I just read this hint, about creating Outlook-like reminders for Mail, and thought I would submit my variation on this that I created a few weeks ago. I liked the functionality of creating reminders from e-mail messages and having the link for the message in the reminder, but the requirement of dragging and dropping killed it for me.
So I created an Automator service and AppleScript that gives me the exact same result but with a keyboard shortcut so I never have to leave Mail.
Create a new Automator service.
Select "Service receives no input."
Add Get Selected Mail Items and select Messages in the drop down menu.
Add Run AppleScript and paste in the following script:
on run {input, parameters}
tell application "Mail"
set _sel to selection
set _links to {}
set the _message to item 1 ¬
of the _sel
set theSubject to subject of _message
set message_id to the message id of the _message
end tell
set message_url to "message://%3c" & message_id & "%3e"
set end of _links to message_url
set the clipboard to (_links as string)
set theBody to the clipboard
tell application "Reminders"
set theReminder to make new reminder with properties {name:theSubject, body:theBody, priority:1}
end tell
return input
end run
Save the service, add a shortcut, and you're done.
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20120911083449814