(jeff)isageek.net Geek Entertainment Teknologist

Using Twitter To Help Keep Your Dates/Tasks Organized

Two services I use to keep my daily activities and tasks organized are google calendar and remember the milk which I integrate with gmail and my mobile device to have it on the go as well.

Now of course anyone who reads this blog knows I use twitter on a daily basis as well...heck these days who doesn't so I wanted to share with you two services that allow you to add dates/tasks and retrieve information from services like remember the milk and google calendar.

The first we are gonna look at is Twittercal which of course allows you to send a direct message via twitter to the services twitter bot which in turn posts your information to your calendar...easy as that. You of course have to be following them and likewise but it is a free service so that is always a plus. An example of a message you might send would be as follows : d gcal meeting with fred on monday, 25th of june at 9am

The second service we are gonna look at is the remember the milk one which actually comes straight from remember the milk and this one has a ton of features you can use to add, get info, or complete tasks.

First you will want to follow RTM on twitter. Then you can use commands from the following list to do what you need :

Command list

You can direct message the following commands to rtm. You may receive a confirmation or info back via a return direct message.

Adding tasks

pick up the milk adds a new task with the specified name to the Inbox

call jimmy at 5pm tomorrow adds a new task with the specified name and due date to the Inbox

return library books in 2 weeks adds a new task with the specified name and due date to the Inbox

Sending tasks

@username pick up the milk sends task to the specified Twitter username (this person must be set up with Remember The Milk too)

Updating tasks

!complete call jimmy completes the specified task (shortcut: !c)

!postpone call jimmy postpones the specified task (shortcut: !p)

Getting tasks

!today gets tasks due today (shortcut: !tod)

!tomorrow gets tasks due tomorrow (shortcut: !tom)

!getdue friday gets tasks due on the specified date (shortcut: !gd)

!getlist personal gets tasks from the specified list (shortcut: !gl)

!gettag call gets tasks with the specified tag (shortcut: !gt)

!getlocation office gets tasks at the specified location (shortcut: !go)

Setting up

!on enables task reminders

!off disables task reminders

!confirmon enables confirmations (task actions, such as adding tasks via Twitter, will be confirmed)

!confirmoff disables confirmations (task actions, such as adding tasks via Twitter, will be confirmed)

!help gets help info

!tips gets a list of commands

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One of the kool things about the remember the milk twitter service is you can also setup reminders to be sent to your twitter account so you dont forget that task that is maybe due in 30 min or so.

Overall these are two pretty simple ways to use twitter to help you stay organized and on top of all those meetings or tasks you have coming up in your near future. For me stuff like this is what makes having all these kool apps and services that integrate with each other awesome. It allows you to take the technologies and such you enjoy tinkering with and put them to use in real world scenario's.

Hope you discover something new you start using and as always if you have any questions please feel free to contact me.