, by The Pippin team
How to automate your to-do list
Three ways to automate a to-do list: recurring tasks, rules that turn emails into tasks, and an app like Pippin that writes and updates the list as you work.
i keep the list.
To automate your to-do list, you have three options. Let routine tasks repeat on a schedule. Set up rules that turn certain emails or messages into tasks. Or use an app like Pippin that reads your work and writes the list for you. The first two take care of adding tasks. Only the third also updates them as the work changes and checks them off when you’re done, which is the part of a list that takes the most time.
Here’s how each one works, what it’s good for, and how to set it up.
What parts of a to-do list can you automate?
Keeping a list takes four small jobs: adding tasks, updating them, checking them off and reviewing the list. Most automation helps with the first one. That’s useful, but adding is rarely where a list falls apart. Lists usually die when they get out of date, often in the first busy week.
So when you choose a method, ask which of the four jobs it takes off your plate.
| Method | Adds tasks | Updates tasks | Checks them off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recurring tasks | Yes, on a schedule | No | No |
| Rules and integrations | Yes, from matching emails or messages | No | Sometimes, with more rules |
| An app that reads your work (Pippin) | Yes, from what you work on | Yes | Yes |
1. Use recurring tasks for routine work
Most to-do apps can repeat a task: pay rent on the 1st, send the timesheet every Friday, renew the car registration every year. Set it once and the task shows up when it’s due.
Good for: chores and deadlines that come back on a fixed schedule.
How to set it up: in Apple Reminders, open a reminder’s details and choose Repeat. Todoist, Microsoft To Do, Things and TickTick all have a similar repeat option, and most understand typed dates like “every Friday.”
What it doesn’t do: it can’t see new work. Most of your day isn’t on a schedule. It arrives in email, Slack and meetings.
2. Turn emails and messages into tasks with rules
The next step up is to connect your apps so that certain events create tasks.
- Built-in buttons. Gmail can add an email to Google Tasks. In Outlook, flagged emails show up in Microsoft To Do. In Slack, you can hover over a message and choose “Remind me about this.”
- Automation tools. Zapier, Make and Microsoft Power Automate can watch for something (a starred email, a message in a channel, a new calendar event) and create a task in Todoist, Asana or another app.
Good for: steady, predictable streams, like support requests from one form or invoices from one sender.
What it doesn’t do: a rule only knows what you told it to look for. A request buried in the third paragraph of a long email, or a “can you send me that file?” in a Slack thread, won’t match. And once a task is created, the rule doesn’t know when the work moves or gets done. You’re back to updating and checking off by hand. We go deeper into this in how to keep track of tasks from email and Slack.
3. Use an app that writes and keeps the list for you
The third option is an app that watches your work and keeps the whole list current. That’s what Pippin does.
Pippin is a Mac app, a smart companion that writes your to-do list while you work. About every 15 seconds, it reads the text in your open windows through macOS Accessibility. It sends that text to the AI you picked to understand it, and then it keeps your list up to date.
- It adds tasks. When Emily asks on Slack which sheet of the Q3 numbers is final, a row appears in Recents: “Emily’s question about the Q3 numbers.”
- It updates them. When Dr. Miller’s office offers Friday at 4:30 PM or Monday at 11 AM, the summary under “Reply to Dr. Miller’s office” says so. When you pick Friday, it changes again.
- It checks them off. When the office confirms, Pippin closes the row and moves it to the Logbook.
Nothing needs a rule, a tag or a due date, so there’s nothing to set up for each new kind of work. If it shows up on your screen, Pippin can track it.
You still choose what goes on your list. New rows go to Recents, which holds at most ten rows from the last three days. You move the ones that matter onto your To-do list. If you want a quick check, ask in the chat: “what’s still open from this morning?”
Good for: people whose work arrives from everywhere and changes all day, and anyone who has quit a to-do app because keeping it up to date took too much time.
How to set up Pippin
You need a Mac with macOS 15 or later and Apple silicon. Setup takes a few minutes.
- Pick the AI Pippin thinks with. Sign in to the ChatGPT Mac app to use your ChatGPT plan, paste a Claude API key (Claude Max and Team plans include monthly API credits), or paste an OpenRouter key and pay per use.
- Turn on Accessibility. This one macOS setting lets Pippin read the text on your screen.
- Block private apps. Pippin suggests some from the apps on your Mac. Common password managers are always blocked.
- Keep working as usual. Rows appear in Recents as your work takes shape.
Which method should you use?
You can mix them. Recurring tasks are still the simplest way to remember rent. Rules work well for one predictable stream. For everything else, the work that shows up in email, Slack, docs and browser tabs, an app that reads your work saves the most time, because it keeps the list current instead of only adding to it.
Curious what Pippin can see? Read what Pippin reads on your Mac, and what it never reads. To see a full day with it, read an AI to-do list app on a busy workday. Or start on the Pippin home page.