Have you ever gone to the grocery store without knowing what you need to buy? You walk down each aisle, evaluating everything, seeing what’s on sale…or just what’s reachable. If you have, you know what happens. 

You end up wasting a bunch of time, and even more money because you have no plan. Worse, you get home and realize you forgot something that you actually needed. 

Running your solopreneur business without a task list can feel the same way. When everything falls on you, it’s easy for important work to fall through the cracks. And without a plan, you end up doing something that feels productive instead of something that’s actually productive. 

The thing is…if you don’t have a good way to capture your tasks, you’re never going to get the whole picture. That’s why you want to automate task capture.

Capturing Your Tasks Quickly

First, you want to make it as easy as possible to capture tasks. This could be a voice note, keyboard shortcut, or button on your lock screen. 

I have easy ways to capture tasks on all of my devices, including my watch; dictation has been a huge game-changer here. The idea is, while this isn’t automatable, you’re capturing something while you’re thinking about it instead of trying to remember it later. 

Many of my random tasks go into Todoist’s inbox so that when I do my weekly planning session, I’ll sort them into projects, due dates, etc. 

But there are more sophisticated ways to capture tasks, and sort them automatically. 

Speech to Text to Sort

For a long time, I was using a Zapier automation in conjunction with Whisper Memos. At the end of my day, I’d do some stream-of-consciousness rambling about everything I had to do or didn’t get to. That text would then get sent to ChatGPT via Zapier to be parsed. The tasks would get separated out, and sent to Todoist. 

That whole flow was replaced by Todoist’s Ramble feature, which is faster, smarter, and doesn’t require any other tools. But the biggest win here is that because it’s an app-level feature, it adds projects and labels based on context, so I don’t need to sort. 

And they are currently testing a text and image version of Ramble as well. On my Mac, I’ve been able to drop emails into it and get a task list (which has been SUPER helpful for long emails from my kids’ school). 

Ramble is easily my favorite software feature of the year so far¹. But this still isn’t fully automated. There is a way though. 

Automate Task Capture with AI Agents

I should be upfront and mention I don’t love the term “agents” in reference to LLMs. They aren’t working autonomously. They are a slightly more advanced version of automation, in my opinion. 

But branding aside, tools like Zapier’s agent or Claude Cowork are automation tools that present the perfect opportunity to take us out of the equation completely by: 

1. Performing a scheduled task every day at the same time
2. Looking for emails in specific places (I have it look in my Inbox and under the “Actionable” label)
3. Pulling tasks out of the emails 
4. Adding them to your task manager or a text file or dashboard

Todoist also has MCP integration, which means my Claude skill can put things directly into the app for me², but this method can work however you’d like — whether it’s a preferred task manager, Notion database, or just a text file that Claude can use to build a dashboard. 

This has been a huge help to me, as I treat my inbox as my to-do list sometimes. But it doesn’t just have to be emails. It can also be: 

1. Call summaries and transcripts from your call recorder
2. Podcast or YouTube video transcripts you save
3. Long-form notes or project documents

…or anything else you can think of. I’m using an Obsidian Vault (separate from my primary vault) for “AI Memory.” Anything I want Claude to access goes in there. And then I can run scheduled tasks on those folders and files as well. 

Getting the Full Picture

Idea capture has always been an important part of my systems. My family and friends have often praised me for my exceptional memory — and I do have a good memory. But part of the reason is because I’ve gotten into the habit of moving stuff out of my brain and into something more tangible (and less susceptible to change). 

I often hear, “if it’s important enough, I will remember it.” That’s patently untrue, but in the age of LLMs, it’s also completely unnecessary. Capturing all of your notes, emails, and tasks allows you to get a full picture of your work life and your business so that you can spend your time effectively. 

It sure beats doing work just for the sake of working, which is a waste of time, money, and resources. Like going to the grocery store without knowing what you need. 

1. Disclosure: I did a paid partnership with Todoist earlier this year…but only because they liked the content I was already making.  ↩︎
2. One of the reasons I love Todoist so much is the fantastic integrations. ↩︎