@Waiting For or @Followup

[AdamB]

What if you send an email to someone that is important and you need to track it? Do you put these email in the @Waiting For because you are waiting for a response from them or do you put it in the @Followup folder because you want to follow up with them later about it if you don't get a response?

Also, where do you stop when using the @Followup folder? I send out dozens of emails a day that I care about getting a response on, however, I really don't want to put them all into my @Followup folder because 9 times out of 10, I'm going to get a response back within a few minutes and will have to spend time going into the @Followup folder and removing them.

 

[TexasEx94]

I will make a note to myself in my @Waiting list about the emails I need responses to. I don't have an @Follow-Up list. If I get a quick response then I remove it from my list. If I don't get a quick response I'll catch it during a review of my @Waiting list and follow-up by phone, in person, or by email. Don't if it helps you or not, but I've found it works for me.

 

[ScottL]

The other way of dealing with it besides:

@Follow-Up

is to put a reminder on a particular day e.g. I'll put a note in my PDA for a certain day and if I have not heard from someone by that day, I'll call/e-mail to remind them.

I don't use @Followup folder either (then again, my job is not oriented towards e.g. sales),

 

[darlakbrown]

Mail Rules

Here's a tip I heard:

Create an alias for your email address like Self-WF@domain.com.

Then, cc: or bcc: yourself whenever you send an email that you need a response from.

Set-up an email rule that checks your incoming emails to automatically move that email to your @WF folder.

(If you can't set-up an alias, alternatively you could add a tag to the beginning of your subject line such as (WF) and set-up the email rule to check the subject line instead of the To: field.)

Hope that helps-

Darla

 

[AdamB]

Interesting to see not many use the Follow Up. I might use Darla's advice and set up an alias and start BCCing myself and putting it into @Waiting and then catch it on the weekly review. That's a pretty good idea.

Thanks guys!

 

[AdamMiller81]

@Waiting For filter

I actually use the filter for my @WF emails, and you actually don't even need to create an alias for yourself. I just use my standard email address and while I BCC myself so nobody else knows I'm sending it to myself, the filter is actually based on who its from. If I get an email from myself, it automatically goes into the @WF folder.

Hope this helps!

 

[dynamos2000]

What if you send an email to someone that is important and you need to track it? Do you put these email in the @Waiting For because you are waiting for a response from them or do you put it in the @Followup folder because you want to follow up with them later about it if you don't get a response?

Also, where do you stop when using the @Followup folder? I send out dozens of emails a day that I care about getting a response on, however, I really don't want to put them all into my @Followup folder because 9 times out of 10, I'm going to get a response back within a few minutes and will have to spend time going into the @Followup folder and removing them.

Are you using the outlook addin? Mac user? etc

If its important, I just email the person and add a @Waiting for task. Then every few days, I go down that list and forward the email I sent with no additional text..basically to get the point across that I haven't heard back.

 

[AdamB]

Are you using the outlook addin?

I am using the Outlook Add-in.

 

[Claudia]

What if you send an email to someone that is important and you need to track it? Do you put these email in the @Waiting For because you are waiting for a response from them or do you put it in the @Followup folder because you want to follow up with them later about it if you don't get a response?

I create an @WF task with my intended follow-up date set in the Task Due Date field. On that date, the @WF task pops up on my Today view. If the item has already been addressed, I just check it off and move to the next one. If not, this is my followup reminder.

Claudia

 

[bassdrone42]

CC yourself Automatically

Kelly (of the GTD Team) posted a tip on her blog.

The jist is this: in Outlook, if you need to add a message to your @WaitingFor list simply create a rule to automatically update your Waiting For list

Simply place a character that you would not normally use in a message such as " ~ " or "``" somewhere that won't be noticed (like in your signature).

Whenever that character appears in a message, Outlook automatically puts a copy of it in the @Waiting For folder.

Works like a charm.

 

[Borisoff]

I don't have @FollowUp folder becase it's useless. Follow up is an email (@Computer), a call (@Call) etc. I check all my WaitingFors during weekly review. If I know that should happen before the WR then I put into the calendar (i.e. for tomorrow or the day after) - it means that's very important to catch before the WR.

Regards,

Eugene.