How to apply GTD in Microsoft Outlook
A guide to GTD in Microsoft Outlook
As much as we like our fancy tools, many workplaces still use Microsoft as their main OS. And the evil that is Outlook.
In my day job as an executive assistant, Outlook is my primary tool to get things done. Over the years, I developed a workflow that integrates the Getting Things Done methodology into this software, working with its features and limitations.
Let me show you how I do it.
Outlook as a task manager
Outlook comes built-in with a task manager.
In the main panel of your email software, on the left-hand side, you should see a clipboard with a checkmark. That is where your to-do list resides.
Anytime you flag an email, it will automatically go into your to-do list. I use that feature a lot for anything I need to work on or any email I need to follow up on at a later date.
You can select the due date for that flag when you set it, acting as your GTD tickler file.
Tags for the different components of GTD
Outlook has a powerful tag feature.
You can tag emails, tasks, and color-code your calendar with the same categories.
GTD favors working within contexts, so my different contexts are tags. I prefer to batch my work within specific softwares, such as accounting, which has its own tag.
Also, the people I work with more closely all have their own tags, to make sure I know exactly what I need to ask them the next time we meet.
I also have a Next Action tag for anything that is not date-specific, and a Waiting For tag that I use extensively for anything someone should get back to me about. That way I can follow up with them during my weekly review.
When I send an email and I know I’ll be waiting for an answer, I go into my sent folder and flag that email with the Waiting For tag and the date of my next weekly review.
In this crazy email era, it happens more often than not that my messages get lost in the mountain of other messages my colleagues receive. My follow-ups are always welcome.
The power of the weekly review
To make it all work and ensure that nothing gets forgotten during the week, I perform a weekly review every Friday afternoon.
I wrote an entire blog post about my weekly review process, but when at work, I use a checklist step-by-step in OneNote.
I will empty the trash folder, review my tasks for the week, reschedule anything that didn’t get done, and then look at my calendar for the week to make sure I did not forget to capture any to-dos related to meetings I had.
I will look at my entire list of tasks, schedule the ones that don’t have a due date (if they are not tagged as Next Actions), review my Waiting For list and follow up on stuff that needs a reply.
I will look at the next few week’s calendar and block off time to work on specific projects that need more focus, in a Deep Work style.
I will finally look at a list of all my current projects and areas of responsibility to prompt tasks that I did not capture during the week, in what David Allen calls a Brain Dump.
GTD is platform-agnostic
I find that I can apply the principles of Getting Things Done to any piece of software I use, such as Notion, Outlook or Todoist, thus making it platform-agnostic.
But as far as Outlook goes, with time and tinkering, my workflow has become elegant and efficient. My weekly review nowadays takes no more than 20 minutes and I often get complimented on my rigorous follow-ups and reliance. I know that it all comes down to the quality of my systems.
I believe you can apply the same method to the platform of your choice and achieve similar results.
Go Deeper
If you want to dive deeper into the Getting Things Done methodology, there’s nothing like reading the original book. I also recommend Making It All Work, a follow-up that Allen wrote to teach GTD practitioners how to apply the system in depth.
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