Gmail Gives Users a To Do List

Gmail Labs has seen a couple of really cool features added to Google’s mail that users have been crying out for for months. The latest is Tasks, a to do list that you can pop out and run alongside your Google Calendar.

As usual Tasks is available under the Labs tab of Settings. The Gmail team has put tasks in the same kind of window as chats, so you can see them while you’re just glancing at your inbox as well as reading individual emails. Similar to chat you can also pop out the window and use it outside Gmail.

To enter a new task, click on an empty part of your list and start typing, when you’re done, hit Return. Bam, new task. One of the cooler features is that you can turn emails into tasks by hitting ctrl + t or by using the More Actions button and selection add to tasks.

With Gmail Labs cranking out some pretty popular features these days, a lot of people are wondering why these features aren’t being rolled out as permanent tools, rather than optional add-ons. A fair point considering some Labs projects seem more useful than others.

When Labs first launched, the Gmail team said it was a way to try out a whole bunch of new features that users were asking for without making everything really cluttered and messy. The more popular ones will stay, the lamer ones will slowly disappear from labs and only a handful of people will care.