Using Pleexy as my Task Management Backup

One stumbling block I’ve encountered with my productivity system is getting the tasks from the various apps I use into my task manager app. Most apps have a way to filter all your tasks you create within their specific app, but I’m a Todoist person through and through, and when I have to spend time manually transferring tasks from my notes and email to Todoist, inevitably things get lost or confused. I don’t want to have too many inboxes I need to remember to check to ensure I’ve done everything I intended to do, and would prefer it be centralized.

I was intrigued about a year ago when I first heard of Pleexy, an app that will take tasks from your note-taking app (not all, but major players) and import them to your task management app — Todoist, Microsoft ToDo, or Google Tasks. I was on the fence with Evernote at the time, so I wasn’t ready to try it out, but earlier this year I pulled the plug and gave it a go. What I found was it is absolutely worth the price for me by streamlining my process.

Pleexy currently can’t use Evernote’s Tasks as what they import to Todoist. (But it is a feature request and on their roadmap.) However, they can import checklist items contained in notes, and this works just fine for my purposes. I can brainstorm all the things I need to do for a particular project, convert that list to a checklist, and all of that information is easily connected and captured in the note. Each checklist item shows up as a separate task in Todoist, along with the title of the note it came from, so I have quick context for the task.

This is particularly useful with work meetings. I have my Google Calendar synced with Evernote, and I create meeting notes for my calendar events. I love that when I open the app I can see all the things I’m committed to that day, along with the notes I’ve made in preparation for that event. Once I’m in the meeting, I can add to my notes, and list any tasks assigned to me without switching apps. I’ve set up Pleexy so it will sync those tasks into my Todoist Inbox. And from there I can organize each task to the appropriate project with a deadline.

Then, as I check off each of those tasks, it syncs so it gets checked off in Evernote as well! Pleexy includes a link to the original note in Evernote, so I can refer to that as needed. If I need to go back and review items from that meeting, I can clearly see that I tackled what was assigned to me.

I also wanted to use Pleexy’s Outlook integration, and I was finally able to get my work’s IT department to approve Pleexy to use with my work Outlook! (Which is a feat unto itself!) My work email inbox is always too full, despite my best Inbox Zero efforts. I’d been struggling to find a good solution to help me remember to answer or follow up on certain emails. Flagging an email in Outlook can work, but if that flagged email gets further down in my inbox so I have to scroll to see it, I can forget about about it. Pleexy offers me a helpful solution.

Now it’s set up so that flagged email is imported to Todoist for me as a task with the email subject line. The tasks are linked to the email they came from, so I can quickly remember the context of the task and have all that I need quickly at hand. It’s an added reminder that I need to respond to an email that I see in my task manager. This minimizes the time I spend trying to remember where a document or note is, or who I need to respond to with follow-up, and has really been a game changer. That time adds up! And once I complete the email flag in Outlook, it completes the task in Todoist.

Todoist is my “basecamp” of operations, and I am diligent about clearing out my Todoist Inbox every day, so Pleexy works for me as a backup to remember to answer important emails and to complete assignments from my various meetings. I can delay answering that email a day or so, and know it will show up in Todoist and I will tend to it, or plan to do a task connected to a meeting a week later. Now I won’t forget anything!

I love having Pleexy connect my notes and work and emails to my task manager, minimizing the chance that I lose a task along the way as I switch between my various productivity tools. It’s proved to be a great backup for me, ensuring that my process continues to function smoothly, and saving me time along the way.