Google has enhanced the task feature that's integrated into Gmail and other Google products to let users share their lists with others. Gmail users can now choose to share an entire task list in a new e-mail message. Doing so transfers all of your tasks including information like due dates, and any tasks that have been completed which show up as being crossed out.
One thing to note is that this only works in Gmail, and not in other places where tasks can be found, including Google Calendar, the mobile version of Gmail, and on iGoogle. Although knowing Google, the e-mailing feature will make its way to each of these places soon enough.
Gmail tasks is the one and only feature to "graduate" from Gmail labs, which is Google's test bed for new and experimental features. The feature was launched in early December of last year, and graduated from labs last month. The rest of the labs-only features, including the 13 that were launched alongside the release of the labs program, continue to require user action to be enabled.
Gmail users can now e-mail a task list to someone else right through the tasks UI.
(Credit: CNET)Trying to get work done is tough if you have an Internet connection. The constant urge to take a peek at a video on YouTube or check your personal e-mail is a siren song that for many simply cannot be ignored. Luckily, there are several sites and browser add-ons that can help keep us in line, be it with basic productivity or making sure we do not stumble in moments of weakness.
Gmail "e-mail goggles" and "take a break" labs add-ons
Don't drink and e-mail.
Want to send that e-mail at 4 a.m.? Unless you're up early, and getting a jump start on the work day, Google's Gmail thinks you're drunk and will wisely make you do the math problems to prove you're not. Of course, if you really want to outsmart the machine you can simply turn this Gmail labs add-on off from the settings menu, which requires no math whatsoever.
Likewise, the "take a break" labs add-on can make you stop whatever work you're doing to go enjoy the finer things in life. It keeps tabs on how long you've been working in Gmail and will give you a pop-up that requires doing something else for 15 minutes before coming back to your in-box. This is recommended if you don't want to install one of those ergonomic nag programs on your machine.
E-mail discipline
E-mail discipline bars you from using certain sites until you get work done.
(Credit: Mozilla)Want to hop on Facebook or check your personal e-mail for a little while while drudging away at work? You'll need to earn it with E-mail discipline. This Firefox add-on keeps you from visiting nearly 20 different sites including MySpace, YouTube, and Twitter without doing a little bit of work between sessions. As long as you ignore these places for two hours at a time it lets you browse for a short while, before putting up a nag screen that tells you to get back to it. Users are able to override the nag screens at any time by clicking the "cheat" button.
Procrastato
Like E-mail discipline, Firefox add-on Procrastato works off a blacklist of sites you probably shouldn't be visiting. Once you're on one of these sites (which you add in manually) it starts a timer in the background. If you're there past your allotted amount it gives you a pop-up message telling you to get back to work.
MeeTimer
If pop-up nags aren't your thing, and you don't feel like being scolded for bad online behavior, worth checking out is MeeTimer. Once installed it simply keeps tabs on how long you're spending on each site and breaks it up into percentages--including how much of that was done during "work" time. Consider it the browser equivalent of parental guilt trip. It's not mad at you, just disappointed that you spend 29 percent of your working day on Facebook.
See how your daily browsing is broken down with MeeTimer. You might be shocked.
(Credit: Mozilla)HassleMe
If you want the nagging features of Google or Yahoo calendar with some level of anonymity there's always HassleMe. The site will send you a friendly reminder e-mail to do something, be it to take out the trash, reply to a certain e-mail, or finish a project. You get to pick how often it sends these messages, and it promises to change up the times ever so slightly so you cannot anticipate when it will arrive.
ReminderFox
If clogging up your e-mail in-box with reminders sounds less than desirable, check out ReminderFox. This Firefox add-on puts a to-do list on the side of your browser. You can set deadlines for each task, along with reminders that will pop up, and can be acknowledged, ignored, or delayed, just like in Microsoft Outlook.
LeechBlock
Along the lines of MeeTimer and Email Discipline, LeechBlock lets you organize sites you probably shouldn't be going to in sets. You can prioritize each set, and block yourself out of using them down to certain times of day, or how much time you've already spent using them. Consider this something similar to the parental settings on a TV, keeping you from accessing content you shouldn't be looking at when you're supposed to be working.
Any we missed? Leave them in the comments.
Aide-memoire service ReQall, which I first tested a year ago, is getting a 2.0 update. New features will make this clever application more useful. Now, when you type or speak an item to remember, you can also help ReQall file it away for you by using certain keywords. For example, if you say, "Buy milk," the service will put that to-do on your "shopping list." The service also understands time: You can specify items for "tomorrow" or for specific dates. You can also share items by saying, for example, "Ask Joe to look into Megacorp." It helps if Joe then has a ReQall account; if he does, the item will appear in both your lists. (See also: BaseCamp.)
There are other to-do list products (such as RememberTheMilk) and even others that parse English (IWantSandy). What makes ReQall different is that it allows multiple inputs--not just text--and outputs for your lists. You can speak your items to the ReQall phone number, put them on the Web site or widget, or connect via text message or instant message (that's new). The service acts as both a storehouse for your items and as a reminder service. It will remind you via an IM or e-mail on items you need to remember. There's also a pretty new iPhone interface.
ReQall makes it easy to keep daily reminder lists.
In my test of the beta, I found ReQall 2.0 easy to use but limited in its understanding of English. You have to know what keywords will set off its automatic categorizing and time-slotting. For example, when I entered the text, "Remind me in 10 minutes to prep" it did not seem to recognize what I was asking for.
There's another new feature with unrealized potential: Photographic Memory. You can now send pictures to your account from a Picasa Web account. That's kind of cool, but it'd be more useful, I think, if you could send camera-phone images to your account. For example, if you had a nice bottle of wine at a restaurant that you wanted to add to your shopping list, it'd be useful if you could record it via photo. The upcoming Evernote version may allow you to do just that, and with OCR of the label to boot.
ReQall's sexiest feature is still its speech-to-text capability. You call up the ReQall service and speak your reminder, and it adds it to your flow of notes. I'm still a bit freaked out that the service is human-assisted: If the automated speech-to-text engine doesn't work perfectly, someone might listen to your recording to transcribe it to your account. ReQall's Sunil Vemuri assures me that the transcribers don't get user account information alongside the audio they work with. However, you'd still be wise to remember that actual people might be hearing your words, and that clearly illegal voice notes will bubble up and get attention you don't want.
There's still no visible monetization scheme for ReQall. In the future, premium accounts may get more access to voice transcription services.
I really like all the super-clean, super-simple reminder products like ReQall--in theory. I have yet to adopt one, being a slave to my own hack of a method that involves index cards and OneNote. None of the services I've used so far blend both the quick-and-dirty, access-from-anywhere reminder service we all need, with a good system for recording long-form notes. Evernote may do that, but it's still in closed beta. We'll have a look at it shortly.
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