How I manage my time

17 Comments
by on June 22, 2009  •  Permalink
Posted in Marketing.fm

A few people recently have inquired about how I manage my time and process lists of items that need some action. I have a simple yet elegant solution after trying project management systems, to-do lists, texting to-do lists, GTD methodology, and various other notes and features of bloated office and web based solutions.

I manage everything via Email.

Yeah, very anticlimactic I know. I use two primary email inbox’s; Gmail and Outlook. Gmail gets about 5 accounts worth of mail and Outlook gets two accounts and is primarily for work. Gmail gets some work related emails that I manage various accounts for various reasons through gmail.com address or other emails.

The way I handle and process items that need processing is to simply tag anything that needs a follow up, action taken, response written, report pulled, or anything else is to simply tag it “to-answer”. In outlook it gets a flag (default is red).

I have made folders, different tags, used colors – nothing works but a simple system that I can sort through at any time. This way, when an item comes in and needs “processing” I can know if it get get done now, or it will be left in the “queue” for later.

Trust me when I say I have used every project management system out there. Its a big part of what I do to checkout the latest email inbox solutions, sorting magic, priority management, and analytics systems and nothing has come close to the efficiency of tagging things for follow up.  I hope to try a better solution one day – but so far I have not found one.

The magic comes in the fact that I label and use descriptive keywords in emails I send and rely heavily on great search. Gmail solves this by living in the cloud. Outlook 2007 has a less cripled search than 2003, which has worked to date. I keep all my email so I have a trail of everything, and lose less items with it all living in one inbox “stream” vs. scattered around folders.

Action items can be scanned and some sit for a week or so before they get handled. Others are in place to make sure I do not drop the ball on something and others do not either. They are visual reminders that someone else has the ball, and should follow up soon – something I can ping them on if an action item stays in the “to-answer” pile too long.

So that is my system. Its powerful search + simple tagging.

I would love to know what you use as I know there is always room for improvement.

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Posted by Eric Friedman on June 22, 2009

http://www.ericgfriedman.com/2009/06/22/how-i-manage-my-time/

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  • http://thelostjacket.com Stuartfoster

    Interesting…I wish I could organize my stuff in gmail. Unfortunately I have way to many accounts to aggregate them all there. Hopefully when I revamp my website I can update to utilize the Gmail system. Until then I'm stuck my craptastic Godaddy system.

  • http://zackmansfield.com zackmansfield

    Xobni for searching within Outlook (and for easy access to attachments) is an everyday utility for me, as I also use email as the primary organizing tool.

  • http://disruptivethoughts.com Fraser

    I use the same technique – although I have it all funnel into a single gmail inbox.

    The secret is the combination of two things: that we already live in our inbox and check frequently; and that tagging is a low-friction way to stay organized.

    It works very well and has been for 18 months.

  • http://www.marketing.fm EricFriedman

    One inbox coming in late summer for me once we switch to google apps – hopefully by august/sept.

  • http://adamiss.tumblr.com/ adamiss

    I've done a pretty good job of keeping most of my important work email sorted through Outlook, and Xobni has been a fantastic addition for me. very excited for Xobni to make it to Gmail, and hopefully my office figures out exchange a little better, and I can integrate my Gmail with outlook.

  • http://www.marketing.fm EricFriedman

    That is my goal as well. I have to checkout Xobni for gmail – I uninstalled
    it when it kept crashing Outlook.

  • mishiko

    I use similar method in Outlook.

    - All things to be dealt with are in my inbox, then migrate over to their relevant folders: Project Name, Admin, Contacts, Freelancers etc.

    - In Admin, I keep important info such as logins/passwords for FTP etc.

    - If I have important notes that are completed, I EMAIL them back to myself and add accurate description as subject line (ie. Production Meeting June 13, 2009 members:xx,xy)

    - Ongoing things are automatically saved in DRAFTS folder, this is where I keep my daily to do lists, unprocessed meeting notes, etc.

