I’ll start with an admission: I’ve always been a fairly disorganized person. I’ve got the stereotypical cluttered artist’s desk, and a computer file system to match. As my design business has picked up speed, it’s become harder and harder to keep track of all the projects I have going at once, what I need to do, and who I’m waiting to hear back from.
I don’t revel in my disorganization. I’ve actually always strived to be very organized, but I’ve failed more often than I’ve succeeded. I’ve tried lots of to-do lists and project management apps, both free and paid, to varying degrees of success. But they all wind up gathering dust eventually, for one reason: they all require me to add an additional step to the already overwhelming number of things I have to do.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve started to accept that this is part of who I am, and that I can’t fundamentally change the fact that I’m disorganized. But I can come up with tools that work around that frustrating trait, and help me stay organized in spite of myself.
Now, I’ve finally stumbled upon a task management solution that works for me, and it works because it’s integrated into something I already do — checking Gmail. Nine times out of 10, if I get an email from a client, there’s going to be something in the email that I’ll need to do, from requests for new projects to questions that need answering. The connection is so obvious, but it took me a long time to finally see it.
It took a bit of setting up, but so far, it seems to be working wonders. Here’s how I did it:
LABELS
First, every client gets their own label when I first start working with them (this includes potential clients, too). To create a label, go to Settings > Labels, and type something in the “Create a new label” field. You can assign custom colors to your labels in Gmail, and I’ve chosen to use green with white text for client labels. This helps me spot client emails quickly in my inbox.
I also have two other important labels: 
and 
. (The asterisks make sure the label shows up at the top of the labels list, which is sorted alphabetically.) For these labels, I’ve chosen red with white text so they catch my attention. More on these two labels in a minute.
FILTERS
Once the labels are set up, I set up a filter for each contact I have with a client, which automatically adds the client’s label to emails from those contacts. For example, when I started working on the ElfQuest: A Fan Imagining project, I set up filters to add the ElfQuest label to all incoming emails from the producers, Stephanie Thorpe and Paula Rhodes. This allows me to quickly find all the emails from a particular client with one click of a button.
To create a filter, click the “Create a filter” link next to the search box at the top of the page. Enter the contact’s email address, and click the Next Step >> button. Check the Apply the Label checkbox, and choose the label you want to automatically apply.
I then set up a second filter to automatically add the *TO DO* label to incoming emails from the client. (Unfortunately, Gmail doesn’t allow you to add multiple labels with one filter, which is why you have to do this twice.)
Once I’ve taken care of whatever needed to be taken care of in the email, I simply remove the *TO DO* label. If I then need to wait for the client to sign off on my latest progress, or I need them to answer a question before I can proceed, I manually assign the *Waiting For Feedback* label. I don’t want things that I can’t work on cluttering up my to-do list, but I also don’t want to forget that I’m waiting for something that’s going to need my attention soon.
PRIORITY INBOX
Click to see larger
With the labels and filters set up, all of my incoming client emails are now being sorted into easy to use categories. But they’re still lost in a sea of Woot.com emails, Facebook notifications, emails from my mom wondering why I don’t call as often as I should, etc. The answer to this problem is Google’s new(ish) Priority Inbox. This allows you to divide your inbox into up to four separate panels, each automatically populated with email that matches a particular criteria. I have three sections set up: “All *TO DO*”, “All *Waiting For Feedback*”, and “Everything else” (the default section).
The result is that I automatically have all my to-do items grouped together at the top of my inbox,and I never have to manually add anything to a separate to-do list. The only exception to this is when I get a request over the phone, or in person. For these rare instances, I’ve also set up a filter to add the *TO DO* label to any emails that I send to myself.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This system has been incredibly helpful for me, because it doesn’t require me to remember to remember. Once I set up the label and filter for a client, Gmail takes care of the rest, leaving me free to do my job without worrying about tasks falling through the cracks.
Hope this has been helpful. If you try this system, and come up with a way to improve upon it, I’d love to hear about it!
Photo Credit: Jellaluna / Flickr
Since the day I brought my first iPhone home, I’ve been a huge fan of Apple’s smart phone. But while it has always had slick, modern design and cutting edge apps, it seemed to have a morality filter dating back to the 1950s. Specifically, my otherwise hip and modern iPhone seemed to think “hell” was the worst possible sort of word, and any time I typed it, surely I really meant to type “he’ll,” like a good boy, didn’t I?
