ClearContext Corporate Blog

We have released v4.0.3, as referenced in our updated product plan.  Changes in this release include: 

• Improved handling of recurring appointments in the Dashboard and ActionView
• Enhanced installation to accommodate some of the quirky Vista setup problems we have been seeing    
• Tweaked appointments display in the Dashboard to include Day of Week    
• A few additional minor fit/finish enhancements

Download here. 

Also, as part of this release, we have included a beta of the ClearContext Contact Exporter, one of the prototype projects we mentioned in our product plan.  I’m going to talk about that one in more detail in the next post…

We pulled together a Getting Started page for folks who are trying out the app for the first time.  If interested, here’s what we posted. Feedback is always welcome.

In just a few minutes, this will illustrate the core concepts of the IMS solution, allowing you to quickly move through your inbox and focus on working on projects.  For additional tips on best use of the product, see our Solutions Pages:

After install, the first time you open Outlook, IMS will analyze your email history to rank your email contacts.  Using this and other information about your email patterns, IMS will prioritize your inbox.

The setup process normally only takes a few minutes, but will take longer for large email files and inboxes.

Once setup is complete, the inbox messages will be color-coded to highlight the most important messages.  You can select alternate custom inbox views from the ClearContext->Inbox Views menu, or at any time revert to standard Outlook views.

A Topic will be created for each folder under your inbox.  Use the Topic button or dropdown to assign topics to email.  All messages in that email conversation will be assigned that Topic. 

Use the Task and Schedule buttons to create a task and appointment linked to your email message. 

Click File Msg to file the email directly into a Topic folder. 

Use the Defer function to move messages out of your Inbox for a specified time period. 

Use these message management functions on a number of emails in your inbox to act on your email quickly and efficiently.

Open the Dashboard.  The initial screen will show pending tasks and appointments, as well as flagged messages in the inbox.  Select a Topic you used earlier via the dropdown or Topic button in the Dashboard.   Now, all messages, tasks and appointments with that Topic will be displayed in a consolidated project view.

Alerts, Do Not Disturb, Unsubscribe, Follow-Up, Delegate and AutoAssign are just a few of the other features within ClearContext that can be accessed in the Inbox from the ClearContext menu for a more complete evaluation of the product.

See our tutorials for demonstrations of these features.

The Succeed step of the IMS Daily Workflow is the ultimate goal of the process.  You’ve identified your priorities for the day and have managed your Inbox.  Now, throughout the day, succeed by focusing on your work rather than your email: 

 

Turn off new mail notifications via Do Not Disturb so that you can work on your tasks without interruption. 

 

Open the IMS Dashboard and select a project to work on via the Topic drop down.  Work on your most important tasks for the project. 

 

To stay on top of email throughout the day, sort your Inbox by priority (ClearContext > Inbox Views) and review only your highest priority messages (in red and blue) as needed. 

 

Use the RelatedView to see emails, appointments and other related tasks to get the full context for the item you are working on.

One note on the Prioritized step above – if you look at a message during this phase, make sure that you act on any message you open just as you would in the manage phase.  You should strive to only touch an Inbox message once. 

By completing the Identify and Manage steps previously, you are free to focus on the work that is most important to you while staying in control of your email. 

As mentioned in my initial IMS post, this process is distilled down from a wealth of best practices developed over the course of several years.  If you have not done so already, subscribe to this blog to receive future tips on best use of IMS to maximize your personal productivity.

Michael Linenberger, author of best-selling Microsoft Outlook book Total Workday Control and ClearContext partner, publishes a newsletter chock full of Outlook tips and ways to leverage the TWC system.  In the latest he talks about IMS v4 and how it works with TWC.  If interested, you can sign up to receive the newsletter at the link at the bottom of the page.

Long time user Craig Kennedy has posted a thorough review of ClearContext IMS v4 and how he applies GTD practice using ClearContext + Outlook as his trusted system:

"Recently ClearContext released version 4 of the Information Management System, and with this release I finally uninstalled the Netcentrics add-in and have moved snugly into ClearContext as my sole workflow tool. What finally tipped the scale for me was the introduction of the Dashboard, a central hub where I can view all my appointments, email messages and tasks according to project. This welcome addition was what turns CC into a GTD powerhouse."

I was most pleased to see that Craig gets the theory behind the IMS Daily Workflow:

"What really knocked my socks off and has served to turbo-charge my work habits is Step 3 in the process, Succeed. … What ClearContext has provided is much needed "context". When I move into the dashboard and begin quickly clicking through my projects, I inevitably find a number of small actionable tasks that I’m all too willing to tackle because I can now see clearly "why" I wanted to do it. By seeing that clear link from task to project, my motivation remains high and I’m getting much more done."

Read the rest of the article is you are looking for additional insight into how to use Outlook and IMS as your trusted system.  Also, see our Using IMS with GTD setup guide for additional tips.

