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Handling email followup with OF Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Having previously used the GTD Outlook Add-In I miss the ease of converting an email into a task. I love OF for just about everything else, but how do I handle emails efficiently? Often on sending an email I want to follow it up with an action or a "waiting for". As it is now I have to either go back to my sent box and do a quick entry for an action, or, as I find myself often doing, physically moving the email into a "waiting for" file, if I have forgotten to write the code which puts the email into a smart file. Either way it means that I am looking in several places for follow ups or actions both in mail and OF.

I would really like to know if their are some best practices for email handling and ideas from others who have found a great way to do this.

Thanks!
 
If you are not opposed to using Mail Tags and Mail-Act-On, there is an excellent script in the 'Extras' forum by @simplicitybliss that will automate exactly what you are wanting to do.
 
Because email is by far my biggest inbox, I would love to see deeper integration between omnifocus and email. OmniMail anyone? This would be a killer product.
 
Here's how I handle email. I use Apple Mail. I don't file anything. I leave everything in my inbox. I use a smart mailbox called 'Email to process' and it shows me only unread and flagged email. When a new message comes in, I do one of the following...

Trash it (and I'm finished)
Respond to it (and I'm finished)
Flag it (if I need to keep it in 'Email to process' while I decide what to do with it)
Send it to my OmniFocus inbox (to do later)

Once the email is unread and unflagged, it disappears from the 'Email to process' box automatically.

Later on, I process my OmniFocus inbox and file it appropriately. The send to OmniFocus inbox feature adds a link back to the original email so I can get right to the message when it is time to work that particular task.

When I need to refer to old messages, I use smart mailboxes to find and group the messages for me. For me, it's much easier than filing.
 
I do pretty much the exact same thing as sriggs & I think it saves a lot of time.
 
Are you using the OmniFocus mail clippings? It will make a new action with your message and a link to the original message in the note.

(right now you can set a shortcut, or use the Services menu, and in Snow Leapord you'll be able to just right-click the message in Mail)
 
I use gmail. If I have an incoming message that is actionable, or I send a message and need to follow up, I use quick entry to create an action, and then I put the URL of the message in the notes field of the action.
 
This is a really interesting thread to me. I would like to hear more of everyone's best practices around email and Omnifocus. I currently use Entourage for my work email because it works with my Exchange server at work. I'm anxiously awaiting the release of Snow Leopard so I can begin to use Apple's Mail with our exchange server.(hope it works)

I use the scripts for Entourage in this forum to get my emails into Omnifocus, however I know that once I have exchange in Mail, I will have a tighter integrations with Omnifocus and my work email.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by geggyta516 View Post
This is a really interesting thread to me. I would like to hear more of everyone's best practices around email and Omnifocus. I currently use Entourage for my work email because it works with my Exchange server at work. I'm anxiously awaiting the release of Snow Leopard so I can begin to use Apple's Mail with our exchange server.(hope it works)

I use the scripts for Entourage in this forum to get my emails into Omnifocus, however I know that once I have exchange in Mail, I will have a tighter integrations with Omnifocus and my work email.
Mail will work well with Exchange if you have the right version of Exchange - Exchange 2007 SP1 with UR4 or later (UR7 is the latest I believe).

Anyway, I tend to select text and then clip it using services to create an OF task. This puts the clipped task in the note and a link back to the original email. Gives me the confidence to move the original email to the archive and keep the Mail inbox fairly clean.
 
 


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