HACKER Q&A
📣 redjacketman

Managing Tasks in Slack/Teams


I treat emails as todos. I move 'actioned' emails into a folder called archive, so I know everything in my inbox requires me to do something. Compared to other people in my org, i'm quite responsive and realisable specifically when it comes to email. My problem is now everyone has started to use Teams. Because I can't treate messaeges like todos, I don't keep on top of them. Someone will ask me todo something and I'll soon forget. Does anyone have a solution to managing this problem that doesn't require me to use a separate todo list?

  👤 nottorp Accepted Answer ✓
Where's "AI" when you need it...

I would love a (local!) solution that will process my emails and chat messages on umpteenth platforms and split them somewhere by project or even more granular topics, including generating TODOs.

Back on the topic at hand, the people who used to send you emails must be very organized, because mine always include multiple TODOs that need to get split anyway.

I'm afraid I've always been maintaining my own private notes and todos at all jobs.

👤 codingdave
No, you need a separate todo list. Slack/Teams are not living documents, there are an ephemeral stream of async messages. That is fundamentally different than a to do list, which is a semi-permanent list that only changes with direct action from its owner.

Copy / paste is your friend in this case.

(And yes, I'm generalizing and you can make these apps into things they are not. But life is better if you don't.)