GTD tickler functionality in Mail.app
I just wrote a bit of Applescript to handle simple tickler functionality in the OS X Mail.app. Grab a copy: GTD-like tickler functionality for Mail.app
If the script does not work properly, grab the source here, open up Script Editor, paste in the text and save the file as a .app.
Thanks to Andy Warwick for his GTD Tickle Email script. This script began life as a variant of Andy’s work, but has since been rewritten. You can grab a copy of Andy’s script from http://homepage.mac.com/creed_nmd/FileSharing12.html
Basic use instructions follow.
GTDMail.app is a simple implementation of a tickler file, roughly as is described in the Getting Things Done book.
To use the tickler in Mail.app, run the script to create the folders needed for the tickler.
Then, as you receive email messages that need to be handled or reviewed in the future, move the messages to the appropriate month, week or day you wish to be reminded in.
When you run the script in the future, the messages stored in the current month, week and day folders will be moved into the @INBOX folder that the script creates.
Update
While I won’t be using this script any longer, Michael Stiber has updated the script to handle IMAP and sent me a copy. Unfortunately, you’ll need to customize the script to fit your needs – I haven’t looked at the code in any detail or tried to run it. Good luck! Grab a here: GTD Mail with IMAP support
Posted on Wednesday, November 30th, 2005 at 08:02
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June 2nd, 2006 at 10:31
My god, the script is opening OS 9!
June 2nd, 2006 at 10:41
I tried the copy paste method. Success! Thank you.
June 2nd, 2006 at 11:53
Heh. I need to fix this – I obviously don’t know enough about packaging on Mac.
July 27th, 2006 at 04:57
Cool. Any way to make it work with .mac? It seems to only want to create the @folders on the local, won’t recognize them if they’re on the .mac server. I use 3 computers and want to have all the inboxes in perfect sync. So, I’ve created rules that move all my pop mail into my .mac inbox–that way, no matter what machine I log into, the mail is the same. I’d like to have my @tickle file on .mac…
July 27th, 2006 at 08:15
Hi Kevin,
I will try to add that feature in, but it might take a while.
Cheers!
–zak
August 3rd, 2006 at 12:09
Any idea how to alter the script, so it makes the folders in my imap account? That would be great, since I work on many machines.
- jacco
August 3rd, 2006 at 13:49
Hey Jacco,
Not sure about imap.
I will try to cook up a new release that takes care of this – not sure how long it will be though.
Cheers!
–zak
January 5th, 2007 at 10:08
Jacco & Kevin,
Not sure about modifying the script, but to put the @Tickler file onto your .Mac account, just add a new folder to your “yourname”@mac.com account (instead of “On My Mac”) in your Mail.app (or add a folder throught the web interface I believe) so as to get the online folders portion of your mail to show in Mail.app. Use the script to create the @Tickler file as usual, then drag it to the .Mac account that is now shown in your left sidebar below the other folders. Now you should have the tickler file on .Mac and available from multiple computers. Delete the first folder you created in your .mac account if you don’t actually want to use it.
Hope that helps.
Cheers,
Adrian
February 7th, 2007 at 12:41
I’m stupid.. but please explain which folder connects to each day… how do the months’ folders work as compared to the Weeks. why are there 5 weeks? is that to help with not having a really long list?
February 10th, 2007 at 19:07
Adrian,
Just dragging it to the .Mac folders doesn’t work. The script still thinks the folders haven’t been created and keeps trying to recreate them.
If I can’t stick it on .Mac (or any IMAP service), then it’s of no use to me.
June 20th, 2007 at 06:14
Hi,
I have been using the script for a few weeks now and am really grateful for the flexibility it gives me to my GTD process. If I may suggest a feature to consider: having the contents of all the days less than or equal to the current day be dumped into the @inbox folder. I’ve made the mistake a few times already of either misremembering the date or accidentally dragging a few emails into the previous day or current day’s folder.
thanks
November 4th, 2007 at 08:55
Let me 2nd (3rd?) the request for .Mac compatibility. This WOULD be awesome if it synced between multiple machines. If I knew applescript better I’d do it myself. Any chance of an update soon? Or can you give a hint as to how we can do it ourselves?
thnx
November 4th, 2007 at 09:06
Hi gio,
I fear that I no longer use the script – Hiveminder (http://task.hm) provides a better substitute for me – and won’t be improving it in the near future.
People are free to modify the script to fit their own needs. If they do this and want to share, I’m probably going to be happy to link to their script(s).
Cheers!
–zak
March 27th, 2008 at 17:23
Hello Zak
Unfortunately your links:
http://zak.greant.com/content/imap-gtd-mailscpt.zip
http://zak.greant.com/content/gtdmailapp.zip
are no longer valid. Any hope you could update them? That would be fantastic!
Sincerely
Yuri