Here is the first part of a post on the collection of Gmail features, scripts, gadgets and plugins I have tried out that I have found useful and that I thought I would share with you.

Task Lists

Remember the Milk is my to-do list manager of choice and I was delighted to learn they had a Firefox extension that integrated this nicely into Gmail. Gmail labs themselves have a RTM gadget which I found didn’t have as many features as RTM’s but still had its good points.

Gmail themselves have implemented a much requested feature of integrated task manager where you can manage your tasks, email tasks to yourself etc and hopefully in the future will tie your tasks in with Google Calendar, but as it still lacks a lot of features,  so I won’t be switching over just yet.

Twitter

I’ve installed TwitterGadget for Gmail which give me a small twitter window inside Gmail’s sidebar. From this you can send tweets, shorten URL’s, see your latest tweets; basically do many of the tasks you would expect. It’s handy to not have to leave Gmail to tweet but I can’t say I would use it ahead of Tweetdeck.

Shortcuts

Lifehacker had a post recently on a GCompose script you can install that will save you valuable seconds but to be honest, as one of the commenters pointed out, you can create a bookmark such as this and add it to your bookmarks toolbar.

Stay tuned for the next part of this post in the near future in which I’ll cover a few more Gmail features I have found useful. Please feel free to add your comments and suggestions.