Why I still need MS Outlook

I get tons of emails (sounds familiar?). Some are relevant, some are not, some require me to take action, some are just for my information, some are simply reference that I better archive.

My objective when I end my day is to have an empty inbox. Some may argue that it is not possible... well it is difficult indeed and requires lots of discipline and methodology. (I'm a GTD fanatic ;-) go for it if you don´t know what it is).

The first thing to mention is that my inbox is not driving my day. My todo list is. This is pretty important.

I try to schedule a few times a day (this varies) where I go into my inbox and organize mail and the possible tasks.

The 2 minute rule is key here: If an action requires less than 2 minutes, I just go ahead, do it and get it out of the way.

Truth: If you send me an email requiring an immediate action.. Skype me if it's really really urgent :-) I can take sometime to respond, but honestly, I do not believe that people who actually let there inbox drive their next action be more responsive or efficient. They might have the illusion that they are quicker to respond, and it could happen in occasions, but I really believe that letting urgency driving your day is not the way to go (or simply the way to survive).

My todo list (I now use toodledo and still like it, although I recommend to simply use the task management from your PIM first... tasks in the cloud setup does work better for me now for a number of reasons) is filled in with tasks, categories, contexts, roles).

For reminders and things that can be scheduled: I use the calendar... I normally do not schedule the tasks within the task list, but in the calendar.

Back on track to the original idea of this post: Why I need Outlook still: I use gmail as my central repository, BUT, the way gmail is setup and displays, does not allow me to quickly reorganize and filter stuff (I know anything can do with filters and searches inside gmail, it is still not that efficient for me). With Outlook, I can, with a simple click, organize emails, by account (yes I use different accounts in my inbox by just displaying the corresponding field), by sender, by subject... and then classify that information. Outlook lets me do this very quickly, almost intuitively. I really want to spend as little time as possible on my inbox and as much time as possible DOING things.

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