Email – Stop the Insanity – Part 2

Tasks For GTD Titans!

From Part 1, you'll remember that I end up with only two buckets (Calendar and Tasks) for all my action items:. If it doesn't have to be at a specific time it ends up on the Task List for me.

To move an email to the Task list (using Outlook), I right-click and drag it, and drop it on the Task icon. Next,  I choose the last option which moves the whole email intact (including attachments) and converts it to a Task. Then I enter a prefix (A:, F:, or P:), press tab and use Speed Dating to enter the date, select a Category, and press CTRL+S to Save. I know it sounds complicated but it only takes a few seconds to accomplish.

For more information see Michael Linenbeger's Total Workday Control Using Microsoft Outlook: The Eight Best Practices of Task and E-Mail Management. Most of these ideas started with him.

If you're an Outlook user, chances are you don't use the Tasks. I didn't before reading Linenberger's book. Out of the box, the Task List is almost useless. Once you get it set up right, you won't want to live without it.

I have over 300 Tasks on my list. But . . . on a daily basis, I only look at the ones I want to see for that day. Also, I mark the ones that must be done on a certain day as urgent. I rarely have more than 3 urgent items in a day.

Reading David Allen's Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, was life changing for me. Reading Linenberger's book moved me to an even higher level of productivity.

Try the process and see if it's not faster for you.

Let me know how it works for you or what you do that works better.

See also:

• Email - Stop the Insanity - Part 1

• Email - Stop the Insanity - Part 3