GTDGMail: Getting Things Done with Firefox and Gmail
GTDGMail is a Firefox extension that provides an excellent “Getting Things Done” (GTD) framework for Gmail. It also adds advanced search abilities in Gmail, which are very welcome whether you are into GTD or not.
If it had existed when I was compiling a list of ten GTD apps for Mac users, it would have come in near the top of the list. It’s a very clever stretch of Gmail’s existing label and filter features.
GTDGmail is very easy to install. Simply navigate to the site, click on the install link and follow the prompts in Firefox. A quick relaunch, load Gmail and you are good to go.
The extension comes with “wizards” to install common labels for contexts, actions and projects. Detailed instructions make it easy to create your own additional ones.
Access to the GTD labels is provided at the top of each Gmail message:
The inbox helpfully displays those labels at the start of the message’s subject line (some of my labels are coloured by the Gmail Label Colors 
Greasemonkey script — I like visual clues):
Additional tweaks offer easy emailing of tasks and references to yourself.
One other feature of the extension will please Gmail users even if they are not interested in the GTD approach. The GTD search function allows you to construct complex searches in Gmail much faster than you can manually:
Once you needed to enter the string “label:freelance label:Hawk-Wings after:17/8/2006″ into Gmail’s search box. Now it is just a matter of a few mouse clicks.
GTDGmail is freeware and well-supported with documentation, tips and hints on the developer’s web site.
Tags: Email in general, extension, FireFox, getting things done, GMAIL, gtd, ProductivityRelated posts
August 25th, 2006 at 5:23 am
I have to ask, and I’ve asked this from other Mac bloggers:
Why use Gmail if you have a laptop?
I use Gmail purely as another email account and download it to Mail.app. That’s where I do all my emailing from. I have instant search in Mail.app, so why ditch Mail.app and go to a browser format, even though Gmail is fast? At least with Mail.app, I still have all my email when I’m offline.
So what’s your take on this? I travel everywhere with my laptop, so is there any advantage to still ditching Mail.app and going solely with Gmail?
August 25th, 2006 at 9:16 am
Hmmm… There’s not much point in asking me this. I’m soldered onto my copy of Mail.app.
Still, this is a very innovative and clever modification of Gmail for a specific purpose. It’s possible using Mail Act-on and MailTags to get something similar in Mail - and this is what I do, personally - but I am still able to admire the efforts of the GTDGmail team.
October 5th, 2006 at 12:52 am
[...] They are not the same as the ten I picked out. In particular, I would have added GTDGmail, a triumph of interface hacking and adaption. [...]