If you're someone who prefers to work from their email inbox, Flow can support you. Use these tips to empower your emails.
Flow lets you quickly create tasks by sending an email to your unique, secure task creation email address (you can find yours in Account Preferences). The email subject will become the task title and the body of the email will be added as a comment. By default, tasks you email will be added to My Tasks.
Please note that email tasks (and the ability to add start dates and tags to tasks) are supported only on our Plus and Pro plans. You can read more about what is included in these and other plans on our pricing page.
Flow will accept messages from both the email address you use to log in and any alternate address you may optionally set in Account Preferences.
Secure email task creation
To use email task creation safely and securely, the organization owner in your account will first need to enable the feature in Organization Settings, which can be accessed by clicking their avatar in the top left corner of the app and selecting Administration > Organization Settings from the dropdown.
Then locate the "Require Secure Email Task Creation" option at the bottom of the General tab in Organization settings and toggle the option on.
Once enabled, Flow will generate a secure send-to email address for each member of the organization. To find this email address, simply click your avatar in the top left corner of the app and select "Preferences" from the dropdown.
Once in Account Preferences, scroll down to the "Email addresses" section. You can find your unique send-to email address under "Email tasks to Flow" and can copy it by clicking the "Copy email" link.
Configuring your email address
Before you start emailing tasks to Flow you’ll need to configure your email address in Account Preferences. This is to ensure that your tasks are created in the correct team, so if you have more than one, you’ll want to add a secondary email to which you can learn how to do here.
In the "Email Tasks to Flow" section, click "Edit". Beside your confirmed email address there will be a drop-down menu where you can choose the team you want to email your tasks to. Select the team and click "Save Changes" to apply your changes.
Adding details to emailed tasks
The basic way to create an email task is to enter the name of it as the subject line, add content to the email body to create a task note, and send to your unique, secure email address. But that's just the start! You'll also need to indicate which team you want to create the task in if you belong to more than one, who you want to assign it to, and which project it belongs to, just as a few examples. All of that can be done using the syntax below. Here's an example of what an email task might look like after you've added those details:
Read to see what details you can add to email tasks and examples so you can copy and paste to get started!
Indicate a team
If you have more than one team you may need to indicate exactly which team to create your emailed task in. Add a team using $ before the team name if the team name is only one word or quotations around the team name, ie. $"team name", for multi-word names:
$"Team Enterprise" Repair the warp drive
Add to project
Add tasks to projects using [project name] or project:
[Ship Repairs] Repair the warp drive
Sections
Indicate what specific section within your project that you want to file your task in using { } (curly braces) around the section name:
[Ship Repairs] {General Maintenance} Repair the warp drive
Delegate
Delegate tasks to people using @ or delegate:
@Rowan Repair the warp drive
If two users have the same name, simply use the first name and last name in quotation marks after the @ symbol: @"Rowan M"
Note: If the assignee syntax is not added, the task will be assigned to the user creating it. There is currently no way to create unassigned tasks via email.
Add subscribers
Subscribe people to receive notifications using + or subscribe:
Repair the warp drive +picard +crusher +data
You can add multiple subscribers at once, separated by commas, i.e., ”Picard, Crusher, Data." You can also subscribe people using their email addresses: (new Flow users will be sent invites to sign up): Repair the warp drive +ya_corgi@starfleet.com
Set Start Date
Apply start dates using ^ or start:
^Monday Repair the warp drive
Schedule tasks to start on May 20, 2017 using basic date formatting:
start:3/20/2017 Repair the warp drive
Set Due Date
Schedule tasks using ! or due:
!Tuesday Repair the warp drive
Schedule tasks for today using !!:
!! Repair the warp drive
Schedule tasks for May 20, 2018 using basic date formatting:
due:5/20/2018 Repair the warp drive
Note: By default, !2/10/2020 is interpreted as February 10th. To switch to a DD/MM/YYYY format, include a tilde after the exclamation point: !~2/10/2020 (October 2nd, 2020). You can also set start and due dates at the same time, following the same formats as above
Add tags
Add tags with # or tag:
Repair the warp drive #enterprise #repair
Add multiple tags at once, separated by commas:
Repair the warp drive tag: "enterprise, repair, high"
Add Attachments
You can easily attach files to new tasks by simply attaching the desired files to your email. This is an especially great way to add attachments to Flow from your smartphone or tablet, as most apps let you email files and exports. Just export the file, and email it right from your app to tasks@getflow.com, all without returning to your desk.
More email tips
Order doesn’t matter:
!! @Jessie [Ship Repairs] Repair the warp drive #repairs
…is the same as…
[Ship Repairs] Repair the warp drive @jessie #repairs !!
Symbols and keywords are interchangeable:
!"in 3 days" Repair the warp drive
…is the same as…
due:"in 3 days" Repair the warp drive
Double quotes are required around multiple words (except in project brackets):
[Ship Repairs] is the same as project:"Ship Repairs"
Note: Do not put a space after keywords.