How to use Thunderbird to get things done

Beginning in 2005, I started applying the principles of David Allen's Getting Things Done to my email inbox using Mozilla Thunderbird. This article will show you how to use a combination of tags and saved searches to make GTD work for you.

Aside: Although I'm doing this on a Mac, there's no reason it shouldn't work with Thunderbird on any OS, once you account for minor menu differences across platforms. Also, in principle it should work with any mail client that supports tags or labels and saved searches.

For my original blog posts where I was developing this technique, see the links below.

Before we get started, here's a brief intro to David Allen's Getting Things Done process. 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 essentially next actions too.)

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Thunderbird email client
• A desire to manage your inbox more efficiently.

1. Set up labels. Go to Thunderbird -> Preferences -> Display -> Tags. I've assigned my labels as follows (and in this order): Delete (red), Archive (orange), Action Required (green), Wait (blue), Defer (purple). Thunderbird assigns these as keyboard shortcuts (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) so 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.
   
   Why not just delete items rather than flagging them? Mainly it's an efficiency thing. If I'm punching numbers to triage stuff anyway it's easier to use a number to flag a message for deletion. I'll come back later and wipe them out en masse.

2. Set up basic saved searches. You'll probably want one for each label (Delete, Archive, Action Required, Wait, Defer). Go to File -> New -> Saved Search. Make sure "Search Online" is checked, and select "Match all of the following". Set up a separate saved search for each label: "Tags contains Delete", "Tags contains Action Required", etc.

3. Set up advanced saved searches. I have a "Next Actions" saved search as follows: "Search Online" is checked, then "Match all of the following": Tags doesn't contain "Delete", Tags doesn't contain "Archive", Tags doesn't contain "Defer". See what that does? Anything you need to do something with, anything you're waiting for somebody else to do, and anything that you haven't made the first decision on -- it all shows up in one place. As soon as you mark something as Archive, Delete, or Defer, it disappears from this view on your next refresh.

4. Now that we've got Thunderbird configured, you need to triage your inbox. For each message in your inbox, make a decision (is further action required? do you need to keep this for later?, etc.), and assign it a label. The shortcut keys 1 through 5 (set up in step 1) make it simple.

5. Get things done! Sadly, productivity systems don't increase your productivity unless you get out there and actually do something. So what are you waiting for?

6. When you're done with your "Action Required" or "Waiting For" items, you can go back and re-tag them for archival or deletion. (Use "0" to remove all labels, then add the appropriate tag back onto the message.)

7. Periodically move your "Archive" messages off into a separate folder. I use year-based folders (2008, 2009, etc.) but you can do it in one big folder if you prefer. Remember, search is your friend here, so you don't really need to organize the folders all that much. Once a day is probably sufficient.

8. Every so often you'll want to go back and actually delete the messages marked "Delete" in steps 4 and 6. You might also want to move the messages labeled "Defer" off to their own folder so that your inbox contains mostly stuff that you actually need to follow-up on.

9. Just for completeness, I also have my email client set to BCC me on every outgoing message. This lets me process any messages I'm waiting for replies on just like messages that are sent to me.

Tips & Warnings

• Some IMAP servers will store label information on the server so you can use multiple Thunderbird clients on different computers and the labels will still show up in your inbox.
• GTD was written from a handling of physical stuff perspective -- like needing to decide what to do with specific pieces of paper. There's one fundamental difference in dealing with email -- you don't actually have to file it. Good search on a pile beats browsing by folder any day, if you're looking for something specific (which is the only reason I've ever had to look back at old emails).
• Thunderbird 2.0+ lets you apply multiple tags to messages. This was not the case previously. As a result, you can have a message simultaneously marked "Delete" and "Action Required". This is undesirable given that the process described above assumes only one label per message. It's pretty easy to work around, albeit slightly more prone to human error: just don't apply more than one tag per message. If you're changing the tag, hit "0' first to remove all previous tags.

Resources

• Using Thunderbird to Get Things Done
• Revisiting Thunderbird & GTD with Labels + Folders
• GTD with Thunderbird 2.0
• Getting Things Done (the book)
• David Allen, Getting Things Done and GTD