Daily Battles: Avoid Clicking the Wrong Button (Add to Tasks) in Google Gmail

Google really wanted to promote their Google Task app, so they added a button called Add to Tasks to the Gmail inbox user interface. And they intentionally put it right next to the Move to button (which I use frequently), so people will accidentally click the wrong button and then get sent to the Google Tasks user interface.

THIS IS JUST DRIVING ME NUTS!!!

And guess what, there's NO WAY to remove that button from the menu. Absolutely NO WAY.

Well, since Google removed the "Don't Be Evil" clause from their corporate code of conduct in 2018, this does not surprise me a bit.

Google is in some kind of a hot seat with the recent news of Google firing prominent AI Ethics researchers, and Samy Bengio resigns as a form of protest. So I don't think they'll care too much about my ranting here.

Google UI Sucks!!

And they just forced me to move my Google WiFi into Google Home, and now the UI Sucks Big Time!!

Anyway, back to the main point of this blog. I finally figured out a way to deal with this inconvenience of clicking Add to Tasks by mistake (and then requires multiple clicks to correct it). And I hope for others who feel just as frustrated as me, this can be of some help!

BTW: I tried changing buttons from text to icon. Not really helpful. I still click the wrong icon. But you can still give that a try. Here's what I recommend:

Solution:

The solution is to use customized keyboard shortcuts!

If you click the gear icon on the top right corner of Gmail to go into the Settings screen, find a button on the menu called Advanced and click that. Then find the entry called Custom keyboard shortcuts and enable it. Don't forget to save.

Now if you go back into the Settings screen, you'll see a new button in the menu called Keyboard Shortcuts. Click that to see your current keyboard shortcuts. You can also create your own. I am just happy with the default one, so I can just click the key V to open the Move to dropdown menu and avoid clicking the stupid Add to Tasks button.

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Video of the Day:

30 Days Timelapse from a Cargo Ship

Corporations are just evil. So don't expect them to Do No Evil. 







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