@pfdstudio.com> wrote:
>
> Sometimes it's much quicker and easier to email myself notes on things
> to do. 

Using email for a todo management system has many disadvantages. I
read a *lot* about those attempts.

For the purpose you were mentioning, I am using MobileOrg (Android)
to quickly capture notes about todos. This way, I get those todos in
my inbox.org and refile them every other day.

-- 
mail|git|SVN|photos|postings|SMS|phonecalls|RSS|CSV|XML to Org-mode:
       > get Memacs from https://github.com/novoid/Memacs <

https://github.com/novoid/extract_pdf_annotations_to_orgmode + more on github

Re: email -> TODO items?

[Peter Davis]

On Mon, Jan 6, 2014, at 05:51 AM, Karl Voit wrote:
> * Peter Davis <pfd@pfdstudio.com> wrote:
> >
> > Sometimes it's much quicker and easier to email myself notes on things
> > to do. 
> 
> Using email for a todo management system has many disadvantages. I
> read a *lot* about those attempts.
> 
> For the purpose you were mentioning, I am using MobileOrg (Android)
> to quickly capture notes about todos. This way, I get those todos in
> my inbox.org and refile them every other day.
> 

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll look into them.

Strictly speaking, these are not TODO items, but ideas and notes for
blog posts I may want to write. The email approach has been ok, but
since I typically expand on these short notes in org-mode, it would be
useful to be able to import them directly. But I'll certainly look at
these alternatives.

Thanks!

-pd


-- 
  Peter Davis
  www.techcurmudgeon.com

Re: email -> TODO items?

[Brett Viren]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 457 bytes --]

Peter Davis <pfd@pfdstudio.com> writes:

> I use half a dozen email clients, including mutt, which lets me easily
> pipe a message to a script.

The need to support multiple clients may rule out my suggestion but
capturing a TODO or a note while visiting a GNUS message and thus
preserving the link back to the article that spawned my task/idea is
fantastically useful.

In your pipe scheme maybe there is some way you can preserve this link
back.

-Brett.

[-- Attachment #2: Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 197 bytes --]

Re: email -> TODO items?

[Nick Dokos]

Brett Viren <bv@bnl.gov> writes:

> Peter Davis <pfd@pfdstudio.com> writes:
>
>> I use half a dozen email clients, including mutt, which lets me easily
>> pipe a message to a script.
>
> The need to support multiple clients may rule out my suggestion but
> capturing a TODO or a note while visiting a GNUS message and thus
> preserving the link back to the article that spawned my task/idea is
> fantastically useful.
>
> In your pipe scheme maybe there is some way you can preserve this link
> back.
>

There were a few discussions about mutt integration with org some years
back. In particular

  http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.orgmode/18950

describes an implementation (or maybe two) of a "mutt" link type.

Searching the ML with "mutt links" will uncover a few more such discussions.
-- 
Nick

Re: email -> TODO items?

[Peter Davis]

Nick Dokos <ndokos@gmail.com> writes:

> Brett Viren <bv@bnl.gov> writes:
>
>> Peter Davis <pfd@pfdstudio.com> writes:
>>
>>> I use half a dozen email clients, including mutt, which lets me easily
>>> pipe a message to a script.
>>
>> The need to support multiple clients may rule out my suggestion but
>> capturing a TODO or a note while visiting a GNUS message and thus
>> preserving the link back to the article that spawned my task/idea is
>> fantastically useful.
>>
>> In your pipe scheme maybe there is some way you can preserve this link
>> back.
>>

Thanks, Brett. I've added Gnus to my repertoire, but I'm still just
learning the ropes on that. My current breakdown is:

GMail - GMail Web reader
IMAP - Gnus, Thunderbird, dedicated Web mail app
local MH folders - Mutt, MH

>
> There were a few discussions about mutt integration with org some years
> back. In particular
>
>   http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.orgmode/18950
>
> describes an implementation (or maybe two) of a "mutt" link type.
>
> Searching the ML with "mutt links" will uncover a few more such discussions.

aitor <aitors2005@gmail.com> writes:
>
> If you are using mutt, check out this link:
>
> http://upsilon.cc/~zack/blog/posts/2010/02/integrating_Mutt_with_Org-mode/
>

Thanks Nick and aitor. I'm looking into these mutt/org-mode integration
efforts. Looks like what I want may already exist, or at least major
pieces of it.

Thanks all!

-pd

Re: email -> TODO items?

[aitor]

> ... I use half a dozen email clients, including mutt, which lets me
> easily pipe a message to a script.

If you are using mutt, check out this link:

http://upsilon.cc/~zack/blog/posts/2010/02/integrating_Mutt_with_Org-mode/

best,
                                aitor