I don’t use Mail.App because I took the plunge into GMail a while back so that I would not be restricted to a single computer to keep track of email. I remember, it’s just email after all and GMail makes it the simplest for me. Anyway, I recently started using GTDGmail (http://gtdgmail.com/) which is an incredible add on in my humble opinion. I would suggest you look at the structure that they use and maybe take hints from that. I think that they have done a bang up job of implement GTD. Cheers.

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I use mainly the keywords related to GTD: GTDAction, GTDWaitingFor, GTDSomedayMaybe and GTDReplytoWaitingFor . Then I write in the notes filed the next action or similar note.

I have a nifty thing for waitingfor that I picked up somewhere: When I send a mail I’m awaiting an answer for I put the GTDWaitingFor keyword and puts wf inconspiciously at the end of the mail (among the stuff of my signature). Big chance is that when replied to, this text will be in the reply message and hence I have a mailing rule that automatically tags those messages with the keyword GTDReplytoWaitingFor. Having a smart mailbox containing all messages tagged with either GTDWaitingFor or GTDReplytoWaitingFor makes it easy to sift through what messages I’m still awaiting a reply and what has been replied. Cheers

Merlin, I will gladly accept your Coke (if it is diet) and the scent of steak has my fingers twitching.

Oddly, yesterday morning I moved one of my e-mail accounts back to Apple Mail and out of Entourage. I have used Entourage for one reason, its Projects feature with its ability to tie mail, contacts, schedule, notes, and clippings (I have never sorted out what clippings are, but since I rarely use the rest of MS Office for Mac there may be some benefit there).

My move to Mail was driven by two things: 1) Mail has more spring in its step than my e-mail laden Entourage; 2) I really wanted to try the newer functionality in Mail while getting the one mail account out of the Pavlovian Entourage mail ping, as this mail account is mostly picking up travel affinity programs I belong to, sale mail at stores I trust with my e-mail, and daily e-mail dumps of news and other non-work pertinent information.

A year ago I pulled my sparse use of Mail when I had tried Mail Tags and was not wowed enough to make me forget I like Entourage. Yesterday morning I had also downloaded Mail Tags 2 beta, which I set up and started kicking the tires. I wanted to see if it could replicate my manner of thinking in Entourage, but also extend that with tags. So far it seems it can work well as a replacement.

There are two things that are really important to me with mail and metadata (both very similar to Señor Pantalones): 1) Being able to tie mail to a project (client work, conference, or threads of interaction - e.g. mentoring, interviews, etc.) so that all the angles and communications are captured; 2) Being able to tie missing terms to a mail as well as placing hooks for facetted aggregation (e.g. travel, interview, contract, pitch, gift idea, etc.). These two are used as mostly controlled vocabularies as it makes aggregation or general retrieval much easier.

Where Mail with Mail Tags has it over Entourage is free tagging, which I really like as I can just use what is at the top of my head to add context to an e-mail, which is often what I am thinking when I am trying to retrieve it (for me Gmail scales horribly in this area, but Andy Mitchell’s GTDGmail is a much better interface than what Google came up with for tagging/labelling). The ability to free associate or add hooks for future tethers is really important for me. It allows me to connect ideas and mails that have hidden/masked correlations (synergy is the appropriate word but its use tends to get one banned from most discourse these days). I can add the tag SWeStI (for semantically well structured information) or cheap for good bargains.

I also use flags for following up, as my GTD is really frail and mostly approximates GTOMG (yes, “getting things, oh my god” - as in I blew that deadline or so that is what the title urgent meant in iCal to do as it missed the needed context from kGTD).

I am really interested in what Laura Lemay has in her follow-up.

I use mailtags and act-on to tame the mail beast. I use rules to assign project names and tags (client email > client project) to incomming mail. My folders are: 1. Urgent 2. Needs action 3. Waiting for reply / onhold 4. Idears 6. Customers 7. Office 8. Archive - Archive sent

I have also some smartfolders who are looking for e-mails with a specific mail tag. For example ‘hosting’. I use act-on to archive messages or change the e-mail status.

Mail Tags + Mail Act On + Smart Folders is amazing. I also use some other great smart folders “Unread”, “Last Day”, “Last Week”, “Last Month”, “Last 6 Months”, and “Last Year” as basic navigational aides. “Unread” basically becomes my “inbox”. I also have a Smart Folder based on each Project I have in my MT list, and use Act On to assign an email to a project.

I rarely need to do actual searching with this, as I can just go to a smart folder and spot what I need easily enough.

Like Donny Pauly, I wasn’t even aware I could do this. I had been hanging on to Entourage, until I digged a little after Merlin’s query, so Mr. Vander Wal’s comments are very useful to someone like me just beginning to catch on to GTD by means of 43 Folders.

I agree with CM Harrington. MailTags, along with Main ActOn and smart folders is amazing. I am getting my masters online and as a result I get a ton of email that needs to be reviewed and sorted quickly. Besides my Inbox, I have got to folders where I keep everything…one for school, and one for everything else. I have a series of Smart Folders set up to pull content with certain MailTags. I also have a Smart Folder for all unread mail. I check new mail there and have forced myself to get into the habit of tagging it after I read it. Once it is read and tagged, it sits in my Inbox. Then on Sunday, I use Mail ActOn to clear out the Inbox. Everything resides in either the Archive or School Folder, but can be reviewed in whatever Smart Folder is applicable.

Will someone please, please make a FinderTags or the equivalent?! I want my computer to be delicious too!!

Why doesn’t Devonthink have this feature?

Like with developing a very complex software system that involves over time, I find it helpful to perform regular refactorings of my taxonomy.