Sticky Notes for MS Outlook?

[Tom126]

I recently moved from Thunderbird to MS Outlook for managing my e-mail, and regret only one thing: in Thunderbird, I had a great little add in that allowed me to add a "sticky note," private to me, to any e-mail, which I would use for recording the next action associated with e-mails that I was putting into my @Action folder. But I can't find an equivalent feature in Outlook? There are reminders, but they are dated, which is not what I want -- I'm after a simpler/more elegant solution if possible. Anyone?

Thanks,

Tom

 

[bcmyers2112]

In Outlook you can simply edit the subject line of received emails. Whatever you add won't be private and you'll have to remember to delete it before replying or forwarding. But it seems to fit your criteria for "simpler/more elegant." Hope that helps.

 

[Folke]

Just testing if I can respond here - I got stuck in another thread with an "Empty Response" message.

So it worked

But I tried two different threads in the Discuss GTD forum, and did not succeed. :-(

 

[Tom126]

Thanks for that suggestion... but I think I'd likely end up committing some kind of faux pas by forgetting to change the subject line back before replying! any other ideas...???

 

[bcmyers2112]

Actually I have one more suggestion up my sleeve. You can turn the email into a task, and then move the email into a folder (perhaps labeled @Actions) or actually convert the email into an attachment to the task item. I've used that feature before and while I can't remember exactly how to do it now I recall it being relatively effortless. There are guides for using various versions of Outlook for GTD available at David Allen Company website that tell you how plus they include other cool tips. I've purchased a couple and found them very helpful. Otherwise I'm sure you can use the "help" feature or do a Google search to get what you need.

 

[lbkoperek]

I agree w/ bcmyers2112. I turn emails into Tasks by right clicking on the email, dragging to Tasks, lifting up on the right-click and selecting "Move Here at Task with Attachment". Outlook auto-populates the subject line of the task with my email subject line and I go from there. Plus, the email now "lives" in the task so if I need to respond, I still have the original email. Give it a try!

 

[SmokeEnvy]

1+ on shifting emails to tasks from using the file cabinet in the mail function to track next actions. I highly recommend you download the set up guidelines that GTD has created for your version of outlook. It costs a few bucks but is worth it tenfold! I learned a ton about Outlook in the process and my GTD system now works well. I use a hybrid of an all outlook format and one using onenote (if you have it). All my projects, later/maybe, and read/review are in onenote, everything else in outlook.

 

[JamesT]

Outlook has a cool feature called "Quick Steps" where you can automate steps.

I have two quick steps setup. Both of them forward the email to my task management app, GTDNext. The first "Quick Step" then files the action in my archive folder if I'm done with it. If I need to respond, then I choose the other "Quick Step" action trigger, which forwards the email to GTDNext and then files the email in my "Needs Response" folder.

Maybe something like that could work for you.

Have a productive week!
James

 

[Tom126]

A little late coming back to this after a manic month, but thanks so much for the suggestions folks -- I will definitely have a go at converting emails to tasks and using the "Quick Steps" -- very helpful!