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  3. How do you organize your email conversations?

How do you organize your email conversations?

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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
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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.


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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.


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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

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        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


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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

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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

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                    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

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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

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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
                            M Offline
                            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

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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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                                • 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

                                  M Offline
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                                  marcdominic
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #24

                                  I find an automatic forwarding rule that removes any incoming email straight to the bin highly productive... Dominic.

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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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                                    mike good
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #25

                                    In years past I tried to adhere to a topical folder hierarchy, moving both receieved and sent messages to the correct folder. Wound up with a lot of folders, and this was lot of extra work. Categorization efforts like this are always imperfect, sometimes copied same msg to multiple folders to increase odds of me finding it in future. But for last 2 yrs now I only have Inbox, "Sent Mail" and Archive folders. Under Archive I have a folder for each preceeding year. The only organization I do is move old msgs(from prior years) to Archive--I do this about once a month or so, only takes a minute or two. What makes this work significantly better than my old approach is Copernic Desktop Search. Finds any old msg instantly, much better than search that's built-in to the email tools, and vastly better than trying to find old msgs based on where I'd put them in a folder hierarchy. Always looking for a better way to do things, but I'm pretty sure this is it as far as email. Mike Good

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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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                                      Steve Floyd
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #26

                                      I have one word for you: LookOut (http://www.majorgeeks.com/Lookout\_d4808.html). Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then.

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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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                                        stevepqr
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #27

                                        Chris Losinger wrote:

                                        i have a folder called "Stuff"

                                        Me too, but I have subfolders for different categories of 'stuff', My Stuff, Work Stuff, Misc Stuff, Funny Stuff etc... :)

                                        Apathy Rules - I suppose...

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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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                                          crowmaine
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #28

                                          I am still evaluating a EverNote. I copy the email and paste it into an appropriate EverNote database, be it work related, social ,etc. Then I adjust the time-date to match the email's. Little bit of work- haven't figured how to automate it.... yet! :) BTW, I am using the free version for my tests.

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