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Still living in my email in box! - Please help me design a method to quit! Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
I am using my iPhone as a portable office.

I am falling off the GTD wagon somewhat by a return to "living in my email in box"

I leave priority email messages (that are tasks) in my Mail inbox and spend all day working through those. That seems to be my daily bread. All I check OF these days are red due date priority tasks. This is not good GTD behavior :eek: and I am not pleased about the situation..

I would much prefer instead - to live in Omnifocus FULL TIME and only check Mail a few times per day.. Like a good GTD boy! :)

But I struggle with the concept of filing Mail items into Omnifocus while away from my office with my iPhone. :( I just tried the -- in the subject line trick with Mail rules (forwarding the email back to myself) . It did work - but I found no 'link to the original email link. Plus it left me now with TWO emails in my iPhone inbox. (should I forward to an email address my iPhone DOESNT pick up?)

What I want might not be possible. I use a laptop as my main computer, so it is not 'always on' - I wonder if that is a block to getting the Mail & OF rules working full time for me? (I would consider a Mac Mini if I need one to get this all working!)

Here is what I want to achieve:

On iPhone - using IMAP email synced with Mobile Me
Process email to OF inbox (how?)
Email (manually?) filed to IMAP storage folder "processed email"

When I get back to office
All processed email is already in IMAP storage folder "processed email"
All processed email is now in OF inbox


That way I could work from the OF main page to further process / action tasks and not be a slave to my Mail inbox..

Any ideas?

Can someone walk me though a way to do this?

Help me get out of my Mail inbox! :eek:

Many thanks in advance OF iPhone comrades!

P.S somehow I feel an "always on" Mac solution is in my future....! Am I getting warm?
PPS perhaps also using the exchange functionality of my IMAP email could make the Mail 'auto moving' work in a more instantaneous fashion? Update my iPhone quicker? Remove stuff from my inbox faster? Am I getting warm?

Last edited by Casper TFG; 2009-10-06 at 06:40 AM..
 
One fly in the ointment that I've encountered is that what you probably want is the Mail clipping service, not the Mail processing that you can do with the funny subject line or funny address. The clipping service gets you the link to the original email, attachments, etc. and the other fails with a message that has just about any sort of formatting. I wonder if it would be possible to set up a Mail rule that ran an Applescript that invoked the clipping service on the current message? You'd have to have the clipping service set to send items directly to the Inbox, not the Quick Entry box, of course!

Out of curiosity, if this all worked the way you want, how many emails/day do you think you would be running through OmniFocus? I find it a bit more efficient to make the 2-minute rule be more like the 5-minute rule when handling email, and skip the trip through OmniFocus.
 
I think it would take a real OF ninja to figure that out!

Meanwhile, I am keen for any methodology tips and tricks!

Thanks!!

Last edited by Casper TFG; 2009-10-06 at 11:15 AM..
 
I think forwarding the "put it in OmniFocus" messages to a different email address is a step in the right direction. Doubling the number of emails in your inbox isn't going to help.

The mail rule can file the processed messages into a folder for you, but of course it requires a Mac to fetch the mail. The clipping service is another Mac-only feature.

AFAIK, the only way to do the stuff you're trying to get done exclusively using the iPhone is by doing so manually. I'm just not aware of tools available on the iPhone that give you the equivalents of the clipping service and OmniFocus <--> Mail communication that AppleScript gives you on the Mac.

If leaving a Mac mini or some other inexpensive Mac (possibly used) on 24/7 is an option, that would take some of the load off the phone, at least.
 
That's very helpful thanks.

I think I have landed on one of the "gotchas" of OF iPhone operation, namely lack of clip-a-tron functionality.

It's a shame, but I am sure it's down to Apple's sandboxing of apps and not OF's fault. I already have a ticket in to the OF ninjas requesting this.

Filing mail text without a link back to the origional just makes double work for me so unless there is a change in the API or someone makes clever hack I will proceed with doing my processing of email only on my Mac and wil limit my iPhone OF activity to non mail related inbox items and massaging data already in OF.

The sour grapes victory would be to cite that always processing incoming email during the day with the iPhone isn't good GTD anyway!

Mmmmm. These grapes are LOVELY!

Want some?

Last edited by Casper TFG; 2009-10-07 at 01:23 AM..
 
I too have this same need.

At the moment, I just forward each email to a xyz+omnifocus@gmail.com version of my email, but I want to get rid of the 24/7 Mac.

I can't imagine how Omni can solve this, but I sure would like it if they could.
 
Thanks for the yes vote.

Please OF ninjas - allow us to do FULLY FEATURED email processing while using our iPhones.

And remember - folks with a laptop at home are not able to have an 'always on' Mac + MacMail situation.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Casper TFG View Post
Thanks for the yes vote.
It's only a yes vote if mail gets sent to the support ninjas...
Quote:
Please OF ninjas - allow us to do FULLY FEATURED email processing while using our iPhones.

And remember - folks with a laptop at home are not able to have an 'always on' Mac + MacMail situation.
Apple doesn't really make it practical for them to do so -- applications don't have access to other applications' data.

As someone who uses a laptop at home, I'm not sure I understand why I am not able to have an 'always on' Mac + MacMail situation when I want it. The issue is really whether or not that is the only machine I have, not whether or not it is easily portable. When my 20" iMac was my only machine, it saw nearly as much travel as my MacBook does now, I just didn't use it on the airplane :)
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by whpalmer4 View Post
It's only a yes vote if mail gets sent to the support ninjas...
Well I've already sent mine - please send yours if you want this.

Quote:
Originally Posted by whpalmer4 View Post
As someone who uses a laptop at home, I'm not sure I understand why I am not able to have an 'always on' Mac + MacMail situation when I want it. The issue is really whether or not that is the only machine I have, not whether or not it is easily portable. When my 20" iMac was my only machine, it saw nearly as much travel as my MacBook does now, I just didn't use it on the airplane :)
If you misunderstood my intended meaning.

Laptops have the lid put down on them (switching them off) & periodically due to movement run out of battery.

So if an OF + Mail + iPhone + Mac process depends on the 'home' machine (the laptop) always being on to process incoming OF / Mail info - then using just and iPhone and a laptop is a 'bust' / wont work. :(

Anyhow... I think there is enough understanding of what is being requested here..
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Casper TFG View Post
Laptops have the lid put down on them (switching them off) & periodically due to movement run out of battery.

So if an OF + Mail + iPhone + Mac process depends on the 'home' machine (the laptop) always being on to process incoming OF / Mail info - then using just and iPhone and a laptop is a 'bust' / wont work. :(
If it is important to have Mail running all the time, leave the laptop plugged in, and don't close the lid. This is no different than making sure your desktop isn't shut down or put to sleep when you are using it as a server of some sort. I do this frequently, so I'm not sure why you are trying to convince me it cannot possibly work :)
 
 


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