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Using Outlook for GTD usually involves people in some big changes of habit and set-up, particularly around the Task folder. That is covered in a PDF (Item 10130) available from the David Allen on-line store.
Here, we’ll be looking at some of the other things that are often overlooked but can make things go more smoothly.
Where do you "live"?
Where you "live" in Outlook is the folder that you spend most time looking at - it could be your Task folder, your Calendar or your Contacts folder, but the chances are that it is your email folder.
Of course the seasoned GTDer will spot the error here. You would naturally gravitate towards the email inbox whenever there is processing of "in" to be done, but the rest of the time will be spent in the Task folder making intuitive moment-to-moment action choices from a complete list of action options. Won't it?
So we recommend "living" in your Task folder, or perhaps even your Calendar, rather than your email Inbox.
There are some setup changes that you can make to support this.
Firstly, there is an option to change the folder Outlook displays when it starts up. This is in Tools | Options | Other | Advanced options. Look at the "General" box at the top of this dialog and try setting "Startup in this folder:" to Tasks or Calendar, and see how that feels. Probably feels weird, at least to start off with.
Another change you can make in this area rests on noticing that you can keep multiple Outlook windows open at once. Right-click on a folder and choose "Open in New Window". You could have a window for each of the "big four" - Inbox, Tasks, Calendar and Contacts - open at the same time.
If you close down Outlook nicely - use File | Exit - it will start up with the same windows with the same sizing and positioning the next time. Worth spending some time working out a disposition of Outlook windows to suit the way you like to work.
Just remember to go to the taskbar to switch windows rather than clicking on folders in the Outlook folder list.
To beep or not to beep?
This one is also about thinking through the consequences of the assumption that you will be looking at your Task list much more often than a non-GTDer would. Do you need the Outlook "reminder" feature for Appointments and Tasks with due dates?
For most of them, probably not. You will have been looking at your Calendar and Task list several times a day anyway, so do you need the computer to beep at you every morning with a list of the things that fall due today? Seems unlikely. Most people, even those new to GTD ignore their Outlook beepers anyway - having gone numb to them long ago.
Do you need the computer to beep at you a few minutes before your appointment? Well, this one is a rather closer call. There may be some value in having a reminder just before you actually have to set off down the corridor. Just so long as you are near enough to the computer when the beeper beeps to enable you to be reminded at all.
The moral of the story is that actively looking at your Task list and your Calendar removes the need for non-real-time reminders from Outlook.
Whether you get any value from real-time reminders from Outlook (for things that really do need to-the-minute timing) depends on how much time you spend at your desk. If you carry a PDA or a mobile phone, it might be more useful to set those time-critical reminders in one of those devices instead. You're more likely to have it near you when it counts.
To switch off the default beepers in Calendar, use Tools | Options and uncheck the "Default reminder" checkbox under "Calendar" on the "Preferences" tab.
To switch off the default reminder for Tasks with due dates, use Tools | Options | Task Options and uncheck the checkbox "Set Reminders on Tasks with Due Dates".
Remember, you can always re-enable reminders on a case-by-case basis if you need to.
A foolproof way to catch "Waiting Fors" from outgoing emails
When you send an email, you either want to track (as a "Waiting For") whether the other party has answered and/or done what you've asked them to do, or you don't.
In those cases where you do, you can use the outgoing email as your trigger to set up the corresponding "Waiting For" item on your Task list.
There will be a copy of it in your Sent Items anyway. If you are already in the habit of trawling through your Sent Items regularly looking for things of significance then you may need to do nothing more than keep doing that. However, most people aren't in that habit (and we aren't recommending that you adopt that habit).
So, rather than risk forgetting to look in your Sent Items for possible "Waiting Fors", wouldn't it be nice to have the relevant outgoing email show up in your Inbox? It would? Then copy it to yourself. (This is not rocket science!). If, like us, you don't want people burdened with wondering why you're copying your email to yourself, then you can blind copy yourself instead.
When an email turns up in your Inbox and the sender is you, then there is only one reason why it's there...it's a "Waiting For". Do what you would normally do to create a new Task item from it to track the "Waiting For".
The quickest way to copy an email to yourself
When you're blind copying yourself on an outgoing email that you want to track as a "Waiting For", it may take you several keystrokes to specify your email address unambiguously.
The more email addresses there are in your Contacts Folder and/or Address Book (and particularly if you work in an organisation with a huge global address list), the more keystrokes you are likely to have to make before you can be sure that "you" are "you".
There is a way to make sure that you don't have to type more than two keystrokes to specify your own email address.
You create a new Distribution List in your Contacts folder (yes, it doesn't need to be in the Global Address List - in fact it musn't be in the Global Address List), you place just your own email address in that list, and you give that Distribution List a special name.
The choice of the name for this Distribution List is crucial, and in particular the choice of the first character. Use a character, like "." or "/" that doesn't appear as the first character of anyone else's email address in your email universe. It's best if typing that character doesn't need the use of the Shift key - we're into serious laziness here. Then follow that with something like "me" or "self", so you know it's you.
In this way, you can type ".s" into the Bcc: box and be sure you have entered your own email address unambiguously.
It is possible to use a similar technique for the email address of your assistant or anyone else you email often, provided there aren't too many of them.
Keeping support information in a Task or Calendar item
Try this:
Open a Task or Calendar item, go to the "Insert" menu, and choose "Item". You'll see a dialog which allows you to select from a wide variety of different Outlook items, in fact everything that's in there.
Choose an email at random and press "OK".
You'll see that email appear as an attachment in the white space (the "Notes" field) of the Task or Calendar item you started from. Don't save as you exit - this is only a test run!
If this suggests to you a way of embedding useful information within Outlook items, then you've got the idea. Example applications might include embedding an email containing your flight confirmation in a Calendar item representing your flight, embedding the agenda and papers for a meeting in a Calendar item representing a meeting, or embedding action support material in a Task item representing a project or action.
There are two cautions, though.
The first is that if you embed something in a Calendar item which is owned by someone else (as meeting invitations often are), then if the owner makes any updates to that item, all your changes will be lost. In such cases, it is better to create a counterpart Calendar item, which you own, and embed the support material in that.
The second is that if you use a PDA, the synchronisation software might not transfer attachments embedded in Task or Calendar items, even if it does so for email attachments. You'll need to try it with yours to be sure.
Saving attachments the quick way
We often see people opening an email so that they can save the attachments to their hard drive or a network drive.
Of course, if you need to open the email anyway, or even open the attachments themselves, then why not.
But if all you need to do is to save the attachments, and you are starting from a point where the email in question is not already open, there is no need to open the email.
Select the email (single click, or use the up or down arrow keys). The File menu will show an option to "Save attachments". This will lead to a dialog which allows you to save the attachments where you want to.
As ever, be careful not alter the characters to the right of the rightmost "." in the filename. These characters tell Windows which application the file belongs to, and if they're changed to something incorrect it could cause difficulties. Go to Top
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