All Ideas
All Startup Ideas
Productivity~8 hours to build

Email to Todo Converter

Forward an email. Get back a task list.

The Problem

Action items get buried in long email threads. "Can you send me that file?" hidden in paragraph 5. Meeting notes with 8 different follow-ups scattered throughout. People read emails, think "I'll handle that later," and then forget. Critical tasks slip through the cracks.

The Solution

A tool with a magic email address. Forward any email to tasks@yourapp.com, and AI extracts every action item, who's responsible, and any deadlines mentioned. Returns a clean checklist you can add to your task manager or just tackle directly.

How it works:

1

Forward email

To your unique address

2

AI extracts tasks

Action items, owners, due dates

3

Get task list

Reply email with checklist

Market Research

  • Average worker receives 121 emails/day—task extraction is a real need
  • Task management is $4B+ market with Todoist, Asana, etc.
  • Email-to-X services have proven viral potential (like Instapaper)

AI Prompts to Build This

1. Project Setup

Create a Next.js app for email-to-task conversion. Features: - User gets unique email address: user123@tasks.yourapp.com - Dashboard showing all extracted tasks - Task list with checkbox, description, owner, due date - Export to Todoist, Notion, or copy as text - History of processed emails Use Supabase for auth. Set up email receiving with Postmark or SendGrid inbound.

2. Task Extraction

Implement AI task extraction: 1. Receive email via webhook from email service 2. Parse email body (handle HTML and plain text) 3. Send to Claude with prompt: "Extract all action items from this email. For each task identify: task description, who is responsible (if mentioned), due date (if mentioned). Return as JSON array." 4. Store tasks in database linked to user 5. Send reply email with formatted task list Handle email threads: extract from latest message only, avoid duplicates.

3. Integrations

Add task manager integrations: 1. Todoist: Use their API to create tasks directly 2. Notion: Add to a specified database 3. Linear: Create issues (for dev teams) 4. Slack: Post tasks to a channel User configures default integration in settings. Include option to auto-send tasks to integration (vs manual review first).

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