My GTD System For Outlook

I frequently let my inbox get out of control and that was especially true over vacation.  After reading a Lifehacker guide to setting up Gmail keystrokes for Outlook, I decided to set those up and add some of my own.  It makes handling email in Outlook a whole lot easier.

I have tried to use my inbox as a todo list by leaving email in there that needs action.  That has lead to a bloated inbox.  My new solution is to drop email into one of three folders: Follow Up, Read Later and Deleted Items.  I added simple keystrokes to Outlook using the techniques from the Lifehacker article so I both move an email to one of those folders and set a reminder at the same time.  This seems to be working very well so far. I should mention that I also filter all email not sent directly to me into a “CCmail” folder.  That becomes a second priority after my inbox.

Here are my additions to Gmail keys:

“0″, zero, shortcut key to leave an item in the inbox and set a reminder for 4pm today.

“1″ shortcut to move an item to the Follow Up folder and set a reminder for tomorrow morning

“2″ shortcut to move an item to the Follow Up folder and set a remider for Friday morning.

“s” shortcut to move an item to the Read Later folder.  These emails seem to have important information I should know.  I may get to these someday. “s” is like the Gmail “star” shortcut.

I have also set up “e” and “#” to delete email.  I never flush my deleted folder.  It is my entire archive.  I frequently search it for old email.  With good search tools like Xobni, Google Desktop, and Microsoft Search, a must have addon for Outlook search, there is no reason to store email in multiple archive folders.

Let me know if you would like my version of the config file.  It uses AutoHotKey to automate keystrokes in Outlook.  My biggest annoyance is AutoHotKey doesn’t seem able to use these keystrokes in an open email.  This works only when viewing the main Outlook window.  But it is still worth the effort.