If you’re a Gmail user, you know that there’s a task pane at the top of your screen that lets you add items to your To-Do list, manage your calendar, and more. But what if you want to add aRemember The Milk task pane to your Gmail account too? There’s no need to install any additional software or change any settings. All you need is a Chrome extension and some basic steps. First, install the Remember The Milk extension from the Chrome Web Store. Once it’s installed, open it up and click on the “Add task” button at the top of the extension window. Next, enter a name for your new task pane and click on “Create.” You can also choose a color for your new task pane if you want. Once everything is set up, click on “Save.” Now that your new task pane is created, you can use it just like any other item in Gmail. Just open up Gmail and start adding tasks!

Installation & Tweaking

Before you can complete the install process you will need to confirm the installation…click “Install” to finish adding the extension to Chrome.

Note: Even though the extension page states that your account’s language setting must be U.S. English we had no problems whatsoever with a British English setting.

Once the extension has been added to your browser you will see a brief extension management message. There are no “in-browser” options for you to worry with on the “Chrome Extensions Page”.

As soon as you open your Gmail account you will find that wonderful Remember The Milk Task Pane waiting for you and ready to use.

You will also find a new “Tasks Area” added to the “Settings” for your account. Enable or disable any of the settings to best suit your personal needs and enhance how the Remember The Milk Task Pane interacts with your Google account.

Note: Default settings are shown here.

Remember The Milk for Gmail in Action

When your browser window is maximized you will be provided with a wonderful amount of room for your tasks list.

A good look at the “Task View Drop-Down Menu”…

And a look at what is available in the “Options Menu”.

If you hover your mouse over a particular task a popup window will appear with details related to that task. Notice that you can mark the task as complete, postpone it, or show the task in RTM/delete the task (via the “More Menu”).

To add a new task just enter the task in the text field and hit “Enter”.

Your new task will be immediately added to the list.

Note: The default “time setting” for tasks is “Today” but can be changed in the “Tasks Area” in Gmail’s “Settings” (see above).

Hovering the mouse over our new task displayed the known details about it and clicking on the “Notes Link” at the bottom opened and focused the task in a new tab…

Once the new tab was opened we could then add any relevant notes for the task or other information such as Tags, URLs, etc.

One other nice feature that we really liked about the extension was the ability to collapse any particular category that we did not need to view at that moment. If you like to focus on just your “Today Category” you can easily watch it shrink down to nothing as you finish individual tasks. A clean empty looking “Today List” will certainly leave you with a feeling of accomplishment…

Conclusion

If you have been holding off switching to Google Chrome in order to have continued access to the Remember The Milk Task Pane in Gmail then your wait is finally over.

Links

Download the Remember The Milk for Gmail extension (Google Chrome Extensions)