Multiple inboxes, devices and calenders

[chrisstribbs]

Hi
I currently have two work inboxes as a freelance consultant and used to find having 3 was overwhelming.
I would ideally like all my mailboxes to flow to one main account. However , one doesn't allow mail forwarding and
I have to use in webmail. There's a new contract requirement to use a new laptop and separate email address. I haven't got these yet.

I was asked to do some associate work for someone I worked with who has moved companies. This means a fourth email address and a calendar. Their client management team want to book appointments in the diary for you.

My availability is very fluid. I book my own clients for most of my other work and hold everything in my Gmail calendar. Invites are sent from the relevant email and calendar. One company asks me for dates to offer clients ; might have to return to holding these as tentative.

I have little time for other work and therefore want to keep processing time low. I thought I would only check the new inboxes and calendar each week in my review. I know that I'll need to do that more often. I have already asked and its a requirement to have the new device and email accounts. I might get a switch to connect the extra device to my desktop to use.

My husband said to check email once a day and perhaps I might add that to an out of office.
Anyone in a similar situation or has any thoughts how to make this work?

 

[mcogilvie]

In general, I think it is best when possible to use an email client and calendar app which consolidate accounts to give one unified email inbox and one unified calendar. If that’s not possible, I would charge more due the added overhead and inconvenience. You need to bill for processing time, if you aren’t already, and make time for it every day.

 

[chrisstribbs]

In general, I think it is best when possible to use an email client and calendar app which consolidate accounts to give one unified email inbox and one unified calendar. If that’s not possible, I would charge more due the added overhead and inconvenience. You need to bill for processing time, if you aren’t already, and make time for it every day.

Thanks for the reply. I might enquire about charging to see what the response is. It is likely that they won't pay it, as it will be seen as a requirement to do the work.

 

[Neirbos]

I use Calendly for availability. You can link multiple calendars to an account to find availability across them all, but have them book via one.

Have a separate Calendly link for each client, but the availability is consolidated.

 

[chrisstribbs]

I use Calendly for availability. You can link multiple calendars to an account to find availability across them all, but have them book via one.

Have a separate Calendly link for each client, but the availability is consolidated.

Thank you, I was in contact with Calendly. You can book via separate calendars but not integrate different teams accounts.

 

[chrisstribbs]

Yikes, I was given a new 355 account today. Tried to setup and test email forwarding which isn't working.

 

[radioman]

Thanks for the reply. I might enquire about charging to see what the response is. It is likely that they won't pay it, as it will be seen as a requirement to do the work.

Do you charge by the project (fixed-price contract) or by the hour?

If by the hour, I see no need to inquire as to charging for processing time. That's merely time spent to accomplish the project, and it adds to the hours worked on it.

If fixed price, when initiating or renewing a contract, include the additional effort in the proposal that you provide.

 

[chrisstribbs]

Do you charge by the project (fixed-price contract) or by the hour?

If by the hour, I see no need to inquire as to charging for processing time. That's merely time spent to accomplish the project, and it adds to the hours worked on it.

If fixed price, when initiating or renewing a contract, include the additional effort in the proposal that you provide.

Thank you. It's Disability services and in the sector you're paid a flat rate per session that includes all the work for the client. I have agreed a higher rate than previously but I don't think I have justification to ask for pay to process. I do include in some project work an allowance to process after e g. Time spent to organise and act after meetings.

 

[chrisstribbs]

Oh dear < whatever you believe in > here. I now have a fourth work email account. I can only think of trying to limit the communication and use of the extra accounts and hope that little time-sensitive info is sent there. I am not allowed to forward email. I would ideally prefer just 2 accounts or an email to say a message has arrived to check the account.

 

[cfoley]

Have you tried saying "no" to the extra email accounts and calendars? Contracts can be negotiated. You could come back with an additional admin overhead to use their email and calendar, but also suggest that you use your own email as an alternative for no extra charge. I suggest the amount that you charge should be large enough that you are genuinely happy to check their email account each day.

This way, you are not saying no directly but are offering options at different price points. When they query it, you can tell them about that crazy time when you had four email accounts and calendars and spent more time checking them than doing the work. Everyone loves a good war story. If they really do need you to use their email then there is an option for that, and it is one that you would be happy with.

 

[chrisstribbs]

Thanks for your post, much appreciated. I was sent the details to another 365 account in relation to sharing a technical issue. I was the first freelancer on a very big contract. I was originally told that I wouldn't be allowed to increase my own security and would have to have an additional device (one person has been given another laptop and email /365 account). The additional device talk seems to have stopped. Other than to see if this account resolves an issue, I have not yet been given other instructions to use.
I will prioritise communication in my main account. I guess I'll have to monitor it for a while. Actually not working on the contract is an option; the referral company have said they will give me other work and I have a good amount of other freelance work. Some of the work to build the team might make sense if we are all in the same domain for sharepoint access etc.

I was also told that both accounts were being setup. I can't see the value in each organisation paying for an Office 365 basics account. One company is yet to give me any work, I'll have two meetings next week to setup myself with them. The hiring manager (who I worked with before) said there won't be many referrals for their team to book into my calendar from them.

 

[Oogiem]

I now have a fourth work email account

OK I have to wade in here now, mostly because I'm stalled on my projects and need some time away from them. Forums can be a relaxing break for me.

