Using Remember the Milk (RTM) to track tasks for others

Whether you are waiting for someone to get back to you or you’ve delegated a task to someone its important to track it so that proper follow-up can occur.

I use Remember the Milk (RTM) to manage my own tasks. So I (un-systematically) started placing To Do items that I had delegated (or was waiting for) in my task list with their name in the subject.

In the notes I would often put the date I asked John to complete the task, perhaps even the date I had indicated I would like the task to be completed by and any additional information that would help down the line. Sometimes I would even include the e-mail I sent John.

This system was not ideal as it relied on me manually entering the data into RTM which is process heavy for little tasks. Certainly it was worth it for important things, or for use with those who I suspected might not get back to me. However my persistence with this method began to drop off.

I was inspired by [W]aiting For method of tracking tasks for a short time. However my institutional e-mail client Groupwise handles this method very poorly. If you follow David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) philosophy at all – you should not be managing tasks from your e-mail client. As the [W] list began to grow I’d check it less because it wasn’t quick and easy.

But I think I’ve found an easier way. Since most of my task assignment is completed via e-mail. I simply need to BCC: my RTM inbox e-mail address and add a few cryptic keywords at the start of the e-mail to get it into the right list, with the appropriate tags (image below).

The task will then show-up in your RTM “Waiting” list (image below) and you can check it out in your weekly review or even get notifications on the due date to insure proper follow-up.

I haven’t been using this method long enough to know for sure it will work long-term. But it is much easier to implement. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Thanks for visiting.

C