Wanted - More help on GTD with Outlook

[svenkat52]

Request help from members on the following:

1. When one sends an email to a collegue, one needs to keep a tab on it through '@Waiting For' folder. For this David advises blind copying the mail to oneself and dragging the copy into the '@Waiting For' folder. I would presume it will be easier to drag the copy from the 'Sent mails' folder. Any particular reason why David has advised the other way?

2. Both Tasks and Notes in Outlook have many fields that are really not needed for GTD. I have configured mine to show only the following fields:
Tasks - Complete, Priority, Subject, Due Date, Notes
Notes - Subject, Content.
Did I get it right?

Many thanks and regards,

Venkat[/list]

[vegheadjones]

[1. When one sends an email to a collegue, one needs to keep a tab on it through '@Waiting For' folder. For this David advises blind copying the mail to oneself and dragging the copy into the '@Waiting For' folder. I would presume it will be easier to drag the copy from the 'Sent mails' folder. Any particular reason why David has advised the other way?
]

Hi,

I follow this method of bcc'ing all of my E-mails that go to @waiting. I am not sure why DA recommends doing it this way, but I like having a copy of everything I have sent in one place (The sent folder) and a searate copy in the @waiting folder.[/quote]

[rossw]

I believe that david is suggesting that you set up a rule to file any message from yourself in your waiting folder. That way, you don't need to drag anything! I find this works quite well.

My task list shows Complete, Subject, category, due date and is grouped by category. This makes it a single click on the + button to bring up, for example, everything I have on my agenda list for the acquaintance who just dropped by. I do find it helpful to drag mails into the task lists.

Hope this helps

FBA

[Frank Buck]

I bbc myself instead of dragging the e-mail mainly to eliminate the possibility of forgetting. When I bcc myself, the message shows up in my in-box and forces me to make a decision (that decision becomes to drag it to the task icon and assign a category of "Waiting For").

As far as the categories I have showing on my task list, here they are:
Complete (so that I can check them off)
Subject (of course)
Notes (so that I can see if there is anything in the note. My rule is that I do not check something off until I look to see what is in the note, because I use that field as a place to list the action that will follow what is in the subject line).

I don't include priority. If it has to be done today, I will either put it on the calendar or simply remove the category name so that it shows up at the top of the task list in the "None" category.

[Frank Buck]

You can set up a rule that will automatically send items you bcc yourself to the "Waiting For" category on your task list. The downside I found was that the item would not have a checkbox beside it.

[Anonymous]

You can also set Outlook to automatically send your outgoing messages back to the Inbox instead of Sent Mail. (It's a two-step process; turn off the option to save them in Sent Mail, and set up a rule to copy everything to Inbox.) Then you can just process them like any other item.

[svenkat52]

Many thanks, friends. Your inputs were extremely useful.
Venkat

[vegheadjones]

You can set up a rule that will automatically send items you bcc yourself to the "Waiting For" category on your task list. The downside I found was that the item would not have a checkbox beside it

Frank, could you let me know how to do this with Outlook 2000? I've made other rules, but can't seem to find a way to make one off the bcc field.

[rossw]

Have the rule work off the "sender" field (on the INCOMING) message.

FBA

[Frank Buck]

I tried to figure out how I had constructed this rule and had no luck. I am using Outlook 2000 now and was using 97 then. I don't know if there is not that capability now. Again, once I saw there was no checkbox, I did not continue using that option. I bcc myself and then drag the cpy I recive to the Task icon.