GMail / Mobile Device Hack
June 29th, 2009I figured out a nice little hack for my Blackberry, and I thought I’d share.
Problem:
1) I’d like to be able to quickly take notes on my BB, but I’d like them backed up online. (So the built in “Notes” app isn’t that great.)
2) I’d like to be able to quickly send notes from my desktop or laptop to my Blackberry without syncing.
3) I’d like these notes to be segregated, so they are easily findable, not lost amongst the flood of emails.
Solution: Gmail, Aliases, Filters, and Labels.
So, it occurs to me that I could just email the note to my GMail account. The only downside to that, is that my inbox is full of junk that needs to be cleaned, archived, or deleted. Having ‘notes’ sitting there, day after day, is annoying. I like to keep my inbox as close to zero as possible, but the very nature of notes is that they are useful and need to stick around. At least for a while.
Now, I could just email myself, stick something in the subject line to remind me that it’s a note, and then save this in a folder (or “label” in GMail-speak) … but that’s very manual, and we have computers to do that. Furthermore, GMail has this cool built-in feature that allows you to create a nearly unlimited number of aliases just by appending a plus sign “+” and a string to your username. Here’s an example of what I mean. Say your GMail address is “snappy13@gmail.com”. Then you are free to use aliases such as “snappy13+party@gmail.com” and “snappy13+mybank@gmail.com” etc. You can use as many of these as you want. There’s nothing to configure! Incoming address in that format automatically get routed to the mailbox of “snappy13@gmail.com” and that’s that. The primary advantage of this is to create aliases for sites that you suspect will spam you if you sign up with them. So, if you are going to a blog site and they require you to provide your email address, you can throw in one of these aliases instead. Then, if they start sending you spam, you’ll know who handed out your address and you’ll be able to create a filter to send any incoming mail to that alias directly to trash.
Of course, my idea is another use for both aliases and for filters. So, first I create a new filter for all email sent to “<myusername>+notes@gmail.com”. I have the mail tagged with the “Mobile Notes” label, and I check the “skip inbox” option. That’s it!
Now, when I send myself an email to that address, it automatically gets stored in a “Mobile Notes” folder (“label”) and is not cluttering up my inbox. Furthermore, I can send to that address right from my Blackberry, and have the note I just created stored online. I have access to these ‘notes’ via the GMail website from my desktop or laptop or any other Internet connected computer, and I have them on my mobile device. Nice, easy, solution.
“But wait! There’s more!” I don’t just want to store quick notes, like the address and phone number of a store I need to visit during my lunch break, or a list of things I’m supposed to pick up on my way home … I’d also like to jot dot ideas for stories and blog posts I’m supposed to write. OK, I could just send them to the same “Notes” folder … or I could create another filter/label combo and send to another alias, like “<myusername>+ideas@gmail.com” or “<myusername>+write@gmail.com” and they will be stored, segregated from other email, backed up, and available from multiple places.
This may seem like an obvious idea, but it’s taken me this long to figure it out. Further, I’m confident that if you try it, you’ll find it is quite superior to just jotting down a note in “Notes” or trying to get (yet another) note taking app to work, or just emailing yourself the info. The primary advantage isn’t just getting the info into a handy place, it’s the built-in organized-the-way-you-want convenience.
Have ideas and hacks of your own? Share the goods! I’d love to see what you’ve come up with.
