Multitasking is a way of life today. However, its not a skill that comes easily to anyone. Red flags, reminders and alerts, sticky notes and such only add more noise to your workflow and bring about systematic chaos. If you use Gmail for work, Handle is a Chrome Extension that could bring more organization to your day. This Chrome extension gets your to-dos, email messages and calendar events at one location and helps you stay focused on what matters at the moment.
Handle Chrome Extension Review
Handle Chrome Extension is designed to:
- Convert Gmail messages to to-do Items
- Set them as reminders based on specific priorities
- Create events and set due dates around your schedule
- Sync data with the Handle iOS app so you can stay on top of them wherever you are.
And the best part: Handle alerts you to tasks that you need to act on only when necessary; based on location, time, events or priorities.
Installing Handle
Handle is a free extension that is available on the Chrome Web Store. Once you download the extension, it will be added to the top right corner of the screen, to the right of the Address bar. When you open up your Gmail account and click on the orange Handle icon, you will be asked to sign in to Dropbox so that your to-dos are synced between your desktop and iOS devices. That’s it! You are now ready to start adding to-dos.
Using Handle Chrome Extension
The tool is pretty straightforward to use. You hit the orange + button at the top of the panel to start creating your list; add a title, a reminder, a due date, a project, and relevant notes for the item.
I love the aesthetic look of the Handle panel. The to-do items are in big bold letters giving an appearance of unhurry and ease. The Remind Me section displays easy to pick times from later today, to the next morning or noon, or even next week. The timings for these events are fixed but you can also choose a custom time that suits your needs.
Handle’s user friendly clean interface is a refreshing change of pace from the noisy to-do lists we are used to seeing!
The Where tab lets you set a location based timing depending on whether you need an alert when you arrive at the destination or when you leave. The Due dates are linked and saved to your Gmail calendar.
To convert an email to a to-do item, just open up the email and click on the orange + button at the top of the Handle panel; it doesn’t get easier than that. The subject of the email will be converted to the title, and the email message will automatically be attached to the to do item. You can include more information on it such as reminder, due date, project name and notes.
The Handle menu contains top level details such as your projects, locations, history and Settings.
In the time I spent with Handle, I found it to be a highly intuitive tool that made short work of organizing my work schedule. The tool is in its infancy with Search, support for Android, Exchange and other email accounts yet to come. For now, I see a great potential in accomplishing things in a much more organized fashion with Handle.
If you are a big Gmail/iOS user, be sure to give the Handle Chrome Extension a try. And let us know how it worked for you.
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