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Automate Your Task Management: Extract Action Items from Emails Without Coding
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Automate Your Task Management: Extract Action Items from Emails Without Coding

A No-Code Guide for Product Managers to Streamline Email Tasks into Notion

Jay Stansell's avatar
Jay Stansell
Sep 30, 2024
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Automate Your Task Management: Extract Action Items from Emails Without Coding
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Summary of the Problem

As product managers, we often find ourselves buried under a mountain of emails, each containing potential action items that need our attention. Manually tracking these tasks is not only time-consuming but also prone to errors. Important to-dos can slip through the cracks, leading to missed deadlines and stalled projects. There's a pressing need for a solution that can efficiently extract these action items and organize them without adding to our workload.


Benefits of Learning This

  • Save Time: Automate the tedious process of sifting through emails for tasks.

  • Enhance Productivity: Focus on high-priority work instead of manual data entry.

  • Reduce Errors: Ensure no action items are overlooked.

  • Seamless Integration: Create a workflow that connects your email directly to Notion.

  • No Coding Required: Implement a sophisticated automation without any programming skills.

  • Long-Term Efficiency: Set it up once, and let it run—no more copy-pasting ever again.


What You'll Learn

  • Automated Workflow Creation:

    • How to set up a system that scans your emails for action items.

  • AI-Powered Task Extraction:

    • Utilize OpenAI to intelligently identify and extract tasks from email content.

  • Integration with Notion:

    • Automatically add extracted tasks into a Notion database.

  • Customizing to Your Needs:

    • Tailor the workflow to match your specific email patterns and task management style.

  • Best Practices:

    • Maintain and optimize your automated system for consistent performance.


Software Tools You'll Need

  1. Email Service Provider

    • Type: Email platform

    • Examples: Gmail, Outlook

    • Cost: Free versions available; paid plans offer additional features

    • Access: Via web or desktop/mobile apps

  2. Notion

    • Type: All-in-one workspace for notes and tasks

    • Cost: Free for personal use; paid plans offer additional features (free version sufficient)

    • Access: Notion

  3. Zapier

    • Type: No-code automation platform

    • Cost: Free plan with limited features; paid plans start at $19.99/month (may require a paid plan for multi-step Zaps)

    • Access: Zapier

  4. OpenAI API

    • Type: AI language model API

    • Cost: Pay-as-you-go pricing; minimal costs for moderate usage

    • Access: OpenAI API

  5. Google Cloud Platform (if using Gmail)

    • Type: Cloud services platform for APIs

    • Cost: Free tier available

    • Access: Google Cloud Console

  6. Web Browser

    • Type: Software application

    • Cost: Free

    • Examples: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox


Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Setting Up Your Accounts

  1. Email Account

    • Ensure you have an active email account with Gmail or Outlook.

    • For Gmail users:

      • Enable IMAP in your Gmail settings under Forwarding and POP/IMAP.

      • If required, set up an App Password for increased security.

  2. Notion Account

    • Sign up at Notion if you haven't already.

    • Familiarize yourself with creating databases in Notion.

  3. Zapier Account

    • Register at Zapier.

    • Consider upgrading to a paid plan for multi-step Zaps and premium features.

  4. OpenAI Account

    • Create an account at OpenAI.

    • Generate an API key from your account dashboard.

    • Set up billing details as required.

  5. Google Cloud Platform Account (Gmail Users)

    • Visit the Google Cloud Console.

    • Create a new project and enable the Gmail API.

    • Obtain credentials (OAuth 2.0 client ID) for Zapier integration.


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