  • http://www.marketing.fm EricFriedman

    That seems like a good system.

    For me all passwords and important docs go into something called PassPack which is actually great (although slower at first) knowing everything is stored and accessible.

  • http://twitter.com/RobertatGist RobertatGist

    Hi Eric-
    Would love to get your thoughts on Gist as it works with Gmail currently. Just set up your beta account and look forward to your thoughts.
    Thanks!
    Robert

  • http://www.marketing.fm EricFriedman

    Hi Robert,

    I would love to check it out – I will sign in and see how it goes.

    ~Eric

  • http://www.johnmilner.com John Milner

    Eric, would you mind expanding a bit on the labels and workflow you use? I primarily use gmail for everything and have primarily used labels as a way to 1) go back and find information and 2) hide emails as they come in that are less important till I have time to process those labels. but not as part of my workflow (normally i use super stars and a zero inbox strategy for that)

    I seem to be caught between using remember the milk for tasks (with the gmail pulgin) and gmail for email. However, i often times end up forgetting about the tasks i have in RTM. So I am interested to see what your workflow in terms of labels used and process you have found to best suit you. thanks.

  • http://www.marketing.fm EricFriedman

    Hi John,

    How is the Google Reader Tiered organization coming along?

    My work flow used to be to add things to something like RTM or even Google
    tasks, but I would never open the to-do lists to see them. If something was
    not in my attention stream it just simply didn't exist. It was a pain to go
    back to those items as well.

    I simply label EVERYTHING that needs a follow-up, reply, action item, or
    other as “to-answer”. It could easily be named “action” or something like
    that as well. I made the labels fire engine red in gmail, then search
    “label:to-answer” or just click the “to-answer” label on the left hand side.

    This brings up my action items and I can easily see how many items exist in
    this “to-answer inbox” and know how I am doing on them. If I come across
    one that needs work from someone else, I move onto the next one. After
    awhile they all get processed.

    The same system exists within outlook, but using Flags. Things I have to
    read later get flagged, or need some action – same thing.

    Let me know if this helps.

  • http://www.johnmilner.com John Milner

    Eric,
    The google reader organization is working well, thanks again, i've definitely added some tiers (about 7) but mostly to manage data that comes in the flow, as you mentioned, I've moved to pulling a lot of data into rss that i get from other sources for the times I'm disconnected, and for an increase in differing topics that i'm now following, but that's another story.

    My problem with consolidating everything is that I do love RTM, its easy to Jott or twitter into. Plus RTM has great sorting and workflow processes and the gmail integration is good. That said, i do find it easy to skim over those tasks (i guess email reminders might help). It might be just as easy to email myself an action item, but RTM seems to handle that well.

    Thanks for describing your workflow here. I keep much of my workflow in gmail in a similar manner, i just tend to keep in the inbox rather than file the messages. Although, i think i might give it a try and keeping the messages in the inbox (for most action items).

    On another note, did you happen to check out the Luther Rice Society roadshow GW was doing in NYC earlier this year?

  • http://www.marketing.fm EricFriedman

    7 Tiers! that is incredible.

    I did not see the LRS roadshow – do you have a link for more info?

    One side note: I plan on switching everything to gmail (and Google apps) later this summer so it will be even easier to have one inbox.

  • http://twitter.com/housingdabble Ben Harris

    my advice is not to open something you aren't in a position to action immediately. If you open and then move stuff around you waste a hell of a lot of time in a day. Best to turn off alerts etc and just focus on emails when you can get the related tasks completed right then.

    Also agree that Xobni is awesome!
    Had Gist for aa few weeks but not had time to get it working with my outlook as yet so it is full of twitter followers info that isn't of much value to me

  • http://www.marketing.fm EricFriedman

    I am of the kind that needs to open everything – if there was a way to avoid
    that I would try it. I am trying Gist now as well for Gmail and having a
    similar experience.

    I have no alerts and VERY limited filters – its all one inbox.

  • huangqin