Outlook Add-In for Email Management
I'm a great fan of InBox Zero, the productivity approach to email which aligns with the David Allen Getting Things Done approach of do, defer, delegate, delete. I find an overwhelmingly full inbox creates anxiety, and I don't want to be a slave to my inbox and therefore don't use it as my "to-do" list.
But, if you are not using one of the proprietary document management systems such as WorldDox, how do you manage filing of emails easily. For years I used ClearContext, creating a folder for each client and matter. ClearContext suggested the correct folder for each email, learning from my usage, and at the end of a matter I could easily archive the relevant emails to the matter.
But recently ClearContext has been slowing my Outlook down and I have switched to an Outlook add-on called SimplyFile. It is a neat little program that has quickly learnt my filing habits and helps me easily organise my Inbox.
Although I don't like to use my Inbox as my task list, occasionally I want to "hide" an email for a day or so and SimplyFile enables me to defer these emails. For example, if I'm logging into a webinar, I find it easier to have the email with the login details pop back up on the day of the webinar.
The company behind it, TechHit, also has a couple of other Outlook add-ins that look interesting, including to save, backup and archive messages easily, and one for users of multiple email accounts which ensures you are sending from the right account. Worth a look