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How to handle emails that need attention later
Another day, another article on emptying the inbox. Unlike most, this one correctly diagnoses the major challenge in inbox management - dealing with action items that need attention later:
Hold it for later: This is the trickiest option. Some e-mail messages demand complicated answers. ... [and] will take longer than two minutes. Other messages simply require information not yet available.
Unfortunately, the article merely suggests flagging (in Outlook) or starring (in Gmail) the messages in the inbox. "Be careful to avoid letting many such messages pile up," it adds.
For many users that's not a workable solution. What happens if you have (as I do) dozens of followups awaiting your attention over the next weeks or months? Merely flagging inbox messages would fill up an entire screenful of the inbox - permanently.
I'm happy to see the problem correctly diagnosed - but journalists still need to understand the solution. Had I been contacted for the article (ahem!) I would have described that Outlook, Gootodo, and other todo lists offer a way to separate today's todo list from those of future days. Just move action items from the inbox to a proper todo list, and the inbox will be empty - and the action items nicely organized by day.
Coincidentally, just this week I got a note from someone who uses this solution - properly deferring todos to the future in the todo list, not the inbox - and just saw the results. Viveca writes:
Gootodo.com very definitely just got me a job. It reminded me to call someone I'd talked to a year ago to find out whether he wanted to hire my company at an annual event, and he said, "You must have ESP. I was just trying to deal with that now." I did admit my secret power was just a very good software program.
You'd be surprised at how easy this is. (Details in Bit Literacy, or just read the summary in Uncle Mark '09.)
See also:
• Lifehacker article on Gootodo
• It doesn't matter how often you check your email (commenting on another NYT article on this topic)
• The journalist's Technology Wish (commenting on another NYT article that... well, y'know)
I use quicklinks in gmail to accomplish this. File the email like normal but have a little list on the side of my email reminding me what action items I have outstanding.
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/3-gmail-labs-features-that-will-spice.html
I read that article, too, and thought, "Why isn't the author talking to Mark about this topic??"