There are implementations and information on applying Getting Things Done method onto email client like Outlook. How about applying it to open source email client? Entropic Principal has posted up an entry on how to apply GTD with thunderbird. The author got a pretty good idea. He uses label feature for assigning labels to different contexts (i.e. Delete, Archive, Action Required, Wait, Defer) in thunderbird – the sole reason is that each label assigns to a shortcut key (i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5), triage is so quick with single keystroke. Then a saved search assign to search a specific label for displaying the context:
… GTD is heavily dependent on keeping track of “next actions”, essentially a comprehensive to-do list. The idea is to know what you’re not working on so you can make reasonable choices about what’s important to work on right now. The concept of the “In” box is core – for every item you take out of “In”, there are only a few options: toss it in the trash, decide on a required next action, or file it for reference. (Technically, there’s also “waiting for somebody else” and “defer until later”, but these are next actions too.)
Let’s start with the labels. (Thunderbird -> Preferences -> Display) I’ve assigned my labels as follows: Delete, Archive, Action Required, Wait, Defer. Since Thunderbird assigns these as keyboard shortcuts (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), I can go through my inbox and quickly triage items with an appropriate label. The color coding makes it easy to pick out stuff that needs attention…
Using Thunderbird to Get Things Done – [Entropic Principal via HotLinks]
[...] For thunderbird, you can use the label facility to achieve this as well. [...]
I’ve tweaked this a bit, my labels are Fleeting, Upcoming and Contact Info. I’ve set some filters so that a fair number of email lists start out marked as “fleeting” (which I’ve also modified to display in a light grey) and a few event lists are automatically labeled “upcoming.” The rest I label myself with the number keys. I also recenlty discovered that “J” also toggles the junkmail marker, so I can go through my inbox mouse free now.
I like this set up because I want to see these lists, but sometimes I don’t have time to read them, and I almost never want to save them, but I’ve accidently deleted the wrong message one too many times and had a hard time finding it in the trash. So I mark things fleeting and they fade to gray. Every now and again, I show only “fleeting” messages and delete them all.
Some lists I want to be able to read the threaded archives of: those get filtered into folders. Other lists I want to skim and delete. Those are fleeting.
Upcoming and Contact Info work about the same. Upcoming I can delete from time to time, but also when I get an email about an interesting event or a conference call I need to be on, I hit “2″ and move on. When I want to find the details of something I know I recieved, I can view only messages labeled “upcoming” and it’ll be in there somewhere. Flight info is upcoming, so all travel reminders from Orbitz and what not are automagically labeled by the filters. Mileage offers are fleeting.
Contact info eventually needs to make its way into my address book, but it can linger in the inbox for a while and I can find it amidst the rest.
I’m pretty sure this isn’t true GTD, but I’ve really reigned in my inbox. Every time I look at my inbox and 3/4 of my new messages are grayed, I smile with pride.
Sometimes I do want to know that my capoeira classmates are going to some festival together, but when I start my day by checking my email I want to be able to see the real messages clearly.