I am trying to [Get stuff done](http://wiki.43folders.com/index.php/GTD "Getting things Done info") and in doing so I have decided to use my [gmail](http://gmail.com/) account to capture everything. If you search hard enough there is a PDF somewhere that gives you some ideas on implementing a gmail based GTD system. I found that I have been languishing in putting stuff into my system, and decided because it was too hard. I had to open thunderbird and then click compose and type the address and then the thing I want to do. I am sure I could speed this up a bit, but it was painful. So I wrote a quick script using zenity: #!/bin/bash
TO="xxx@gmail.com" SUBJECT=`zenity --entry --text="What do you want to get done?" \ --title="GTD\ Entry"` if [ "$?" -eq "0" ] then echo | mail -s "${SUBJECT}" ${TO} fi
and mapped it up to F12 using a technique from my previous post. And now any time I think of something I want to do I just hit F12, type a quick "next action" and hit enter. Later I can process my gmail inbox. I may also have to find a way to batch this process for when I am going through my physical inbox. But so far so good.
By the way, Buy the book, (or get it in a library or whatever) it's great, it at least makes you feel like you can do lots of stuff without worrying about it all the time.