Email threads/conversation processing

A

Adawdy

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I'm just starting gate out with GTD and am designing my system. I'm using outlook and have a plan for translating emails into next action tasks, but not sure how to handle longer threads or conversations.

Several scenarios I'm not sure how to handle:
1) a dozen emails come in from various people before I decide I need to take action. How do I keep this thread accessible to the next action task? I may need all the pieces to complete the action. I might be able to attach all the emails to the task, but open to other ideas.

2) I create an action based on an email that comes in, but before I complete the action, 5 more emails come in from others. I could go to my task and manually attach each oth the new emails, but is there an easier way?

3) Similarly, I may send a task out to mulltiple people, and enter it as a single task with context of @waiting. I can only take the next step when I have inputs from each of the people on the list. Again, attach the responses to the task? or is there a smarter way.

The only other things I can think of are creating new categories or folders for each task. But I expect that would explode them beyond managing.

Would very much appreciate e communities thoughts.

Thanks.
 
I keep the supporting material in the relevant folder for that project or activity. When I am working on the action, I know where the supporting material is so I can easily go and review all the emails associated with it.

For waiting for items where there are multiple people involved, I don't check off the waiting for until I have the input from all of those that I require. In the meantime, the information from those that have responded goes into the supporting folder. Again, once I have it all and it becomes a next action for me, I know where to look.

While this might seem like a lot of folders - it works well for me and I've been using this method for years without an issue with too many folders.

Jenn
 
I too manage well without a system for direct links between actions and supporting material.

In fact, I would not want such links, because I would not want to make an exception just for email. I have many different kinds of support and reference material, and I need to be able to find any of it at any time in the near or distant future, regardless of whether I currently have any actions associated with it or not. This means I must be able to depend on its organization. And since I can depend on it, I do not need any special links.

Besides, I prefer not have to read emails more than once. I normally do not even forward emails to my todo app, but read and analyze and decide ("process") and enter as necessary into my todo app via the keyboard, appropriately phrased as actions and sometimes with comments containing extracted information from the email, such as a date or phone number. There is not always a one-to-one relationship between email and action. Sometimes a single email (or phone conversation or other interaction) can give rise to multiple actions on my list. Equally commonly, I can have lots of interactions concerning things that are already on my lists. Sometimes the additional interactions cause me to amend the existing actions, e.g. add a comment, sometimes not.
 
Adawdy said:
I'm just starting gate out with GTD and am designing my system. I'm using outlook and have a plan for translating emails into next action tasks, but not sure how to handle longer threads or conversations.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I too tried using Outlook's features to translate emails to tasks. It only took a couple of times searching unsuccessfully for one of those emails to decide that I do not want to translate -- it was an email, I remember it as an email, and I want to be able to find it as an email -- so, rather than translate, I cut and paste the relevant info into a task, and move the email(s) into a support folder. It is often useful to know exactly WHERE each input came from; I often don't know in advance, so I save such emails -- useful for follow-up conversations.

My emails are automatically deleted after a year.

So, anything I think is kinda permanent must go into my file system. Less permanent things get cleaned up automatically.
 
I do not forward emails to my task system at all. I process the email and record the NA(s) in the task system with as much information as I think I need. I know where to find the email if I need it later. If I expect to be replying to the email as part of my action, I put it in my !Action-Support folder.

Adawdy said:
3) Similarly, I may send a task out to mulltiple people, and enter it as a single task with context of @waiting. I can only take the next step when I have inputs from each of the people on the list. Again, attach the responses to the task? or is there a smarter way.
Click to expand...

For these kinds of waiting-fors I will sometimes put a checklist of who I need to hear from in the task details section and mark them off as done when I hear from them. This way I can see at a glance who to follow-up with rather than looking through a bunch of emails to find the two that didn't yet respond.
 
Thanks all for the responses. The dialog is very helpful in allowing me to work through the problem.

Upon further reflection, I realize my deeper problem is a lack of faith in my email filing system. If I put something in a folder, I fear I won't be able to remember where I put it, and it will get lost. It likely comes from previous failures and difficult tools. Over time, I have become proficient at searching/filtering to find things. With new tools (just migrated from Notes to Outlook) I need to give filing another shot.

Again, thanks for all the help and feedback.
 
I generally put the task in my task list, put the email in my unsorted archive of all emails for the year, and include in the task enough information to search for the email. ("Research Widget bug. See email conversation "can't find widget" between me, John, started 3/10/15.")
 
This way I can see at a glance who to follow-up with rather than looking through a bunch of emails to find the two that didn't yet respond.
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dolii
 
I use IQTELL. It has macros to convert emails into waiting fors or actions, ability to link to existing tasks and projects.Thats the maij reason I use IQTELLL
 
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