Converting Outlook Email to Outlook Task

[ArcCaster]

Hi

My email often inspires next actions that cannot be accomplished in less than two minutes. The same email contains information to be acted on.

So, I create a new task and store the email in a folder to be referenced when I do the task.

It would save me a step if I could save the email to a task, putting both the next action and the background information in a single place.

How do I do this?

Thanks,
Rob

 

[kelstarrising]

Hi Rob,

Right-click on the email from the Inbox and drag it over to the Tasks bar. Select Copy or Move as an attachment. If you left-click on the email and drag it to Tasks, it sends it over as text only.

This is all outlined in detailed in the new Outlook whitepapers, which were updated this summer:

http://www.davidco.com/store/catalog/NEW-GTD-and-Outlook-2007-p-16426.php
http://www.davidco.com/store/catalog/GTD-and-Outlook-2003-NEW-Contains-Updated-Material-p-16173.php

Cheers,

Kelly

 

[vortechs2000]

The easiest way to do it is to right click and drag the email to your task folder - this will pop up a menu that lets you:

Copy to Task with Text
Copy to Task with Attachment
Move to Task with Attachment

I generally use the Move option.

 

[ArcCaster]

Move it is! This is GREAT!

Thanks Kelly and Vortechs

Rob

 

[charoen]

Taking it a step further...

I take this technique a step further by combining my Outlook Inbox and Sent Mail folders as one search folder. This search folder that contains both my Inbox and Sent Mail is my primary Outlook inbox. Doing so, allows me to:

1.) Have 'inbox visibility' to my email requests. As I process my Outlook inbox, I attach my email requests to tasks that are categorized as @Waiting For. This allows me to quickly reference the email request when following up on the request.

2.) More immediately process my sent mail. I file my sent mail with my received mail in their respective folders. All my mail by is arranged by Conversation (like gmail). This method is good for referencing because the entire conversation (including my sent mail) is grouped together.

I encourage you to do the same!

Tien

 

[ArcCaster]

A related mystery:

With ctrl/shift v, I can move an email to a selected folder. I use this all the time. Specifically, this brings up a 'Move item to' dialog box with a list of folders that I can move a message into.

Somehow, along with my new habits of moving information from one type of format, such as email, to another, such as tasks, my 'Move item to' dialog box now contains, in addition to email folders (with their folder icon), items with a calendar icon, and items with a task icon. I can move email into those task and calendar icons, but, I do not know how to display them or recover them. That is, they do not show up as mail folders. How should I look for them?

Thanks,
Rob