projects and reference filing of email and digital files

[yue]

Hello everyone,
what is still unclear to me as a beginner in GTD for work and personal life:
Which solutions exists to organize ones files in a unified folder structure, whether they be emails or digital files in any form?

Using emails in their own ecosystem seems to work fine, but there are always some additional digital files that I'd like to keep in the same folder as a bunch of related emails. Jumping back and forth between file explorer and email client seems to be sub-optimal.

I wonder whether there is something like a combined email-client and file explorer for desktop PC.

Does anybody have some ideas on how to solve this or know about an existing solution?

Thanks a lot for your feedback!

 

[gtdstudente]

Hello everyone,
what is still unclear to me as a beginner in GTD for work and personal life:
Which solutions exists to organize ones files in a unified folder structure, whether they be emails or digital files in any form?

Using emails in their own ecosystem seems to work fine, but there are always some additional digital files that I'd like to keep in the same folder as a bunch of related emails. Jumping back and forth between file explorer and email client seems to be sub-optimal.

I wonder whether there is something like a combined email-client and file explorer for desktop PC.

Does anybody have some ideas on how to solve this or know about an existing solution?

Thanks a lot for your feedback!

@yue

A worthy 'Beginner' consideration?

1. W H O C A R E S < = > D I G I T A L

2. P R I V A T E < = > P A P E R

As you see GTD fit

 

[Lucas W.]

I suggest to consider if the "bunch" of emails are your real Reference or Support Materials or you are just trying to gather and organize in one place all of the information related to a given issue. If the latter option is true for you then please back to the book to the Reference and Support Materials definitions.

Personally I have realized that there are not so many emails which are real Reference Materials – so I save those emails in my folders on OneDrive – those are for instance the company’s procedures.

The Support Materials should support your next actions or projects planning and what I suggest is to combine them in your list manager as a subject of the email (if they are emails) or folder name (if they are files). Please check the below example:

 

[DKPhoto]

Hello everyone,
what is still unclear to me as a beginner in GTD for work and personal life:
Which solutions exists to organize ones files in a unified folder structure, whether they be emails or digital files in any form?

Using emails in their own ecosystem seems to work fine, but there are always some additional digital files that I'd like to keep in the same folder as a bunch of related emails. Jumping back and forth between file explorer and email client seems to be sub-optimal.

I wonder whether there is something like a combined email-client and file explorer for desktop PC.

Does anybody have some ideas on how to solve this or know about an existing solution?

Thanks a lot for your feedback!

I don’t see email clients as a long term storage solution.

I am on a Mac but i see no reason why it shouldn’t be the same on a pc.

I drag emails to a folder in finder (I actually use Eaglefiler because it uses the Mac system) and it will store a .eml file which I would be staggered if the Windows OS can’t read. The worst case is that it opens in your email client, but is still very readable.

That way you can file all the project support together (PDFs, Word documents, photos, emails etc), without needing any proprietary software.

You can organise the folder structure in the best way to suit you.

 

[yue]

I suggest to consider if the "bunch" of emails are your real Reference or Support Materials or you are just trying to gather and organize in one place all of the information related to a given issue. If the latter option is true for you then please back to the book to the Reference and Support Materials definitions.

I was exactly talking about information needed to reach a projects goal. For example a quotation (as pdf) and a reply from support to my complaint related to that.

The Support Materials should support your next actions or projects planning and what I suggest is to combine them in your list manager as a subject of the email (if they are emails) or folder name (if they are files). Please check the below example:

View attachment 1849

That might be a good workaround for the time being. I was hoping to find something more elegant and usable than that though.

 

[yue]

@yue

A worthy 'Beginner' consideration?

1. W H O C A R E S < = > D I G I T A L

2. P R I V A T E < = > P A P E R

As you see GTD fit

That's not quite what I tried to ask about. But sure: Using paper for things that you don't want anyone to know about seems like a good idea.

 

[yue]

I drag emails to a folder [...] and it will store a .eml file [...]. The worst case is that it opens in your email client, but is still very readable.

What a great solution, thank you very much! I guess I will go with this approach.

 

[HelenM]

Hello everyone,
what is still unclear to me as a beginner in GTD for work and personal life:
Which solutions exists to organize ones files in a unified folder structure, whether they be emails or digital files in any form?

Using emails in their own ecosystem seems to work fine, but there are always some additional digital files that I'd like to keep in the same folder as a bunch of related emails. Jumping back and forth between file explorer and email client seems to be sub-optimal.

I wonder whether there is something like a combined email-client and file explorer for desktop PC.

Does anybody have some ideas on how to solve this or know about an existing solution?

Thanks a lot for your feedback!

I would just save the email into the folder with the rest of the files. I generally just set up a folder structure in OneDrive and pop everything in there.