Create @ACTION Folders in Outlook for Getting Things Done

Managing email effectively and efficiently is becoming an increasingly more important skill in today’s workplace, and finding a good time management system, such as the extremely popular Getting Things Done® by David Allen, can be a matter of survival. The sheer volume of messages received on a daily basis can be overwhelming, and it is not uncommon to find users with hundreds and even thousands of messages cluttering up their Inboxes.


With all that clutter, it is usually just a matter of time before important messages are lost or forgotten until it is too late to act. Many otherwise effective professionals and knowledge workers can find their work — and their careers — hopelessly bogged down by the demands for their time and for their attention that are delivered to them non-stop via their email accounts. Since Outlook is the preferred program for managing email in most organizations, getting control of email means learning how to make Outlook support your goal of getting things done.


One great way to get started is to create a set of folders for helping you manage your email more effectively — a set of folders that make it possible to clear your Inbox and help insure nothing slips through the cracks.


Most users are familiar with the Inbox, Drafts, Sent Items, and Deleted Items folders that are created for every Outlook user. You can also easily add your own folders to those that Outlook creates that will better support your time management system. Begin by creating one folder to handle messages that will require your immediate action, another for emails that you will need to review later, and a final folder that will act as a digital filing cabinet within Outlook for you to store messages that you may need on some future date.


These folders will be named @ACTION, @REVIEW-LATER, and @REFERENCE. (We’ll review the reason for the @ symbol and the capitals later.)


When reviewing your email, you will decide which emails need immediate action, which will need to be reviewed later, and which you will want to file for future reference. Each message will be moved to one of these folders as part of your review. Emails sent to @ACTION and @REVIEW-LATER will remain there until you have taken any necessary steps the messages may require. Once you have completed the action necessary they can be moved to the appropriate @REFERENCE folder until needed.


You may find it useful to create an additional @Folder for your boss, for a key customer, or for an important project. You can also add these folders within the @REFERENCE list of alphabetical folders. The important thing is to create a basic structure and then stick to using it. Over time and with repeated use, you will find that knowing when to create additional folders to make your system even more effective is a fairly intuitive task.



Creating the Folders to Support Your Time Management System

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First you will create the folder for emails that require your immediate action, naming it @ACTION. The list of folders can be found in the column on the left, directly under the list of Favorites. Highlight the top-most folder, usually named after your email account, and right-click to open the context menu. Select the option “New Folder.”


Type the name of the folder you want to create, in this case @ACTION. Leave the default selection of “Mail and Post Items” in the dropdown box labeled “Folder Contains.”


You have now created your first folder to support getting things done. Like other folders in Windows, these will be sorted alphabetically and beginning the folder name with the “@” symbol insures it will remain at the top of your list. Using all capitals is another effective way to insure the folders remain conspicuous.


Now create the @REVIEW-LATER and @REFERENCE folders using the same method. As mentioned earlier, if you think it necessary you can also add a folder for your boss or for a key customer or project, but in this case remember less is more.


To file messages alphabetically within the @REFERENCE folder you created, you will next need to create a series of folders for holding those messages. You can go all out and create one for every letter of the alphabet or you can group them in folders like “A-C,” “D-F,” etc. Since these will be sub-folders that you will want to place within the @REFERENCE folder, begin by highlighting @REFERENCE before right-clicking to open the context menu.


Creating sub-folders within these folders is accomplished following the same method. To create a folder for Customers, for instance, begin by highlighting the C folder.



Put Your New System to Work

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You are now ready to begin using your new folders. When reviewing your email, decide if the message requires your immediate action, if it needs to be reviewed at a later date, or if you will file it away in your digital filing cabinet. To move the message, highlight it and open the context menu with a right-mouse click. Select the “Move” option.


A list of the folders you have used most recently will be provided in the context menu. Click the folder you want and left-mouse click. The message will be moved to the folder you selected. If the folder you want isn’t listed, you can choose “Other Folder” from the bottom of the list to open a dialogue box with all of your choices.


You now have a folder structure that will support getting things done !

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Have a nice day!