Dear John I experimented a lot with both MLO, GTD-like structure of emails etc. And I must say I am still simplifying. At the beginning, I also tried to solve the problem of linking between email and MLO, but when I implemented the following system, I realized that this is not necessary, as I am able to find the relevant info/email in seconds
Currently, I use following email structure: Inbox Starred (action) Info Reference Memories > Internal > Def (Project folders only for most important projects) When emptying inbox: (1) for any email which I want to reply/forward later (or make any other action which is obvious and not necessary to put in MLO) and which is not very urgent or important - I put star on it and move it away from inbox (or, alternatively to @action folder instead of star). I use it also for "waiting for" emails. There are never so many emails to react (reply, wait for) that I would loose sight from it and thus I do not need more complicated (context) structure. Once/twice a day when I check my email, I also check "starred" items and decide if to do any action on them or to cancel the action (de-star) them. I have usually 10-20 starred emails at the moment. (2) for more important/urgent actionable emails, which I am not able to act on immediately - I star them AND I leave them in Inbox (it is not puristic GTD approach, but you can see the most important actions at first sight). If this email is also date sensitive or very important - I put a task in MLO (no referencing, no links - there are never too many so important emails, just 2-3 at the moment, so I am able to find it in Inbox/starred emails quickly). I found it UNPRODUCTIVE to put each email which I would like to react to MLO (or to put each task like "reply to the email" in MLO). This duplicates the information - putting to MLO only important tasks connected with emails is much more productive for me. (3) for any email which carries important TEMPORAL information which I can use later (e.g. I can use it during this stage of project, but I know I will probably not use this information in three months or a year), I put it to "Info" folder. In case it would be also actionable email (=reply, make direct action), I would also star it (or copy to @Action folder). I check "Info" folder from time to time and move away old emails with already not relevant information. Thus I still have around 20 emails in the folder. Using this system, it is not necessary to have special "project info" folders. But in case you use project folders, you can label email both by "project name" and "info". How I use it? When working on any task (and MLO task) which requires this information (e.g. call to somebody whose name was in the email, arrange something in the hotel which address I have in email) - I quickly have a look in "info" folder and am able to find the information in 10 seconds. After some time of using the system, it is very easy to identify the emails which information you might use later when working on the project. Putting it in special folder (Info) and not to confuse these emails with actionable emails is very important to stay effective for me. (4) for any email carrying long-term important information (passwords, directions, instructions, links), which I do not want to (or I am lazy to) put in my database, I put in "Reference" folder. (5) for any email, carrying high personal value - I put in "Memories" (6) for any email, on which I would like to make "internal" action, which is not aimed toward important results in the project - I put in "Internal" folder and I am NOT starring it. Thus I filter out irrelevant actions (to save the attachment to my PC, check if the statement is OK, to put the email information into my contact database etc., to think over the not so important suggestion) - which I can do when I have enough time - from real, relevant actions (stars). (7) the last folder is "Def" and all emails which might require action later or belong to someday/maybe category are labeled as such (=deferred). Maybe it looks complicated at first reading, but it is the result of many years of implementing and simplifying my task management approaches and it is really effective when getting used to it. It also helps me tremendously to stay in sync between my task management (MLO) and emails. So maybe you could use something from it. Best Daneb On Jun 25, 5:55 pm, JohnP <[email protected]> wrote: > How do you use MLO and email folders to GTD? > > My email folder structure is > - Inbox > - @Action > - @WaitingFor > - Someday > - Archive > - Project1 Reference > - Project2 Reference > > When using my email I keep my Inbox empty by dragging emails to the > appropriate female older. > > I also use MLO to manage my tasks using standard GTD contexts with > folder structure according to areas of focus then projects, etc. > > The problem I have is that sometimes I work from MLO, and refer to > email project folders. Sometimes I work from my email @Action folder > and not always cross check with MLO. > > I don't want to use Outlook sync as I often use webmail or > Thunderbird. But I don't mind dragging from email to MLO. > > What is the best way of operating in this way. Or perhaps there is a > better way to keep both in sync whilst keeping on top of everything. > > John -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mylifeorganized?hl=en.
