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  3. How do you organize your email conversations?

How do you organize your email conversations?

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  • C Chris Losinger

    i have a folder called "Stuff" that holds anything that i don't want deleted. spending time on organization is a waste, if you've got a fast enough Find feature.

    image processing toolkits | batch image processing | blogging

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    Zoltan Balazs
    wrote on last edited by
    #4

    Chris Losinger wrote:

    spending time on organization is a waste, if you've got a fast enough Find feature.

    That is Google's gmail spirit with the labels. The search and label option works if you're using descriptive labels and you can remember it. I don't think the "Find" only option works if you have a large number of emails (a couple of thousands) and a large period of time. I still find it hard to search for something that happened a couple of months ago.

    Network integrated solutions A practical use of the MVC pattern

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    • C Chris Losinger

      i have a folder called "Stuff" that holds anything that i don't want deleted. spending time on organization is a waste, if you've got a fast enough Find feature.

      image processing toolkits | batch image processing | blogging

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      Marc Clifton
      wrote on last edited by
      #5

      Chris Losinger wrote:

      spending time on organization is a waste, if you've got a fast enough Find feature.

      Well, for example, I'm dealing with a client in which I'm getting emails from 3 different people, and I'm discovering that person A's description is or may be in conflict with person B. I didnt' realize that until I separated out the key points of each email and started comparing them. Marc

      Thyme In The Country
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      • M Marc Clifton

        I have emails from clients that span many topics and include a variety of important information. When working with a new client, there's a lot of new info, a lot of questions, one thing leads to another, etc. Do you use any technology (from a paperpad to a Cray) to help organize the threads? Come to think of it, if the conversations could be organized as forum threads, that would be great! I'm thinkin of using MindManager, but wondered what folks do, especially for new clients/work/information. Marc

        Thyme In The Country
        Interacx
        My Blog

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        Orcrist
        wrote on last edited by
        #6

        I place them all in the Deleted Folder. That way I feel like I actually made some progress during the day... :sigh: :) Cheers. David

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        • C Chris Losinger

          i have a folder called "Stuff" that holds anything that i don't want deleted. spending time on organization is a waste, if you've got a fast enough Find feature.

          image processing toolkits | batch image processing | blogging

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          Malcolm Smart
          wrote on last edited by
          #7

          I have folders called stuff, CDs and DVDs full of data called Stuff1, Stuff2 etc. Glad it isnt just me that stuffs things in one catch all place. Copernic does my searching...usually turning up the thing in want in c:\stuff. I also used oldstuff, downloadedstuff, goodstuff, stufftodeletesoon etc.

          "More functions should disregard input values and just return 12. It would make life easier." - comment posted on WTF

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          • M Marc Clifton

            I have emails from clients that span many topics and include a variety of important information. When working with a new client, there's a lot of new info, a lot of questions, one thing leads to another, etc. Do you use any technology (from a paperpad to a Cray) to help organize the threads? Come to think of it, if the conversations could be organized as forum threads, that would be great! I'm thinkin of using MindManager, but wondered what folks do, especially for new clients/work/information. Marc

            Thyme In The Country
            Interacx
            My Blog

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            Fernando A Gomez F
            wrote on last edited by
            #8

            Inbox and Outbox.

            A polar bear is a bear whose coordinates has been changed in terms of sine and cosine. Quanehsti Pah Nation States

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            • M Marc Clifton

              I have emails from clients that span many topics and include a variety of important information. When working with a new client, there's a lot of new info, a lot of questions, one thing leads to another, etc. Do you use any technology (from a paperpad to a Cray) to help organize the threads? Come to think of it, if the conversations could be organized as forum threads, that would be great! I'm thinkin of using MindManager, but wondered what folks do, especially for new clients/work/information. Marc

              Thyme In The Country
              Interacx
              My Blog

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              Ray Cassick
              wrote on last edited by
              #9

              This is partly why Outlook 2007 has those cool Search Folders. You can point them at a store and create filtered lists based upon how you want to see your information. It is like using a view in a DB. All the data sits in one place and the views let you see that data through different eyes.


              My Blog[^]
              FFRF[^]


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              • R Ray Cassick

                This is partly why Outlook 2007 has those cool Search Folders. You can point them at a store and create filtered lists based upon how you want to see your information. It is like using a view in a DB. All the data sits in one place and the views let you see that data through different eyes.


