Managing Email: PC or Online?
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I’ve been using Outlook, but is it time to manage my email and calendar separately? This is my quandry today…
I fired up Old Besty The Laptop this morning. She’s a little sluggish, but hey would wouldn’t be on this summer day of clouds and 60 degrees? Outlook was especially slow to launch. *sigh*
It makes me think (again) about switching to Google managing my email. Here’s some pros and cons:
Outlook:
Pros: grouping all correspondence with each contact in the “Activities” tab; all-in-one application; folders for email archival; email templates (loving that more everyday); my “from” field says my actual email/URL address
Cons: slow to launch; can’t access remotely; likes to crash at THE most inopportune times
Google:
Pros: online and accessible anywhere (like at my Tuscany villa, after my book makes millions *grin*); syncs with my Outlook calendar; deliverability seems really great; Google Docs (ok, it’s not really related to email, but it’s cool!)
Cons: No folders (or I can’t figure it out); all email, except archived, is in one folder; don’t know if there is an email template feature
So, this is my dilemna. Anyone faced this before? I’m thinking of taking my email online, but will I be losing or gaining productivity?
What do you use?
(photo by Tim Morgan, flickr
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Google has folders, they are called labels. You can read my post on Home Office Warrior to see what I am talking about at http://is.gd/yEi
I’m not sure about folders in gmail, but what I do is create “labels” and apply them to certain emails. For example, I have a “swipe” label and any email I read that I really liked gets that label applied. Then I can go back and read all the emails I’ve labeled “swipe” instead of actually creating a folder.
I use Windows Live Mail which lets you import emails from almost any email service. I’ve got my hotmail, gmail and regular ISP provided emails all sorted in that one applicated. I set my gmail settings to forward to it so I don’t actually have to log into gmail everytime, but yet I can still access it remotely if I’m away from home.
I wrote about it on my blog just a few days ago actually. It’s great for staying organized when you typically get hundreds of emails a week from various newsletters/customers/blog comments, etc.
Cassies last blog post..Do You Work On The Weekends?
I’m definitely in the online camp. Bouncing around the Eastern seaboard, I never know if they have a computer or not, it nice to access up my online account from anywhere
Gmail’s label system is more useful than outlook’s folder system. You can label each email with as many labels as you want, it is great if you have topics that can fit in different catagories. (Super if you have a tendency to forget where you filed something, just give the email various labels and you have a better chance of finding it). The other awesome thing about gmail is using it for an online storage cabinet. If I have different things I think I may need while I’m on the road away from my external hard drive, I just email it to myself and then I can retrieve it from wherever I am. I could go on and on about the power of gmail and how much it’s simplified my life – if that is even possible when you are talking about email
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Hi,
Although I like gmail, Outlook far outpaces it with functionality for productivity, such as automated rules and formatting, archiving by date vice topic. The calendar features of Outlook such as color coding, printing, automatic formatting are also superior to google calendar (as of now of course, google is adding new features daily it seems ~).
All this said, remember, these are just “tools”. We each need to remember to make a plan for how to better manage our inboxes – whether it be reading only at certain times of day, implementing automated rules and folders, committing to responding in 48 hours, etc. (But then again, that is a whole different topic for another day, eh?)
So for now, Outlook is my primary, with gmail as secondary (and all messages forwarded to Outlook so I have a single consolidated master). ./sab
Brandie, my answer won’t help you. I use Apple’s Mail, Address Book and iCal on my Mac. They work fine for me.
Jeri Danskys last blog post..Lacquer Boxes from Around the World
Jeri,
That’s true, but if I ever switch to a Mac it will! And it’s great to see you here too!
Think I am migrating to Google Apps. It’s working well for two days already.
Thanks!
Hmmm… Although I am all about the google “cool-aid” I don’t know as I would be willing to give up my outlook. I totally dig your struggles, but would you really be checking email from your villa in Tuscany?