Remember the Milk is one of my favorite task managers, but there are so many options that you may get overwhelmed, or not use them because they just take too much time to implement into your work flow. There are a handfull of handy shortcuts you can use to ease all these tasks and navigate the RTM interface swiftly.

Multiple editing

Multiple editing is the one mode which can save you a boatload of time. You can enter tags, places, URL’s completion information for any tasks you like at once, or you can mark them complete en masse. Just press “m” to enable multiple mode and from then on, when you select more than one task you will be editing them all at once. Handy lines to the right will enable you to visualize this better, and also to help you notice that you’re in multiple mode when you want to be in single edit mode. If you want to switch back, just press “m” again.

Editing task specifics

When creating a task you need to click on tags, then click on tag, enter it, click on location, enter it, click on time spent and so on, and while these are small additions to the time of task creation, they still amount to a considerable waste of time. There is a letter shortcut however for each task property, so when adding a task all you need to do is press “u” for url, enter it, then press enter, press “s” to change tags, enter them and press enter. While this sounds longer written down it’s actually about 30% faster initially and when you learn the shortucts it shaves at least 50% off your task creation time. Here are the shortcuts to all the properties in the order they are found in RTM, and also the shortcuts for assigning a priority on the fly.

• r - Rename
• d -Due
• f - Repeat
• g - Time estimate
• s - Tags
• l - Location
• u - URL
• p - Postpone
• y - Add a note
• 1 through 3 - Priorities

Navigation and Misc

Apart from just changing and adding tasks you can navigate easily around the interface with just letters. “a” selects all the tasks visible while “n” deselects all tasks, both logical choices and highly productive, especially the select none option. You can easily move up, down and select an item with “k”, “j” and “i” respectively. Another way to easily navigate and input details is the tab key which will save your input and move to the next field. The last keyboard shortcut I use a lot is the delete key which of course deletes the selected task(s).

If you use these shortcuts a bit you will get very used to them and your productivity will soar, shaving precious time off what you spend adding and modifying tasks which in itself is not an effective task.

I’ve already shown you how to use keyword navigation in Firefox, now let’s take that to the next level by creating naming schemes and putting some organization behind it. The problem is that while you may visit up to 50 sites regularly, coming up with 50 unique, short and easy to remember keywords is not that simple. Sure, you can use the site name, but typing organizationandplanning to get to Organization and Planning is not the quickest of methods.

Let me show you the method I use, which will work especially well if you’re a webmaster, have some blogs, or visit sub pages of one domain. I currently own or work on a number of websites, and I need quick access to the main pages, the admin panel, the comments section, google analytics, alexa rankings, feedburner page, and some others for all the sites.

What I do, is I simply create a keyword for the main pages I visit, for Hack Your Day this word is “hyd”, for Blogtastique it is btq. As you know, all I need to do is type hyd or btq in the url section in Firefox, press enter and that’s it. No http:// or www, nothing.

As a next step, I determine pages common to all other main pages I need to visit often. Like the Wordpress Dashboard, the write a new post page, comments section, analytics section, feedburner page and so on. When I bookmark these, I use the keyword of the main page and the sub-page together, so the “Write a post” page for Hack Your Day can be accessed by typing “hydwrite”. The one for the Blogtastique Blog can be accessed by “btqwrite”.

The great thing about this is that you only have to remember a tenth of the keywords you would normally, and they are pretty logical, so you can even guess. This system works best for reoccurring items, but you can adapt it for a different system too.

Here’s a quick tip to productivize yourself (making new words is great). If you use Firefox, use the bookmark organizer (Bookmarks -> Organize Bookmarks) to add a keyword to a bookmarked site. If you frequently use Google Reader you can just type “r” into the address bar, press enter and there you are, here’s how.

Once you’re in the organizer right-click on an entry, click on properties and find the field entitled “keyword”. Type something memorable in there, like “hyd” for Hack Your Day, and from then on if you type “hyd” in the address bar and press enter, you will be magically teleported to the blog.