                My Blog[^]
                FFRF[^]


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                Ernest Laurentin
                wrote on last edited by
                #10

                I do same thing here. I have folders based on company, projects and team discussion. Outlook simplifies the rest. God bless, Ernest Laurentin

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                • M Marc Clifton

                  I have emails from clients that span many topics and include a variety of important information. When working with a new client, there's a lot of new info, a lot of questions, one thing leads to another, etc. Do you use any technology (from a paperpad to a Cray) to help organize the threads? Come to think of it, if the conversations could be organized as forum threads, that would be great! I'm thinkin of using MindManager, but wondered what folks do, especially for new clients/work/information. Marc

                  Thyme In The Country
                  Interacx
                  My Blog

                  C Offline
                  C Offline
                  code frog 0
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #11

                  Check out ClearContext[^]. It requires Outlook but for me it's been a truly marvelous product that I'm very satisfied with.

                  What I am up to: ReadyToGiveUp(Not!)[^] What friends are up to:SQLServerCentral[^]

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                  • M Marc Clifton

                    I have emails from clients that span many topics and include a variety of important information. When working with a new client, there's a lot of new info, a lot of questions, one thing leads to another, etc. Do you use any technology (from a paperpad to a Cray) to help organize the threads? Come to think of it, if the conversations could be organized as forum threads, that would be great! I'm thinkin of using MindManager, but wondered what folks do, especially for new clients/work/information. Marc

                    Thyme In The Country
                    Interacx
                    My Blog

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                    ied
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #12

                    Inbox, CodeProject, Trash. :)

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                    • M Marc Clifton

                      I have emails from clients that span many topics and include a variety of important information. When working with a new client, there's a lot of new info, a lot of questions, one thing leads to another, etc. Do you use any technology (from a paperpad to a Cray) to help organize the threads? Come to think of it, if the conversations could be organized as forum threads, that would be great! I'm thinkin of using MindManager, but wondered what folks do, especially for new clients/work/information. Marc

                      Thyme In The Country
                      Interacx
                      My Blog

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                      Ed Poore
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #13

                      One word, Gmail (well ok Google Apps for your Domain)

                      Marc Clifton wrote:

                      help organize the threads

                      Does it automatically ;P


                      My Blog[^]

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                      • M Marc Clifton

                        I have emails from clients that span many topics and include a variety of important information. When working with a new client, there's a lot of new info, a lot of questions, one thing leads to another, etc. Do you use any technology (from a paperpad to a Cray) to help organize the threads? Come to think of it, if the conversations could be organized as forum threads, that would be great! I'm thinkin of using MindManager, but wondered what folks do, especially for new clients/work/information. Marc

                        Thyme In The Country
                        Interacx
                        My Blog

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                        StewBob
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #14

                        I don't organize it. If it is of interest, I read it, act on it, and then delete it. Mostly, I just delete it.

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                        • E Ed Poore

                          One word, Gmail (well ok Google Apps for your Domain)

                          Marc Clifton wrote:

                          help organize the threads

                          Does it automatically ;P


                          My Blog[^]

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                          CarlG
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #15

                          Yes! Gmal totally rules. The Labels thingy is great. Like having the possibility to put things in multiple folders at once. I only wish there was a possibility to manage the labels themselves in a hierarchy. This flat thing is not always optimal when the labels are many. Another great email managing application is Opera (www.opera.com[^]). It also uses labels and fast searching. You just drag-and-drop the email to as many labels as you wish and press a button (I think i was "K" for some reason...) in order to remove the "inbox" label from it. Regards Carl

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                          • M Marc Clifton

                            I have emails from clients that span many topics and include a variety of important information. When working with a new client, there's a lot of new info, a lot of questions, one thing leads to another, etc. Do you use any technology (from a paperpad to a Cray) to help organize the threads? Come to think of it, if the conversations could be organized as forum threads, that would be great! I'm thinkin of using MindManager, but wondered what folks do, especially for new clients/work/information. Marc

                            Thyme In The Country
                            Interacx
                            My Blog

                            V Offline
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                            Vasudevan Deepak Kumar
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #16
                            1. Filters (for regular routing of future incoming emails) 2) Folders (for storage purposes) 3) Contacts (Clip the contacts into AddressBook)

                            Vasudevan Deepak Kumar Personal Homepage Tech Gossips

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                            • C Chris Losinger

                              i have a folder called "Stuff" that holds anything that i don't want deleted. spending time on organization is a waste, if you've got a fast enough Find feature.

