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Email reminder – best practice

Tuesday June 30th, 2020, 8:37 pm

Email reminder, which is best practice, to add it to the task list or flag it?  Neither one is better.  It is about:

  • personal preference;

    Email reminders

  • how much time you spend out of the office looking at your inbox on a mobile device;
  • whether or not you are managing another person’s inbox;
  • level of added data you need about the reminder.

Here are the pros and cons of each email reminder process. This is an extract out the new book being co-authored with Meslissa Esquibel for Executive Secretary Magazine

1. Task List

Pros

  • Excellent if you like working from task lists.
  • You can add more information such as Categorize and notes – see diagram below.
  • You can assign the task to someone else.
  • They turn red after their due date.
  • If you are sharing your inbox or looking after another person’s task list, you can see the complete list.
  • For Outlook users, you can add extra information, including forwarding the task to another person.: see below

Cons

  • You need to complete the Task dialogue box.
  • Takes about 15 to 30 seconds longer than adding a Flag.
  • On an iOs mobile device the task list does not automatically show up.  You must add either the ‘Reminder’ or ‘To Do’ app.  The latter is the more sophisticated.

2. Flags

Pros

  • Quick and easy.  If you add Reminder date, they will be added to your Task List (even if the reminder is ‘No due Date’).
  • You can see all flagged items in the ‘For Follow Up’ (smart) Search Folder.

Cons

  • On a mobile device you must be add the Flagged folder.
  • For iOs users you need to add this as follows:
  • Open the Mail app./Tap Edit in the upper-right corner./Select Flagged./Tap Done.
  • If you also use the Task List this can become very cluttered.

Thus,as you can see which procees you use for an email reminder it is very much a matter of prsonal preference.  If you want more time saving tips like this why not book one of our Smart Email Management webinars or a one-to-one coaching session?

For more time saving tips and hints why not buy a copy of one of our books or let us run a Smart Email Management workshop for you and your colleagues.
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