Capture to-dos into Obsidian by email, from anywhere

The short answer

Every phone already has a capture tool built in: the mail app. Write the task in the subject, add #todo, send. That's five seconds, and the task is out of your head and on its way to your vault.

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   Step 1: Save your ingest address as a contact

   Add your private Email2Obsidian address to your phone's contacts under a short name like "Vault", so it's two letters away in any mail app.
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   Step 2: Write the task as the subject, tags at the end

   Start a new email to Vault and type the task in the subject line, then your tags: "Call the bank #todo #finance". The body can stay empty or hold extra details.
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   Step 3: Send it and carry on

   The next time the plugin fetches (manually, on a schedule, or when your vault opens), the task is in your vault as a note titled "Call the bank" with the tags todo and finance.

Why quick capture is hard on a phone

A task shows up at the worst moment: in line at the pharmacy, halfway through a walk, as you're locking the car. To get it into Obsidian, you pick up your phone, open the app, wait for the vault to load, find your inbox note, and type. By the time the cursor is blinking, the thought is half gone.

Dedicated capture apps help, but many are tied to one platform, and you end up with yet another inbox to empty. Email is already on every phone you'll ever own. The mail app opens fast, it's one tap from your home screen, and it doesn't care whether your vault is open.

Ways to send a task

A contact named "Vault"

The simplest setup, and the one most people stick with. Save your ingest address as a contact called "Vault." New email, type "Va," pick it, write the task as the subject, send. No body needed.

An iOS Shortcut

For true one-tap capture on iPhone, build a Shortcut that asks for text, adds #todo to the end, and uses the "Send Email" action from your own mail account to your ingest address. It works because the email comes from you. You can put the Shortcut on your Home Screen, or on the Action Button if your iPhone has one. Step-by-step setup is in set up quick capture on iPhone and Android.

Android

Any mail app that can send email works. Many Android launchers and mail apps let you add a home screen shortcut that opens a new message, so you can save your ingest address as a contact and get close to one tap.

Desktop

At your computer, write a new email in whatever client you already use. If a task comes to mind mid-meeting, it's quicker than switching windows to find the right note.

What lands in your vault

One note per task, tagged and in the folder you picked. Tags with more than one word aren't a good idea here: a tag runs until the next #, and spaces inside it become underscores, so keep each tag to one word.

Make tasks show up in your task system

Getting the task into the vault is our job. Turning it into the task list you check each morning is your Obsidian setup, and a few common pieces fit well together:

• An Inbox folder. Set it as the destination folder in the plugin settings so new captures are easy to triage.
• Your own template. If you want each note to start with a checkbox line or a status property, put it in the note template you choose in the plugin settings.
• A query. If you use the Tasks plugin, Dataview or Bases, a view of notes tagged #todo pulls every emailed task into one list.

Already happy with the Tasks plugin? Good. Email capture doesn't replace it. It just gives you a faster way to get things into the vault when you're away from your desk.

Forwarding emails as tasks

A lot of to-dos start as someone else's email. Forward Sam's message to your ingest address and change the subject to Reply to Sam about contract #todo. The note keeps Sam's email as the body, and any attachments (the contract draft, say) are attached and embedded in it, up to 25 MB. Remember to delete the "Fwd:" prefix while you're editing the subject, since it isn't removed for you.

Good to know

It's not instant. Notes arrive the next time the plugin fetches: when you trigger it, on a schedule you set, or when your vault opens. An email waits on our servers for up to 72 hours, so fetching on vault open or on a schedule keeps you covered. The plugin works in Obsidian on mobile too, so your phone's vault can pick up the task as well as your desktop's.

There's a daily cap. Paid plans accept up to 200 emails a day, and Free accepts 10. That's far more tasks than anyone should have in a day.

Pick a realistic plan. The Free plan's 10 emails are lifetime, not monthly, so it's for trying the habit, not for daily use. If you capture a few tasks a day, Starter (300 emails a month for $2.49) is the plan that fits. See pick a plan for daily capture.