Quick: When’s the final time you used Google Tasks?If you are like quite a lot of of us I do know, the reply to that query is likely to be: “Wait a sec — what? Google has a Tasks app?!”Tasks is a kind of providers that is all too simple to overlook about — or possibly even overlook totally. Sure, there’s an Android app for it (and even an iOS app, if you recognize anybody who swings that manner). And Google’s within the midst of reframing its cross-service reminders system in order that it depends on Tasks as a main hub for all these belongings you inform your Android cellphone or Smart Display that can assist you bear in mind.But nonetheless, on the desktop entrance, the place numerous us spend our daytime hours, the one methods to entry Google Tasks are by way of that awkward facet panel on the proper of the Gmail web site or as a barely complicated choice inside Google Calendar — the place Tasks kinda-sorta exists as one other house for that interconnected reminders system. Even if you happen to spend a ton of time spelunking across the Google ecosystem, these aren’t precisely essentially the most top-of-mind locations in your most urgent to-do checklist gadgets.Hang on, although: Whether you are utilizing Google Tasks in these capacities otherwise you had no earthly concept it even existed, the service has some severe potential. And with the appropriate superior add-ons, it may possibly turn out to be a robust solution to monitor and arrange essential gadgets and keep on high of all kinds of obligations.Check out these little-known Tasks enhancements, and prepare to see Google’s almost-invisible organizational helper in an entire new gentle. And in order for you top-notch Googley ideas in your inbox each week, this is a simple activity to verify off your checklist: Sign up for my Android Intelligence publication. I’ll ship you three bonus ideas proper from time to time three new issues to strive each Friday! Google Tasks software No. 1: The standalone web siteAll proper, first issues first: If all you recognize the utter simplicity of Tasks because it exists within the sidebar of the Gmail web site and simply want you had a solution to open it as its personal window, I’ll allow you to in on slightly secret:All you want is the appropriate hyperlink, and you may seize that slender little Tasks interface proper out of your inbox and plop it into its personal particular person tab very quickly. This is the hyperlink:https://duties.google.com/embed/checklist/~default?origin=https://mail.google.com&fullWidth=1&lfhs=2Random, I do know. But click on it, copy it, put it aside, and even set it as a bookmark, and you may at all times be capable of open Tasks in its very personal tab and even window, anytime the urge strikes. JRAnd yet another choice alongside those self same strains… Google Tasks software No. 2: The easy full-screen appIf you desire a fancier, extra properly formatted model of that very same kind of setup, take a look at the aptly named Full Screen for Google Tasks Chrome extension. It provides you a easy hyperlink in your browser’s extension menu (that little puzzle-shaped icon within the upper-right nook of the display screen) that opens an app-like model of the fundamental Tasks interface proper in your browser. JRAnd if you happen to aren’t utilizing Chrome or simply don’t desire an extension put in, you can even entry that very same service by way of its web site.Full Screen for Google Tasks does inevitably require permission to view and handle your Google Tasks knowledge, however the app’s developer says completely no data is ever collected or saved.Google Tasks software No. 3: The pop-up panelA standalone app could be spectacular if you actually need to focus in your duties, however what about if you simply want a fast peek at your to-do checklist — to see what’s left in your checklist for the day, to get pleasure from that unmatched satisfaction of checking off one thing you’ve got completed, or possibly so as to add a brand new activity into one in every of your lists? For even simpler ongoing entry to your Google Tasks information, strive a slick little software referred to as Quick GTasks. It’s an extension for Chrome that places all of your pending chores right into a useful pop-up panel that is by no means greater than a click on or keystroke away. JRAnd similar to our final software, Quick GTasks is evident about the truth that it by no means shops or shares any method of non-public knowledge.Three duties down, two to go!Google Tasks software No. 4: The quick-send systemThe instruments we have coated up to now are nice for accessing your Google Tasks lists and even including new gadgets — however what about if you need to save an precise web site into Tasks for later revisiting?Well, my fellow list-lover, you are in luck:The dead-simple Send to Google Tasks Chrome extension provides a button into your browser’s extension menu and the right-click context menu that permits you to ship no matter web page you are viewing straight into Tasks with a pair fast clicks.And if you wish to reduce that variety of clicks in half, simply do that:
Click that puzzle-shaped extension icon in Chrome’s upper-right nook.
Find Send to Google Tasks within the menu that comes up.
Click the pushpin image subsequent to it.
That’ll put the extension’s icon immediately into your browser’s major tackle bar for even simpler ongoing entry.Google Tasks software No. 5: The Trello-like board viewOur final Tasks software is essentially the most superior choice of all, and if you happen to nerd out over group as a lot as I do, you are certain to be in love with it.It’s referred to as TasksBoard, and it is a browser-based desktop app that permits you to view and arrange your Google Tasks information within the fashion of a Trello-like kanban board. JRThat means your entire totally different Tasks lists turn out to be columns, with particular person duties appearing like playing cards within ’em. You can drag and drop any activity from one column to a different, and you may reorder the lists in any association you want.TasksBoard has a bunch of neat additional options past its fundamental organizational construction, too:
It enables you to export any Tasks checklist into Google Sheets as a spreadsheet.
It enables you to kind your lists by due date.
And if you happen to improve to its $4/mo. (or $5 per consumer per 30 days, in a staff setup) premium plan, it’s going to allow you to share each lists and whole boards with personal hyperlinks in addition to set customized colours in your lists and boards and create a number of boards for much more intricate group.
TasksBoard works as an internet site, however you can even set up it as a progressive internet app on any machine — pc or cellphone — and have it look and act like an everyday native app, full with an icon in your desktop or house display screen.Not too shabby for a barebones Google service, eh?!Want much more Googley data? Sign up for my weekly publication to get next-level ideas delivered on to your inbox each Friday.
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