GTD handling E-mail that contain tasks

[donnamarie]

This may be a very basic question, but I can't seem to figure out how to handle this headache!

I'm a REVA (Real Estate Virtual Assistant) working from home (in my PJ's some days!).

Some of my work includes contact management for my client. He will forward me an e-mail (which has lots of content) from another realtor and my job is to input that realtor's contact information (which is usually in the signature of the e-mail) into Top Producer (a software program).

I get about 20 of these FWD e-mails a day! They clutter my inbox (which I'm trying to keep at zero) and stress me out because I have to weed out the content that I need to do my job. I'd love to find an easy way to copy out the information I need and put that into a list of sorts that I can use when I need it.

I try to only do this type of data entry 2 times a week so the information can be stashed away during the week.

So would "enter new contacts" be a weekly project, a next action or on a list?? any ideas

[kelstarrising]

It's quite common to have a folder that gathers like actions, such as "Date Entry" and collect them there. Where you want to be careful is if there are other embedded actions in those, or it grows unwieldy as commonly a "To File" pile becomes. If you keep up with it regularly, it's just a recurring task. Not part of your Weekly Review.

I'd probably just capture an un-timed next action on my Calendar to remind me to do these.

Weekly Review is really power reviewing and planning time, not doing time.

Hope that helps!

[Andy Schneit]

Several other ideas for removing the item from your inbox while still being able to easily retrieve it.

I agree with Kelly that this should be a recurring, calendared task.

Create a separate e-mail folder for these items so that you can move them from your inbox.

Or, if you use GMail, create a label for "Pending Contact Info to Enter," and stash them there until you do the data entry.

Hope this helps.

Andy
"Not a natural at GTD"

[Todd V]

This is a huge pet-peeve of mine: that users can't manipulate email data in a way that gives them the most control. It is still considered a static message you have to read with very little flexibility other than where to file the entire email. This *does not* leave clean edges with respect to email and thus it creates drag on the mind -- even more so when these emails are automated and forwarded and cc'd or bcc'd from others.

This is one of the major reasons I decided to develop my own file-based approach to getting things done on the Mac. One of the things Mac OS X allows users to do is make a clipping of text by simply selecting the text and dragging it to the desktop (or some folder). Since my system is all based in the file-system of the Mac OS, I just cull my emails for actionable items, select each piece of actionable text, and drag it to my desktop folders to process and review. I can still keep the original email in an archive if I wish (though I usually delete it because I like seeing my inbox emptied and I know I've got this information the way I want it now).

I think any strategy that gets these important pieces of information out of your email program and into a system you trust to review later is better than a strategy that tries to use the email program as a filing system.

Not sure what your setup is, but this is what works for me.

[Oogiem]

I occasionally get e-mail where there are several separate actions. What I do it clip each individual action using a hot key sequence directly to my GTD list system. I'm using a Mac and Omnifocus and I can clip pieces or entire messages to the OF inbox. There I can process them to their on-going projects.

An example I have an area of focus for sheep association and within that is a project to process requests. A recent e-mail I got had several actions 1 was a death report. I clipped the sheep death data as one inbox item. Another was an update to a phone number I clipped that update out separately and the final one was a request for information. That too became a separate clipping. Then in Omnifocus I can quickly run through the inbox and assign both project and context to the actions. The sheep death was assigned to update registry SW context @computer windows. The phone number was assigned to update web site context @computer internet and the request for info was assigned to process requests context @inside by myself.

Not sure of your system but can you set up a hot key sequence to either append the clipping to a text file or clip to a task management system that allows you to set the context and data of a group of things at once?

I haven't explored clipping and appending the data to a file but I know on the Mac I can use Apple Script to do that if I choose to.

The goal would be to make it a simple keyboard command to capture the bits of data you really need into one location and then process those updates all at once.

[bishblaize]

If I read right there isnt a task per se in the email, theres just information in there you want to keep, the transferring of the information itself is the task. Personally I would just consider this as processing and do it several times a day. To mark a task to do this is just creating work for the sake of keeping things tidy.

Ppl get hung up on zero inboxes - the point isnt that it stays at zero, the point is that each time you process it you get to zero. My inbox, physical and virtual, are rarely empty, I have so much work coming my way. But i process it at least twice a day, each time i hit the bottom.

If i were you I would just leave them there while I got on with my work, then when I was processing the emails I would transfer the information as part of clearing the inbox, then probably archive them afterwards.

[ihunter]

Ppl get hung up on zero inboxes - the point isnt that it stays at zero, the point is that each time you process it you get to zero. My inbox, physical and virtual, are rarely empty, I have so much work coming my way. But i process it at least twice a day, each time i hit the bottom.

I love that point, thanks!

If i were you I would just leave them there while I got on with my work, then when I was processing the emails I would transfer the information as part of clearing the inbox, then probably archive them afterwards.

Can you describe how you'd process the information? What if it takes longer than two minutes to set up one contact?

[donnamarie]

Can you describe how you'd process the information? What if it takes longer than two minutes to set up one contact?[/QUOTE]

I'd also love to know how you process.

What I started doing was I created a "mailbox" called "New Contacts for TP" and I move all those e-mails over automatically using "rules" in Mail. (I'm using a Mac) It seems to be working well for now and it helps to unclutter my inbox.

[ihunter]

What I started doing was I created a "mailbox" called "New Contacts for TP" and I move all those e-mails over automatically using "rules" in Mail. (I'm using a Mac) It seems to be working well for now and it helps to unclutter my inbox.

Sounds great! I guess basically that "New Contacts" folder is just another thing to "do" ... I assume you consider that part "doing" rather than "processing." Do you have a particular way to remind yourself to "do" that work? I'm really interested, I can imagine a couple ways to handle that (calendar, new next action as soon as you put the first email in after emptying it, etc.).

[smithshn]

GTD is very useful website to solve any problem.Create a separate e-mail folder for these items so that you can move them from your inbox.This is one of the major reasons I decided to develop my own file-based approach to getting things done on the Mac. One of the things Mac OS X allows users to do is make a clipping of text by simply selecting the text and dragging it to the desktop (or some folder). Since my system is all based in the file system of the Mac OS, I just cull my emails for actionable items, select each piece of actionable text, and drag it to my desktop folders to process.I agree with Kelly that this should be a recurring, calendared task.