M
Murphybp2
Guest
I am working on getting GTD fully up and running. I'm currently trying to figure out the best method for me to file my emails. When I first started using outlook, I would have tons of different folders and sub-folders to file emails. I eventually found that to be a bit problematic as many times I would forget where I would put something and would have to search multiple places, or run an advanced search in outlook to find the item.
Then I decided to keep all the emails in folders by date, broken down in quarters. So I would have one folder for all the emails in first quarter, another folder for second quarter and so on. That helped some as I would have all the emails in one place, and I could just change my sorts to find what I was looking for. But sometimes I would still have to look through a number of emails to find what I'm looking for.
I am now using Outlook 2003, which has some advanced features, such as search folders that make things a bit easier. The only modification I have made to my filing system by date, is that I know use my categories as a sort of folder. That way I still have all the emails in one place, and can resort them by sender If I need to, but I can then view them by category to get a view of them broken down in their own buckets. The only draw back I see at this point is that I'm going to end up having a huge list of categories. Also if I ever have to log into a computer that isn't my own at work, I have to reload my categories to the registry. I've thought about going back to individual folders and having them alphabetically like my paper system, but I'll lose the ability to resort emails by sender. I could set up a search folder to find items by a particular person, but that could become a pain.
So I was hoping to get some feedback on how some other GTD users have their email filing systems set up, and if you think my method will work, or if there are some problems I may have overlooked. Thanks. I can't wait till I get this thing running smoothly.
Then I decided to keep all the emails in folders by date, broken down in quarters. So I would have one folder for all the emails in first quarter, another folder for second quarter and so on. That helped some as I would have all the emails in one place, and I could just change my sorts to find what I was looking for. But sometimes I would still have to look through a number of emails to find what I'm looking for.
I am now using Outlook 2003, which has some advanced features, such as search folders that make things a bit easier. The only modification I have made to my filing system by date, is that I know use my categories as a sort of folder. That way I still have all the emails in one place, and can resort them by sender If I need to, but I can then view them by category to get a view of them broken down in their own buckets. The only draw back I see at this point is that I'm going to end up having a huge list of categories. Also if I ever have to log into a computer that isn't my own at work, I have to reload my categories to the registry. I've thought about going back to individual folders and having them alphabetically like my paper system, but I'll lose the ability to resort emails by sender. I could set up a search folder to find items by a particular person, but that could become a pain.
So I was hoping to get some feedback on how some other GTD users have their email filing systems set up, and if you think my method will work, or if there are some problems I may have overlooked. Thanks. I can't wait till I get this thing running smoothly.