
Ask HN: Do You Email Yourself? - trilinearnz
I often do this, since it can be a hassle to retrieve a given piece of information when I am using many different systems during the day. Mostly, my content is solely in the subject line, and is often just a reminder, or personal note to myself.<p>This got me wondering: Is there a product here, or could email providers do something special when they notice you doing this?
======
mikorym
No, but here is a way to WhatsApp yourself.

Create a group with one other member. Delete that member. Now you can send
messages (or media) to yourself and only you will receive it. It's useful for
storing notes or pictures or whatever...

~~~
mkbkn
I use Telegram for that. There's a "saved messages" chat where you can upload
any type of file.

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dartisan
Personally, no. I try to keep inbox zero as often as I can. For persisted
reminders, I lean on other tracking software (which is usually just Notes, my
phone alarm, or my calendar).

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Jugurtha
Among many lines, I have the following in my .zshrc:

    
    
      alias note='vi +star +'\''normal Go'\'' +'\''r!date +\%F\ \%T'\'' ~/workspace/notes/notes.md +'\''normal Go'\'' +'\''normal Go'\'
    
    
      function nupd() {
          git -C ~/workspace/notes commit -a -m "Update notes $(whoami)@$(hostname)"
          git -C ~/workspace/notes push
      }
    
    
    
    

It allows me to type:

    
    
      note
    

And opens a file, `notes.md`, with vi in insert mode with a timestamp.

When I'm done, I type:

    
    
      nupd
    

It commits the changes and pushes them to a repo. When I go to other machines,
I just pull.

I also used to have a todo alias, but now I switched to TaskWarrior. I made
the `.task` directory a git repo and have a function

    
    
      function tupd() {
          git  -C ~/.task commit -a -m "Update tasks $(whoami)@$(hostname)"
          git  -C ~/.task push
      }
    
    

Whenever I use TaskWarrior for creation, etc, I run tupd. I wrote hooks before
but became frustrated. When I use other machines, I just pull the repo and
have my tasks ready. The commit message contains the username and hostname so
I know from which machine I did it.

I have files like these (knowledge base repo that automatically builds a page
[https://jhadjar.gitlab.io/kbase/](https://jhadjar.gitlab.io/kbase/) , which
reminds me it's been way too long I haven't pushed to it). I also have a file
called lessons.md, listing the many times I screwd up (dates, context, why it
was a screw up). A function called "learn" does a `bat` (better cat) on that
file to review the lessons.

------
RaceWon
Of course not... that's the craziest thing I ever heard.

I text myself.

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ian0
Yes, every day.

A few years ago someone taught me how to structure gmail using a system of
multiple inboxes and stars. So when an email comes in I assign it a star and
archive, it then shows in its inbox. Whenever I have a task that I want to
remember for later I email it to myself and assign it just like I would a
normal mail.

Its a phenomenal system. I dont need another app, can email myself from
anywhere. Can get people to email me tasks etc.

~~~
appleflaxen
can you elaborate or provide a reference?

~~~
ian0
Sure thing:

1) Login to settings and enable multiple inboxes. This is my setup:

has:red-star URGENT

has:orange-star Important

has:blue-info Pending on someone else

has:purple-question For reference

Panel position: Below the inbox

2) Still in the settings, enable stars in the order above.

3) When you check your mail, send off instant replies, archive or star the
rest accordingly. To get the orange star you just click the star icon twice,
three times for the blue one etc. The purple ones I use to store things like
documents I may reference later etc. In practice, I focus on the red stars
every day and try to work through the orange ones maybe once a week. You could
proberbly do without the blue, but its handy when your in a project management
like role. You can run through them once a week and ping people for updates.

------
baccredited
There is a product here, and I'm a happy customer:
[https://apps.apple.com/us/app/captio-email-yourself-
with-1-t...](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/captio-email-yourself-
with-1-tap/id370899391)

I use it daily.

------
bharani_m
Yes. I email myself almost everyday. I've even made a browser extension for it
- [https://www.emailthis.me](https://www.emailthis.me)

------
lovestodonothin
Yes I write letters to my future self once in a while, maybe a year or two
into the future. It's really interesting to read what my life was like when I
wrote the letter and I'm always curious if things turned out as expected and
if I managed to achieve some of my goals.

[https://www.futureme.org/](https://www.futureme.org/)

------
kastork
I forward emails to my OmniFocus mail drop address. It is a fairly effortless
way to move actionable email out of the email archive and into something
that's built for action tracking.

The service is described here:
[https://kas.d.pr/2e0Vsy](https://kas.d.pr/2e0Vsy)

------
mike-cardwell
I created a Matrix room on my Matrix server with just myself in it. I post
notes to it of things I need to remember.

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srijanshetty
I loved the combined view of reminders and email that 'Inbox by Gmail' used to
provide, in the lack of a more sophisticated solution by GMail, I just email
reminders and Snooze them to the appropriate day.

This little hack works really well and have given me decent mileage.

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sloaken
Of course I do, because I am the only one who knows whats important. I then
filter the email into a folder. What excitement when I look into the folder
and say 'Oh crap I forgot I need to do ...' but glad I now remember.

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xq3000
Haha, I remember those times when I would do that to save cool links for
later. Good times. :)

Then, they made Pocket [1].

The real question is what comes after Pocket?

[1] [https://getpocket.com/](https://getpocket.com/)

~~~
agsilvio
jumproot.com

Shameless plug.

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jfoster
Suppose someone does email themselves. What makes you think that there is a
product opportunity in that? They may be in that behaviour pattern because it
works well for them.

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dyeje
All the time. I use my email as a TODO list, so I send myself items. Not aware
of any products that enhance it, nor can I think of anything I'd want like
that.

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0_gravitas
so, i do the thing you really arent supposed to do, i have a private github
repo where i throw _all_ files that i want synched, from notes to full
textbooks. i used to email myself, but it was always very annoying to do (and
then i would need to email back any changes i would make), so github winds up
being a reasonable solution- ive tried dropbox but i prefer the control i have
with git/github

------
imarg
I email myself sometimes. But most of these emails get lost in the clutter.

What would you expect this product (or the email provider) to do for such
cases?

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RandomBacon
I used to use a pocket notebook which I still carry, to write myself to-do
items. Now I just send myself a quick email with the to-do item as the
subject.

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d--b
Yep. I don't really need something special to handle this, though. I do it
specifically because I don't want to have something else.

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sedeki
Delayed/scheduled email to self is a thing, to answer your product question.
Guess mainly for the non-tech crowd.

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masonic
I use Dropbox text files or just save as email drafts when the same email is
accessible on both devices.

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bladewolf47
Signal labels the conversation as "Note to Self" when you send yourself
something

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wingerlang
Probably thousands of emails to myself. I had some email tool and the top
from/to was myself.

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alireza94
I haven’t mailed myself in over 3 years. I mostly try to rely on Things for
reminders and tasks.

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devicetray0
Yes, all the time. Almost daily

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enhdless
Similarly, sometimes I message myself on Slack or Facebook.

~~~
scubbo
> message myself on [...]Facebook.

I didn't even know that was possible!

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sethammons
Any note while I'm out and about is emailed to myself.

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ruvis
I stopped doing that when I got todoist. Less clutter.

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SamReidHughes
Rarely, for Very Important TODO items.

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tkifnn
I email myself from work very frequently

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ezekg
I text myself.

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shanecleveland
Constantly

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cm2012
Yes

