ClearContext – After Lunch

Since one can never have too many use case descriptions when learning a new product, I thought I’d post how I use ClearContext “After Lunch”.  While working at my desk, I try to respond immediately to messages that arrive in my inbox.  Heading out for lunch means a pile of messages will inevitably build up in my inbox.  So here’s my personal “After Lunch” inbox workflow using ClearContext that describes how I am able to quickly deal with the chunk of messages I get while away:

1. Navigate to my Outlook inbox.
2. Ensure the Outlook message preview window is displayed.  If you use the default ClearContext inbox view, this will happen automatically.
   This step ensures I can quickly read a message and see if I need to take action and to also identify if I need a new topic for it or to assign it to an existing one.  Not having to open and close each message saves me time.
3. Start reading messages in my inbox starting with the oldest first.  You can click the Received column header on the menu bar if you keep your inbox clean, since only messages received since you went away will be displayed.
   Note:  This ensures that the original message and all subsequent messages in a thread is categorized by the next step.
4. For each message read, assign or create a topic.
   This is where the magic happens with ClearContext.  By assigning a topic to the first message in a thread, all other messages related to it are also tagged!  I don’t have to spend time either tagging subsequent thread messages or filing each one.
5. When done reading all messages, use the File Thread button to quickly move a number of messages at once to the appropriate topic.
   

While the above process may not seem like much, ClearContext doing the auto assignment of a topic to all related messages, combined with the ability to quickly file entire thread to the related topic means I spend noticeably less time selecting and clicking messages.  I am able to quickly view, categorize and file messages so I can get back to doing the work I need to do.

ClearContext Pro Evaluation

In the quest for a Nirvana that allows me to come to peace with my Outlook 2007 inbox, I recently decided to install a 30-day evaluation copy of ClearContext Pro v4.6.

First, a little background.  I’m a huge fan of GTD tools and approaches to managing the energy involved in thinking about all of the things that we need to do.  I’ve tried a number of different tools and techniques, but most end up falling by the wayside.  A bit of self-reflection made me realize that the biggest problem was that I am forced (at work) to rely on Microsoft Outlook, and many tools feel like a wrapper around Outlook instead of leveraging it.  ClearContext is completely integrated with Outlook, meaning it looked more like Outlook on steroids than a layer on top of it.

Installation went smoothly, and the first ClearContext paradigm surfaced:  based upon an automated assessment of your inbox content, certain contacts are deemed higher priority than others.  ClearContext then uses color highlighting to indicate to you when a high priority contact has sent you something (email, task, etc).  There are multiple levels of contact priority, and you have the ability to change a user’s priority.  I found this feature quite helpful, as I immediately made sure my management chain and the program managers for the projects I’m working on were designated as high priority.

After spending a week with ClearContext, I can honestly say that I am quite impressed.  Those that don’t live in an Outlook world might not see the value ClearContext offers, but I think that the ultimate tribute to it is the fact that since I have installed it, I have reduced my inbox size by 1/3.  More importantly, the number of new messages sitting in my inbox that have arrived since installing ClearContext is……drum roll…..ZERO.

Note that this was accomplished all while providing me with a greater sense of “command” over the projects and tasks that arrived into my mailbox.  While being overloaded with work is never comfortable, ClearContext at least had me feeling that I could

• Properly handle incoming messages and associate them with other related messages (as a thread).
• View a list of the tasks that I received or created that relate to my projects (topics and dashboard feature).
• Know exactly where the messages and tasks I needed were located.

The section below highlights a couple of real standout capabilities that I liked, plus the obligatory “would like to see” areas:

COOL FEATURES

Topic Filing – A core feature of the product is the ability to assign a topic to a message in your inbox (either automatically or manually).  You can then “File” the message which moves it into a folder created for the topic.  The cool part of this is that when you file the message to the topic, it can include all other messages in the message thread – including replies in your sent items folder!  With Outlook (minus ClearContext), I can’t tell you the number of times I needed to file a message thread and had to:

• Send a reply to a message
• Navigate to the sent items
• Click on my reply message
• Move the reply message into a folder with the original message.

The topic filing feature alone is enough to save a considerable amount of time if you are someone who needs to retain your email conversations.  Fortunately, creating a new topic in ClearContext is very quick and easy to do via the toolbar, meaning you quickly begin to use it without impeding your personal mail handling workflow.

Deleting Sent Items – This is related to the topics discussion above.  I’ve always had a gut-wrenching sensation in the past whenever I’ve had to empty my Sent Items folder to clean up my mailbox.  I always wondered what I was deleting that I should have kept.  Now that ClearContext allows me to automatically save sent items with my replies, I now clear out my sent items without angst!! (Note:  Outlook on it’s own allows you to save a reply with an original message, but ONLY if the message is in a folder besides the inbox.  Functional perhaps, but a total pain in my experience).

