Using Gmail as Your Ultimate Productivity Dashboard

Inspired by Will Critchlow’s SEOMoz post on How I Get Things Done and How You Can Too, I’ve recently started to experiment with setting my Gmail screen up to be a dashboard of everything going on in my life.  It’s only been a couple of days, but I have already started to feel better about my ability to get things done.  This post is mainly going to be about the technology tools that I’ve used to make things easier for me.  However, productivity is never about the tools.  It’s 100% about personal motivation and the ability to actually execute on the things that you plan to do.  My favorite part from Critchlow’s post was the quote from Charles Schwab -

“Each evening, pick six things to do tomorrow. Then do those things.”

That is absolutely the most important part of being productive.  I find that sometimes I go through the day completely distracted because there aren’t any pressing items on my to-do list, and the things that I am doing might be boring or monotonous.  However, when I have a list in front of me of 3-5 that I absolutely need to get done that day I’m much more focused and when something gets boring I can jump to the next task on my list and work on that for a while, but I don’t really lose any productivity.  Ok, enough of the conceptual stuff – onto the tools that I’ve been using.  Here are the tools that I’ve worked into my system.

1. Gmail

2. Remember the Milk (w/Gmail gadget)

3. Google Calendar

4. Motorola Droid phone (w/Remember the Milk app)

That’s my basic view that I keep open in my browser the entire day.  (side note: If you need to log in to multiple Google accounts throughout the day the best way to do that is to open an “Incognito” window with Google Chrome so that you can log into your second Google account without logging yourself out of the first.  Simply click on Tools or File and then “New Incognito Window.”)

Task Management – Remember the Milk

You’ll see on the bottom left I’ve added the Remember the Milk Gmail gadget to my Gmail screen.  To do this click on settings in Gmail and then labs.  You’ll want to enable the labs project that’s titled “Add any Gadget by URL.”  While you’re there you might want to also enable a few more gadgets like “Enable Right-Side Chat” and “Drag-and-drop labels.”  These 2 give you more room and flexibility on where your gadgets will sit on your screen.

After you’ve enabled the gadgets you can go to the Remember the Milk Gmail Settings page for full instructions on how to add it to your dashboard.

Google Calendar

The next item that I included on my Gmail screen was my Google Calendar.  Unfortunately, you can’t see it on the screenshot because it’s below the fold and I have to scroll down to see the whole thing.  It would be great if Google allowed right side gadgets (besides chat).  Apparently this used to be possible, but Google decided to ditch the feature.  Clearly, the bottom right of my screen is wasted space and it would be nice to have my calendar right there in plain view.  Nevertheless it’s still helpful to have my list of meetings and commitments right there on my screen without having to go into the separate Calendar application.

Mobile Access

Having all my information with me on the go is huge for me since I’m on my Droid quite a bit.  That’s a big reason why I chose Remember the Milk because their Android application is extremely good.  I have one-click access to all my tasks, events, and email messages right there on my phone.

Previously, I had been using Google Tasks for my to-do list.  I liked it a lot and I had a free application that synced with my phone.  However, I found myself just building item after item on my list that didn’t really have high priority.  With Remember the Milk I can easily separate tasks into different lists and differentiate by date.  This is where I’ve been utilizing the 5 daily tasks idea and making sure to get those 5 tasks done each day.

Like I mentioned before, it’s not necessarily the technology that will make you productive, but finding a system that works for you and then sticking to it.  How do you make sure you’re getting things done?

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