What about your sent file in outlook

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asonenj

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Hey GTD Gang,

Do you efficient people do anything with your sent folder in outlook. do you go through it and delegate it as well. I guess I'm asking because I'm wondering if I have a need to reference past correspondence would that be an easier way to refer to that info. What do you guys think?

Hope you are having a productive day?

B
 
I usually spend a few minutes reviewing mine during my weekly review. For the most part, emails either get deleted, or filed into the appropriate reference folders.

If I have an unusually high volume of email that I send, I process it more often.

My work email is the only place where I automatically save all emails that I send. I only save emails I send from my personal accounts on a case by case basis, and in that case file directly into the appropriate folder.
 
Instead of using the Sent folder, I bcc myself on everything that I need to file, act on, track as an item I'm waiting for, or do anything else on. When I send a message, it pops into my Inbox. I process it immediately, or, if I'm sending many emails in one sitting, I process the batch of them when I'm done. I use this so that I only have one "inbox" to process; otherwise, I have two email "inboxes": my Inbox and my Sent Mail. It just makes the collection step a bit easier.

By the way, in Outlook, the easiest way I know of to bcc yourself on messages is to create a distribution list with a short name (I use "me"). Put your own email address as the only member of the list. Then for each email that you know you'll need to process, track, file, etc., just add "me" to the bcc field.

And if Outlook isn't showing your bcc field, open a new email message, and under "View," select "Bcc Field." It toggles between shown and hidden, and it applies to all messages you create.
 
Sent vs. BCC

The only "catch-22" with this scenario is that it DOUBLES the size of your INBOX or PST. For everything that you send out - you now have 2 times the amount of volume filling up Outlook.

In companies where they limit the allocation of space in your INBOX - this can pose a challenge.
 
I keep ALL my old email in a .PST file on my desktop. During my weekly review I drag everything from the sent items folder on the Exchange server to a sent items folder in my local .PST file. I back this up to CD monthly. This keeps the guys in IT happy because it isn't taking up disk space on the server, but I still have everything searchable thorugh Outlook's FIND feature. I also keep all my incoming email, even those things that I don't think I will ever need (except SPAM, of course). It's amazing how often that find feature and my CD backups have saved my butt.

I do keep received emails about my current projects in folders named for those projects in my inbox on the Exchange Server. I do this so that I can get to those materials from anywhere I might need them, even from home through a VPN connection to our network.

This may not work for everyone, but it works great for me!

Thanx,
Ricky
 
Thanks

This message board is great!!!!!Thanks for the advice.
 
I, too, process my Sent folder regular. Yesterday I realised I hadn't check it since my Weekly Review two weeks ago and had to work through the 444 emails. I ended up deleting 167 of them and storing the rest in appropriate outlook folders. A pain, for sure, but necessary to be able to reference the responses I send.
 
I don't do anything special. Every e-mail I send winds up in my sent items, and then is eventually archived when Outlook performs the autoarchive. (My pst file and archives are kept on my computer rather than being housed on a server.)

My rationale is that e-mails I may never need again aren't hurting anything by being saved and it saves me the time of reviewing and purging. Maybe there is a downside to what I am doing that I don't realize. If so, I would welcome advice.

Frank
 
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