                              image processing toolkits | batch image processing | blogging

                              V Offline
                              V Offline
                              Vasudevan Deepak Kumar
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #17

                              Chris Losinger wrote:

                              spending time on organization is a waste

                              I would rather suggest an initial setup time to create filters. That pays for in the long run. Wouldn't it? :)

                              Vasudevan Deepak Kumar Personal Homepage Tech Gossips

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                              • O Orcrist

                                I place them all in the Deleted Folder. That way I feel like I actually made some progress during the day... :sigh: :) Cheers. David

                                V Offline
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                                Vasudevan Deepak Kumar
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #18

                                Orcrist wrote:

                                Deleted Folder

                                :mad: Beware. That folder is so much privileged in most email clients that you get a very quick shortcuts to empty them. Outlook provides two such: 'Empty Deleted Items' appears in Tree Node menu and also in Tools menu. :)

                                Vasudevan Deepak Kumar Personal Homepage Tech Gossips

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                                • M Marc Clifton

                                  I have emails from clients that span many topics and include a variety of important information. When working with a new client, there's a lot of new info, a lot of questions, one thing leads to another, etc. Do you use any technology (from a paperpad to a Cray) to help organize the threads? Come to think of it, if the conversations could be organized as forum threads, that would be great! I'm thinkin of using MindManager, but wondered what folks do, especially for new clients/work/information. Marc

                                  Thyme In The Country
                                  Interacx
                                  My Blog

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                                  LFirth
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #19

                                  When I worked as support I used a folder structure, arranged by company name, then enquiry (my description). When done reading or sending emails I just put them in the appropriate folder. Worked quite well. These days, I just use gmail for everything - because I don't like company emails, and I can always search for conversation threads. I also use it for things like serial numbers to software I bought, and sending encrypted files with login details for various things. It's a pretty neat solution, I love gmail.

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                                  • M Marc Clifton

                                    I have emails from clients that span many topics and include a variety of important information. When working with a new client, there's a lot of new info, a lot of questions, one thing leads to another, etc. Do you use any technology (from a paperpad to a Cray) to help organize the threads? Come to think of it, if the conversations could be organized as forum threads, that would be great! I'm thinkin of using MindManager, but wondered what folks do, especially for new clients/work/information. Marc

                                    Thyme In The Country
                                    Interacx
                                    My Blog

                                    J Offline
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                                    James H
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #20

                                    I've tried loads of ways in the past - I use Outlook and finally settled on simple Archive PST's for each year with a folder in it for each month - this makes it dead easy to archive (just sort by date and drag the emails in) - then I index the whole lot with X1 - my actual Outlook profile only opens the current inbox stuff and X1 deals with finding anything else

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                                    • M Marc Clifton

                                      I have emails from clients that span many topics and include a variety of important information. When working with a new client, there's a lot of new info, a lot of questions, one thing leads to another, etc. Do you use any technology (from a paperpad to a Cray) to help organize the threads? Come to think of it, if the conversations could be organized as forum threads, that would be great! I'm thinkin of using MindManager, but wondered what folks do, especially for new clients/work/information. Marc

                                      Thyme In The Country
                                      Interacx
                                      My Blog

                                      M Offline
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                                      Mark_Wallace
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #21

                                      About once every six monthe, with copious swearing.

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                                      • C code frog 0

                                        Check out ClearContext[^]. It requires Outlook but for me it's been a truly marvelous product that I'm very satisfied with.

                                        What I am up to: ReadyToGiveUp(Not!)[^] What friends are up to:SQLServerCentral[^]

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                                        weinstea
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #22

                                        I enjoyed seeing this thread, because I recently struggled with this question and polled various people in my office on their email organization technique. Nothing was satisfying or logical. I used to just delete everything I didn't want and leave unfinished items in my inbox, but that wasn't working, especially when you need to CYA. My current system which I'm still not thrilled with is to have a few folders for large projects, and I organize the rest in archives by month sent/received. Using Outlook I can make a "power search" that searches all my folders for the current year. Prompted by an earlier thread, I might try making a few more saved searches that are filtered on specific words. Alan

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                                        • M Marc Clifton

                                          I have emails from clients that span many topics and include a variety of important information. When working with a new client, there's a lot of new info, a lot of questions, one thing leads to another, etc. Do you use any technology (from a paperpad to a Cray) to help organize the threads? Come to think of it, if the conversations could be organized as forum threads, that would be great! I'm thinkin of using MindManager, but wondered what folks do, especially for new clients/work/information. Marc

                                          Thyme In The Country
                                          Interacx
                                          My Blog

                                          T Offline
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                                          tlw1145
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #23

                                          I don't! If someone seems to be starting a conversation in email, I email them to tell them to call me if they want to talk. After that, I ignore any emails. Nothing irritates me more than replying to an email, turning around to do work in some other area, getting an email back, having to reply, turning around to do work, etc. :mad: Once or twice is OK, otherwise use the phone! Tony

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