Outlook follow-up flag equivalent for GMail?

larsh

GTD Connect
Hi all,

My company is "going Google" so I'll be switching from Outlook to GMail. I'm very happy about this overall but I am a big fan of the Follow-Up flag in Outlook. I've searched everywhere and can't seem to find the equivalent functionality in GMail - anyone have a suggestion for this? Are "Tasks" the best way to go (haven't investigated in detail if this can do the trick yet)?

I can use the labels, but really need day-specific reminders - don't want to review all my e-mail follow-ups on a daily basis.

Thanks,
Lars
 

larsh

GTD Connect
The best option I can currently come up with will be to create a "digital tickler file" using labels in GMail... But I'm hoping someone in here has a better suggestion ;)
 

BJCP

Registered
use the colored stars

Lars,
This isn't exactly the same as the follow-up feature in Outlook, but within your gmail preferences you can enable the "stars" to be lots of different colors. Then come up with your own system for how you want to use those. And then you can later sort by stars (just under "inbox" on your options at left of your main mail screen).
Hope this helps.
BJCP
 

ellobogrande

Registered
Here are some ideas:

  • Day-specific reminder on your calendar to follow up
  • Reminder note in your tickler file to follow up (if you have one)
  • Weekly Review (as you review your @Waiting For folder)
 

larsh

GTD Connect
Thanks a lot for the suggestions, guys!

I guess the stars could be one way of managing, perhaps using them to follow up for specific weeks by matching colors to weeks. Or perhaps I will have to use the weekly approach + calendar, as suggested. The only problem is that I consistently have around 40 follow-ups (managing a lot of projects these days) and there isn't an optimal solution really to ensure timely activity on those (other than a lot of calendar actions) - I'll see what I can come up with and post here again if I find a good solution.

Thanks again for your suggestions!
 
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