Comments on: Why Your Email Inbox Is NOT a Good To-do List

By: Graham Perrin

Graham Perrin — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:07:21 +0000

e-mail is far from ideal.

Chandler Desktop is very well suited to Leo’s five points.

http://chandlerproject.org/ to learn more about Chandler Desktop, Chandler Server (a.k.a. Cosmo) and Chandler Hub.

By: Slimmer en productiever, 7 juli 2009 « Arjan Zuidhof

Slimmer en productiever, 7 juli 2009 « Arjan Zuidhof — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:30:31 +0000

[...] Why Your Email Inbox Is NOT a Good To-do List – Leo Babauta Goede uitleg waarom dit nooit kan werke. Al kan er aan recente versies van mailprogramma’s het een en ander verbeterd worden, waardoor je je email weliswaar terug kunt vinden, is het niet geschikt om er je acties op te baseren. Dit roepts om een aanvullend extern systeem, of je nou volgens GTD werkt of niet [...]

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:12:59 +0000

This is the first time I ever heard of someone using email as a to do list. I really don’t think it is practical. There are some many other programs out there that are simplified. I use microsoft onenote.

By: Gina

Gina — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:18:53 +0000

I use both emails sent to myself along with others filed into a folder for all web based to do’s AND a “at a glance” paper planner for all dated and regular to dos as it goes everywhere with me. Paper planner allows me to keep client or supervision notes on the day it happens for easy reference and eliminates many pieces of loose papers. The paper plannner becomes more of a journal of my days with the to dos crossed off as i go ( I put the weeks to dos on Monday as i don’t take appts on Monday). Yet I still find my self reading a very long list of to do list comments hoping for the mother of all systems :) Mahalo Leo!

By: Mike Smith

Mike Smith — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:28:53 +0000

And this is why I’ve been a reader here since it opened. Posts like this are ones that make me rethink my strategy as a business owner and also as a person in general.

By: Leo

Leo — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 04:37:19 +0000

@Mitch: How is an email inbox to-do list analogous to a pen & paper list? The pen and paper list doesn’t contain incoming distractions, and can be renamed and reordered as you see fit. In fact, the pen and paper list contains none of the objections this post has to the email to-do list.

By: Mitch

Mitch — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 04:04:00 +0000

An email inbox to-do list is about as analogous to a pen&paper list as you can get. With some wording changes this article could literally become an entirely separate debate.

By: 5 razones por las que no hay que usar la bandeja de entrada como to-do list · InternalComms

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 23:10:42 +0000

[...] Apenas hice un extracto, pero si quieren profundizar en cada punto -cosa que recomiendo, ya que da varias respuestas más- pueden leer el post original que está en un inglés muy sencillo. [...]

By: Rucy

Rucy — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:03:00 +0000

Good tips though I believe that within every system there’s a way to use it more effectively. I simply forward myself the email and change the title: FOLLOW-UP AUGUST 1 w/JEANNE, for instance. I calendar any meetings immediately and file or delete that email. I send myself a TO DO email that shows my current and rotating to do list (so it’s always near the top of my email). Using this system, and consistent leader titles, I’m able to avoid the problem of synch’ing paper notes, handheld, laptop. Everything’s just held in my email. If email’s down, and I can’t recall a single work thing to do, it’s time for a quiet break to catch my breath.

By: Neil Crump

Neil Crump — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 19:17:05 +0000

Great post – I find that emails can get really overwhelming at work – I just get a lot every day. One new thing that I have implemented at work is that if member of my team 100% need me to read an email they put ‘READ’ in front of the email subject and forward it to me. It has made a huge difference and really helped me prioritise all the emails that I get CCed into. It also flags that there is soemthing important in it and something that they need me to absorb. It is really useful if I am out of the office and I am scanning through emails on the Blackberry while if I am off-site.

I agree that a paper to-do list is the best way to keep on top of work (plus I scribble on post-it notes for stuff that I absolutely have to remember to action that day but cannot do immediately).

I recently attempted to use a task list in Outlook but stopped in the end as the paper list was just working so much better for me.

PS Mr Babauta – I love your blog and continued advice.