ClearContext Information Management System

Outlook runs my life - because that’s what I want.

Outlook offers exactly what I need to have a trusted place for my work. Outlook is the e-mail inbox, the place where work often arrives. Outlook has my calendar, including a second calendar for my writing schedule, which tells me where I need to be and what to do on that day. Outlook has all of my contacts, a number that continues to grow. And, finally, Outlook has a Notes function. I use Notes to store reference material - like the number on the ink cartridge refills for my printer so when I am in the store I can look at my PDA and retrieve the numbers while looking at the product.

But Outlook alone doesn’t do it right.

Taking an e-mail and turning it into a task works, but is clunky. So is turning an e-mail from outside the company into an appointment on the calendar. And then, well, there’s e-mail.

E-mail flies into the inbox at the rate of 100-150 a day. Projects have e-mail updates and files. And, frankly, there are some e-mail threads I’d just rather not pay attention to at all. Wouldn’t you just love to “unsubscribe” to the “reply all” flame wars?

Well, I did, using ClearContext Information Management System. ClearContext is an Outlook add-on that prioritizes your e-mail for you automatically so your most important e-mail is always at the top of your inbox. You do want to see your manager’s e-mail first, don’t you? Well now you can.

Building tasks and appointments is easy

And ClearContext makes building a task a cinch. If you are reading the e-mail, just click on the task icon. ClearContext automatically opens a new task, puts your original e-mail (and the attachments in the e-mail) into the task as an attachment and gives you the text of the e-mail in the body of the task. The first time I did this, I sat there stunned at the simplicity. I didn’t believe it.

Creating an appointment from a message works the same way. Easy.

Save e-mail to folders automatically

Most people build folders for e-mail subjects so they have a place to store like-minded e-mail in one place. But they manually move the e-mail and forget where the e-mail goes later, something that is surprisingly easy to do. ClearContext lets you assign a topic to an e-mail and every e-mail that comes in from then on with that same subject header is assigned automatically to the topic. And a click or two automatically moves those e-mails to folders for you.

Build a trusted task management system with ClearContext

When the world is coming at you, it is critical to have a trusted system for managing your work and life. Outlook alone can’t do it well. But, with ClearContext, Outlook rocks!

I could survive without ClearContext. But with it, my task management system thrives. You can try it by downloading a trial version or buy the program and license. It’s really good.

Scot

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