Processing Text Messages

[craigsadie]

I'm wondering if anyone has developed an elegant way/practice of processing text messages? More and more I find texts to be a collection point and I have not developed a habit of getting them into my system with any regularity.

 

[Peter Van Harmelen]

I just copy the text message and then paste it into Braintoss which sends it to my task manager. I could paste directly into my task manager but it is actually faster through Braintoss. Strange but true

Peter

 

[mcogilvie]

I just copy it and add to to my inbox. It’s annoying but not insufferable.

 

[PeterByrom]

I copy it into my inbox, or if there’s a lot, just a general note about checking my texts.

 

[Oogiem]

I'm wondering if anyone has developed an elegant way/practice of processing text messages?

perhaps not elegant but i do it one of 2 ways. I either rewrite by hand a quick note with the task on my notebook and drop the page into my paper inbox or I email the text to myself for processing when I do e-mail.

For me text messages very rarely have actionable input. They are more immediate scheduling coordination, "We're at Pub now & have some stuff to return to you, when are you coming down?" or Status updates "Here's a picture of where we are at with the new bridge" or plain social interactions with little or no actions except to keep in touch with family and friends so I haven't worked on any better/faster/more elegant or efficient way of handling them in my GTD system.

 

[Jared Caron]

I'm wondering if anyone has developed an elegant way/practice of processing text messages? More and more I find texts to be a collection point and I have not developed a habit of getting them into my system with any regularity.

I treat it like any other inbox. A while back I decided to turn off all but the badge notifications on my text messages. I check it like my email, a couple times a day. As @Oogiem said, it's rare that I find truly actionable input in my texts, and most of that is <2 min actions.
But it happens regularly enough that I still make a habit of checking them. So rather than trying to find a way to import the text message into another system, I just process it like another inbox and capture the actionable stuff into my lists.

 

[BadHairDay]

I usually use a share function that my text messaging app provides and sent myself an email. I do the same for messengers as Email is a far more functional collection site for me.

 

[MikeyBus]

I simply include my text message app on my checklist of "ins" to get to zero during the weekly review. I dump anything actionable into my Things 3 inbox to process, and quick reply to anything <2 mins.

 

[John Ismyname]

I have mixed feelings about text messaging as too many people are slaves to their cel-phones. (I refuse to call them “smart phones”.)



My thought is that a text messages are another GTD inbox. This means I process this inbox on my terms. For me, every hour or two, I do this. If it’s an urgent matter, the sender of this communication should call me. I do not get alerts for text messages.



When somone texts me for this first time, I ask them who their cel phone provider is. Once I know this, I can send an email to their cel phone encouraging them to use this for the text messages.

https://20somethingfinance.com/how-to-send-text-messages-sms-via-email-for-free/

With email, I can process it through my native GTD platform – Outlook.



I use an ap called Airdroid, which allows me to send and receive texts from my PC Computer. From this I can cut and paste into Outlook

 

[Jen Dole]

I have an iPhone, and simply take a screen shot of the text message and email myself to get it in my inbox.