Well...duh! attaching notes to emails in outlook

[Eutychus]

I have been having great fun cleaning out my email inbox and sending messages to @action, @calls, etc. However, I have just noticed that these do not have their next actions attached to them. Because I didn't write them. OK so I am not the brightest bulb in the hall. But I cannot figure out how to get that next action on or into or otherwise associated with said email...Can this be done? How?

Best wishes,

 

[tim99]

What do you mean by "sending"?

What is the specific software description name of the thing that you are writing and saving your next actions in?

Are you writing a list of next actions, or a list of action items?

 

[Mark Jantzen]

Use Tasks?

One way is to copy the email into the Tasks folder which will create a new task. You can describe the next action in the Task and categorize it if you like.

Try it and see if that's the kind of direction you're looking for.

Mark

 

[Eutychus]

reply did not make it through...

hmm...apparently my somewhat extended reply did not make it to the forum...not a forum issue however. Had a couple of other problems at the same time.

Let me see if I can reproduce it in a shorter version. Better for all, probably.

Thank you for your suggestion. I did try copying to task. It will copy and can be categorized, etc. But cannot reply directly from task, or so I think at this point. I like being able to keep the emails as emails. Had hoped to be able to attach some kind of sticky note to them...Have not been successful thus far.

I did discover last night that I could attach a reminder to the email and edit it either before or after I put it in its @file. Seems a bit awkward...but it is closer to what I want. In the list of emails, right click on the one you want to notate, select "follow up", click on "add reminder", type your "next action" in the "flag to" box. Choose a follow up date (or none), drag it to its @file and you are done.

The downside of this is that the "next action/reminder" only appears in the body of the actual email. When you are looking for a couple of quick NA's to knock down, it is distracting to have to page through the emails. If a view could be arranged where these would be visible with the subject heading and sender, in the list of emails, it would work better with GTD, at least in my guestimation. "I can knock that out..." click, reply, type, send and you are done and on to the next one.

Interestingly, these emails with reminders show up in an Outlook "follow up" file as well as in GTD @folders I have set up. I can see a couple of ways to leverage this feature. But it sure would be nice for the next action text to appear in the list instead of just the body of the email.

Best wishes,

 

[whkratz]

Hi Eutychus -- Just use the Field Chooser to add the "Follow Up Flag" field to your listview of messages. This will display your Next Action text as you requested. As an alternative, you could create a new field in the folder for Next Action text that you just edit directly in the listview.

Regards.....Bill Kratz

 

[Eutychus]

mmm...more like it, how do it?

"Just use the Field Chooser to add the "Follow Up Flag" field to your listview of messages. This will display your Next Action text as you requested."

This is a big improvement.

"As an alternative, you could create a new field in the folder for Next Action text that you just edit directly in the listview."

This sounds more like what I am looking for. How do you do this?

Best wishes,

 

[Eutychus]

Just realized I misunderstood your question

What do you mean by "sending"?

What is the specific software description name of the thing that you are writing and saving your next actions in?

Are you writing a list of next actions, or a list of action items?

I am putting the emails in action folders @action, @calls, etc. as recommended by David Allen in GTD. Can't remember the chapter. In any event I am putting the whole email in there (drag and drop). I would like to tag a next action to it.

Best wishes,