Here's a different take on it. I can't possibly manage without multiple email accounts. I use them to segregate my inputs and many can then be automatically filed as appropriate. Rght now I have 29 separate email accounts. I can choose to see their inputs all at once in a single big inbox or I can look only at certain ones. I am a board memeber in several organizations. Those each have their own separate email account. I would not want to mix that stuff into my personal email. Similarly I have several roles I fulfill that require I be in a certain context to handle the inputs. So I have an email account that collects all those things into one separate folder/inbox for me and I can process and handle them as a batch much more easily. And a last case I have some things where I am temporarily receiving emails. That is like a separate client for freelance work. I want all their stuff isolated so when the job is done I can easily archive it, along with any calendars and other items of support material or the final product. Or when I was working at one job multiple email accounts one for each project were the norm. Made it all much easier to track and follow the conversations that way.

Similarly I have lots of separate calendars. I've used them for billing clients and to separate out my work by AOF so I can easily see how I am spending my time. I also have separate calendars for major projects, more important when the hours were billable, but I find it useful even now when working on my own projects.

Multiple emails and calendars can help prevent inadvertantly sending messages out that go to the wrong client or person. It's added insurance against my fumble fingered typing of email addresses.

 

[chrisstribbs]

I use Calendly for availability. You can link multiple calendars to an account to find availability across them all, but have them book via one.

Have a separate Calendly link for each client, but the availability is consolidated.

OK I have to wade in here now, mostly because I'm stalled on my projects and need some time away from them. Forums can be a relaxing break for me.

Here's a different take on it. I can't possibly manage without multiple email accounts. I use them to segregate my inputs and many can then be automatically filed as appropriate. Rght now I have 29 separate email accounts. I can choose to see their inputs all at once in a single big inbox or I can look only at certain ones. I am a board memeber in several organizations. Those each have their own separate email account. I would not want to mix that stuff into my personal email. Similarly I have several roles I fulfill that require I be in a certain context to handle the inputs. So I have an email account that collects all those things into one separate folder/inbox for me and I can process and handle them as a batch much more easily. And a last case I have some things where I am temporarily receiving emails. That is like a separate client for freelance work. I want all their stuff isolated so when the job is done I can easily archive it, along with any calendars and other items of support material or the final product. Or when I was working at one job multiple email accounts one for each project were the norm. Made it all much easier to track and follow the conversations that way.

Similarly I have lots of separate calendars. I've used them for billing clients and to separate out my work by AOF so I can easily see how I am spending my time. I also have separate calendars for major projects, more important when the hours were billable, but I find it useful even now when working on my own projects.

Multiple emails and calendars can help prevent inadvertantly sending messages out that go to the wrong client or person. It's added insurance against my fumble fingered typing of email addresses.

Thank you for responding, much appreciated. I agree with the positive attributes, for me I have such little time between delivery appointments to process emails and write reports so really don't want to add to it. I think I prefer to see a clear picture of all my inboxes (not possible) to avoid spending time on low priority stuff.

I am also dealing with clinically low processing speed, concentration and memory (Neurodivergent) and exacerbated through chronic health conditions (essentially fibromyalgia). The technology I have helps, although sometimes needs repair.

 

[Håvard Pedersen]

I probably doesn't solve anything, but I found adding direct links to alle the inboxes in a bookmark folder in my browser helps. That way I can easily right-click the bookmark folder and open them all in tabs. This makes it a bit faster to scan them.

 

[chrisstribbs]

Given that this email now requires monitoring, I think I will check it at least twice a day.
I struggle with not seeing the whole picture to be organised effectively. I did a mind sweep of what I know at present Friday night.
Any tips for organising within this framework?

 

[gtdstudente]

Given that this email now requires monitoring, I think I will check it at least twice a day.
I struggle with not seeing the whole picture to be organised effectively. I did a mind sweep of what I know at present Friday night.
Any tips for organising within this framework?

Elsewhere in the GTD Forum, recently posted personalized GTD Framework for Persons/Vitality > Healthy

If wanted, happy to re-post here as well, thank you

 

[chrisstribbs]

Elsewhere in the GTD Forum, recently posted personalized GTD Framework for Persons/Vitality > Healthy

If wanted, happy to re-post here as well, thank you

Please

 

[gtdstudente]

Please

This is a copy without color-coding

On this end . . . 'Outcome' is bundled with 'Visioning' as "Visional Outcome" for 'everything', for the following levels and assigned attributes

3. Areas-of-Focus (Five General Areas-of-Focus [Divine, Persons, Engineering, Decorations/Tools=Utilities, Fiscal] guided by Purposes):
Persons / Vitality

2. Projects (Five Particular Areas-of-Focus [As, Healthy, Toxic, Props, Provisions] guided by Values and often by Decrease/Empty and Increase/Fill):
Healthy

1. Next Actions (guided by Operating Prudent Principles):
Avoid Sugars, Eat Nutritious Complex-Carbs and Lean-Proteins, Drink Fresh-Water, Physical Strengthening through Domestic-Chores, Walking, ect.

As one's see's GTD fit to be as flexibly-fit as possible, thank you

 

[chrisstribbs]

Hi
So I took on two new inboxes. One gets hardly any traffic and one I don't use. I left a freelance role where I was treated appallingly and I have much less overall traffic now. That's 3 inboxes for work, with only one that has alot of input. The case management booking for me doesn't seem to work, so still thinking about it.

 

[chrisstribbs]

I use Calendly for availability. You can link multiple calendars to an account to find availability across them all, but have them book via one.

Have a separate Calendly link for each client, but the availability is consolidated.

Any benefits to using this compared to 365? I think I can Bookings to get one company to book. Another could use it for availability and then book in my calendar for them.