First of all, I would like to thank Steve Dotto for the latest tips on technology wisdom; they have already had a huge impact on my email box. In a previous post, I wrote about keeping an empty email box as well as other email strategies. Honestly, I continue to struggle with keeping an empty email box; although, I have been significantly improving. My improvement is based on a couple of recent tweaks that I picked up while watching some of Steve Dotto’s videos. Let me share what I have learned.
Archiving Messages
I am not one for simply throwing out email messages. There have been times when I have had to research my email to prove or disprove an issue. Therefore, I am reluctant to simply toss email. However, I am getting better archiving messages in my Gmail accounts.
In the past, I would select a message and send it to the archive folder. Dotto pointed out that you can turn on a preference to add the capability to automatically archive when you reply to a message. I have turned on this feature and it has worked great. It is important to note that archiving still counts against your storage quota.
Slowly, I am working my way to an empty email box—6,800 messages to go 😉
Boomerang
Steve Dotto also turned me on to Boomerang as a tool to schedule email messages for the future, send yourself follow up reminders, and send reminders if you do not get a response to a message. I talked about Boomerang in the 9th episode of Tubarks’ Tales. You can watch what Dotto has to say about Boomerang in this video.
So far, I have used Boomerang to remind me of email taskers set for a future day. I just forward a message to me using Boomerang set for a specific date in the future, and like clockwork, at the day and time set, I receive the message. Additionally, I have used Boomerang to send a message to an individual the next day. As Steve Dotto noted, you do not want to appear that you are accessible all hours of the night.
Evernote
Naturally, any messages I really want to keep, I send to Evernote for safekeeping and retrieval as necessary. All of my email programs have accounts created specifically for Evernote. I just forward a message to my Evernote account.
Asana
Another tool that we are just beginning to use in the office is called Asana. It is great for tracking projects. Like Evernote, I can send a message to Asana, and it will automatically create a new task for me. I do not have to track work in my email any longer. Believe it or not, Steve Dotto also pointed me to this tool. I will discuss it more in the next post.
Other Email Features
Since I have been very happy with the tips that Dotto has shared, I also enabled these features, which have enhanced my Gmail experience:
- Turn conversation view off – Rather than nested discussions, I display each message on its own.
- Installed Raportive – Provides LinkedIn profiles when available and a quick link to additional messages with individuals.
What are you doing to get a handle on your email?
Additional Reading
- #ATD2015 Session: Time Management is Dead & Get Control of Email and Outlook
- Email and Vacations Are Like Oil and Water
- Emailing to Diigo: My New Best Friend
- How I use Evernote, Gmail, and Google Scripts to Help Manage a 3,500 Member Organization
- Google Alerts, Gmail, and Evernote, Saving What is Important
- How to Print Out an Asana Task List
- Organizing Our Department With Asana
- Our Processes for Providing Faculty Support
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