WISH LIST

Dashboard Messages – Assigning a topic to a message moves it into the appropriate topic folder, where the topic dashboard makes it available, along with appointments, contacts, attachments and tasks.  Unfortunately, while you can sort the message display based on subject, the display is flat, meaning no conversation thread is shown.  In my case, topics equate to projects, so I have multiple conversations related to a single topic.  This means that a particularly active message thread can “shove” older messages off the immediate display.  A threaded message view in the dashboard topics would help.

Contacts – The inbox display includes a list of contacts that are based on messages that are in your inbox.  There is unfortunately no way to filter the list.  In my case, I have a number of old messages in my inbox from people that are no longer working at the my company.  Yet I can’t remove these entries from the contact list.  A nice change would be the ability to remove a contact, which would result in a filter icon shown in the contact menu bar so that I know not all entries are displayed.

Inbox –> Topic –> Archive

While the use of the message/thread filing clears out my inbox, it currently results in a large number of topic messages just being relocated to the topic folder.  For performance reasons, I have my topic folders set to be subfolders in my inbox.  What this means in my workflow is that filing a message doesn’t really remove it from my primary storage.  What I’d really like to to see is an option for each topic that would allow me to designate an archive location such as a folder in a PST.  Then, from a topic dashboard, I could select a message or thread and click an Archive button to move it to the PST.  The value in this is that it would allow me to:

• Keep my inbox clean in accordance with GTD concepts.
• Have a dashboard that shows all the tasks, contacts, and active messages related to a topic.
• Provide an associated archive location where I could move messages from my topic dashboard once the subject matter is no longer active.

Implementing the above feature would provide me with all of the things I need to manage the flood of information that pummels my inbox.

ClearContext release 5 is currently in testing promises a more project-based focus, which has me very hopeful for many improvements that relate to my usage of it.  In the meantime, anyone looking to provide a sense of order to their Outlook inbox is encouraged to try ClearContext.  You can download a demo at www.ClearContext.com

On a five star scale, I give it 4 1/2.  Excellent product!

GTD and Outlook – Limiting the Playing Field

Here at Calmly Productive, we’re practitioners of David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology. The web is full of tools and articles about adopting the GTD methodology into our lives. Investigation and reflection on the wide variety of offering has lead me to a personal truth that an individual’s GTD adoption is largely driven by two factors:

1. Willingness to modify behavioral patterns to realize the benefits of the methodology.
2. Constraints around tools and applications that function as a source of “Actionable” item input sources.

The Calmly Productive team is constrained in our business life by the requirement to operate in a corporate Microsoft-Outlook centric world. What this means is that a high percentage of things requiring action arrive in my Outlook inbox, whether I like it or not. Using the above adoption factors, this means that the further I deviate from the Action source tools I am required to use, the more I will have to modify my behavioral pattern to successfully adopt the methodology. Since I want the bulk of my behavioral change to be related to the implementation of the methodology and not the need to move information to a preferred source (some sexy third party tool), I am forced to limit my GTD tool consideration to solutions that fully integrate with Microsoft Outlook.

There’s no shortage of reading related to GTD and Outlook (see Google result count below!). Some resourceful GTD fan has thrown together an excellent GTD resource index at http://gtd.marvelz.com/blog/gtd-index/.

During a survey of the available tools, I encountered an interesting solution that allows the practice of GTD concepts in an Outlook environment, and includes an extremely compelling feature: IT’S FREE!!!!! (pronounced as “It’s FUUUHHHRRRREEEEEE!). Curiously, it leverages an underutilized Outlook ability to show an HTML “Homepage” for a folder, which gave rise to the early Digital Dashboard Resource Kit, for you longtime Outlook users.

The Tool is called Jello Dashboard (available here), and it was developed by Bill Cosby……oops, I mean Nicolas Sivridis.

Now, I don’t mind saying that after I installed Jello Dashboard, some of the behaviors it showed had me a bit confused. There is a Tiddywiki-based (YEAH!!!! - Calmly Productive LOVES Tiddlywiki!) help available (here), but I was still a bit bewildered about when things should move to folders, email handling vs. tasks, how contexts are handled differently than projects, etc.

After a bit of messing around, I think I’ve learned a bit more about it, and I’m going to devote some blog space here to discussing what I’ve picked up. Stay tuned…..

One Take on GTD in Outlook 2007

Leave it to a blogger from Microsoft to publish an Outlook GTD tutorial using their OneNote product.  Now, I happen to be a fan of OneNote, but I also realize not everyone I'd like to share this tutorial with will have it.  In any case, you can find the tutorial here, and download a free trial of OneNote if necessary.

If you are familiar with the GTD-style approach to managing an Inbox, namely the triage process of either do it, delete it, delegate it, or mark it to be done in the future, you'll find this tutorial a nice guide on how to usefully configure Outlook 2007 flags, categories and search folders.  In fact, I'll bet you might have one of those, "I'd wondered what that was for!" moments.