While I'm sure the various "follow up" services are great (I'm a pretty big Boomerang Gmail fan myself), it's also incredibly easy to roll your own solution to this problem using gmail filters.
When sending a message that needs a followup, BCC yourself - something like myname+followup@gmail.com. Then setup a filter that labels/stars/etc all messages to myname+followup, and you'll have a nice queue of messages that need to be checked for responses.
Once I started tracking this, I was absolutely blown away by the percent of emails I send that get ignored. I'm not selling anything, but still get <50% response rate.
Simpler solution (which GTD practitioners already know): keep a Waiting On list. Put due dates on it. Follow up when you hit the due date.
I use Todoist, but this will work with many todo systems, including pen & paper ones. When populating a project with items, like "Email Greg with questions from the RFP", I also add an item, like "Get RFP questions from Greg" and tag it with @waiting. I will also give the latter item a due date (e.g. 24 hours). If I want to see everything I'm waiting on, I can just look at the @waiting tag, but it's going to pop up when it's due anyways.
This is a much better solution if you already have todo lists, since you don't have to train yourself to perform a different activity, or keep track of yet another list of things in another program. Plus, it separates todo list maintenance activities from your email inbox. That kind of mental separation makes me way more productive by reducing the complexity of the given activity (i.e. sending an email).
You're right, but it doesn't solve the problem discussed in the article. He's not looking for a laundry list of emails he needs to follow-up on in the future. He (like many of us who do Inbox Zero or are otherwise GTD-ish) will only want the three emails he has to act on, exactly two weeks from now, to show up in his inbox on that day.
This is a great system. Depending on the type of emails you're sending, you could also use Gmail Labs' Canned Response feature to speed up the follow-ups.
GMail also has a "fancy stars" lab plugin that makes flagging mails that need follow-up very easy. The advantage to your approach, admittedly, is that it works in any email client, not just GMail's web app.
Comments
While I'm sure the various "follow up" services are great (I'm a pretty big Boomerang Gmail fan myself), it's also incredibly easy to roll your own solution to this problem using gmail filters.
When sending a message that needs a followup, BCC yourself - something like myname+followup@gmail.com. Then setup a filter that labels/stars/etc all messages to myname+followup, and you'll have a nice queue of messages that need to be checked for responses.
Once I started tracking this, I was absolutely blown away by the percent of emails I send that get ignored. I'm not selling anything, but still get <50% response rate.
Simpler solution (which GTD practitioners already know): keep a Waiting On list. Put due dates on it. Follow up when you hit the due date.
I use Todoist, but this will work with many todo systems, including pen & paper ones. When populating a project with items, like "Email Greg with questions from the RFP", I also add an item, like "Get RFP questions from Greg" and tag it with @waiting. I will also give the latter item a due date (e.g. 24 hours). If I want to see everything I'm waiting on, I can just look at the @waiting tag, but it's going to pop up when it's due anyways.
This is a much better solution if you already have todo lists, since you don't have to train yourself to perform a different activity, or keep track of yet another list of things in another program. Plus, it separates todo list maintenance activities from your email inbox. That kind of mental separation makes me way more productive by reducing the complexity of the given activity (i.e. sending an email).
You're right, but it doesn't solve the problem discussed in the article. He's not looking for a laundry list of emails he needs to follow-up on in the future. He (like many of us who do Inbox Zero or are otherwise GTD-ish) will only want the three emails he has to act on, exactly two weeks from now, to show up in his inbox on that day.
This is a great system. Depending on the type of emails you're sending, you could also use Gmail Labs' Canned Response feature to speed up the follow-ups.
GMail also has a "fancy stars" lab plugin that makes flagging mails that need follow-up very easy. The advantage to your approach, admittedly, is that it works in any email client, not just GMail's web app.