On a related note, despite the praise Craig has heaped on the Dashboard, this is just v1.0 of that feature.  Future releases will add additional flexibility and interactivity to make it an even more powerful tool for workday management.  If you would like to help us prioritize the features we build next, please go to this forum thread and let us know what you would like to see next.

Once you have finished Identifying the day’s priorities, move on to the Manage phase of the IMS Daily Workflow.  Twice daily (or some other specified interval based on email response time requirements), starting with your highest priority email first, quickly act on each Inbox message or determine when you want to act on it: 

Act Immediately? 

 

If the message doesn’t have a Topic assigned to it, assign one.  IMS will link all future emails, tasks and appointments to this Topic. 

 

Reply to the message if you can do so in a minute or two.  IMS can automatically file the original message to a Topic folder for you. 

 

Delegate the email to someone else as appropriate. 

 

If no response is required, review the message and file it to a Topic folder. 

 

Act Later? 

 

If the message doesn’t have a Topic assigned to it, assign one.  IMS will link all future emails, tasks and appointments to this Topic. 

 

Defer messages that you aren’t ready to deal with to a later date. 

 

Create a task from email that requires further action on your part. 

 

Schedule appointments from messages that require a meeting. 

 

No action required? 

 

Unsubscribe from mailing lists or long email threads that you have no interest in. 

 

Delete messages that you don’t need to keep for archiving purposes.

This phase of IMS is the bridge that moves you from sizing up your day to working on your most important projects.  Consider it blocking and tackling – quickly and efficiently move through your Inbox and put messages onto your calendar or your task list.  The end result will be a cleared Inbox and a prioritized task list, allowing you to focus on your work rather than your email. 

Up Next: Succeed by focusing on your core work

Microsoft has posted how Bill Gates Office 2007 throughout the day.  Not surprisingly, Bill spends most of his time in Outlook:

"I spend the majority of my time communicating with colleagues, customers, and partners. As a result, Outlook is the application that I use the most. I receive about 100 e-mail messages per day from Microsoft employees, and many more from customers and partners."

"It’s very important that I hear what people think about our products and our company. Yet I need to balance that against the very real risk of information overload from all the e-mail that I receive."

At least Bill has the luxury of assistant(s) to help out.  Read the rest of the post for other interesting tidbits (for example, he just started using tasks in Outlook this year…).

The first step in the IMS Daily Workflow is to Identify the day’s priorities.  Before you jump into the morning’s email, take the opportunity size up your day.  Using the IMS Dashboard:

 

Review today’s meetings and appointments.  Reschedule any conflicts. 

 

Review your Tasks and Actions list for the day.  Adjust due dates based on task and project priorities. 

 

Review your IMS Alerts to see which messages demand immediate attention. 

 

Identify your highest priority messages so that you are prepared to manage your Inbox.

Taking this time in the morning to get your priorities in place is the key to a productive day.  Before you move on to manage your Inbox for the first time, work on one or two of your most important tasks.

Up Next: Manage your Inbox

We’ve received a ton of great feedback about IMS v4 via email and on the forums since our release a few weeks ago.  So far, our response to most of it has been “That has been added to the feature request list” or “That’s something we hope to do.” That doesn’t mean we’re not paying very close attention – we just wanted to get as much feedback as possible to help us prioritize everything in a manner that best reflects what our customers need.  Additionally, we’ve had to poke around on some of these requests to gauge the development effort required to fully implement. 

Now that we’ve had some time to gather that information, here’s a general outline of what we’re planning (subject to change, but this should be pretty close). We’re breaking things into four areas – a 4.0.x maintenance release, various prototype projects we’ve been working on for a while, a 4.x upgrade (free to all registered v4 customers), and our next major product release:

4.0.x Maintenance Release

We’ve got a point release in QA that will address a couple of issues in found in the initial v4.0 release, specifically: 

• Improved handling of recurring appointments in the Dashboard and ActionView
• Enhanced installation to accommodate some quirky Vista installation problems we have been seeing
• Minor fit/finish changes

Most of these changes address minor problems reported that won’t impact existing users.

Prototype/beta projects

We’ve been working on a bunch of areas in parallel with our core IMS development.  Clues to the direction of this development are in Deva’s blog posts on the future of email, but we’re not quite ready to talk about details publicly yet.  We hope to roll out the first component along with the 4.0.x maintenance release, at which point we’ll share more information about the types of things we’re developing to leverage and extend core IMS capabilities.

4.x Upgrade

We’re planning to deliver a 4.x update in the first half of 2008.  This is going to largely address feature requests people have made around the following areas: 

• Dashboard Display and Interactivity
• Setup Improvements
• Better Handling of Un-scored Messages

While some of the major components are being worked on, we’re still prioritizing a number of the specific smaller chunks of functionality to see what makes it in to this release.  We’ve created a forum thread here to get input from everyone on what your top priorities are. 

Next major release planning

We’re also in the process of scoping out and scheduling the future release plans for the next major version of IMS and other applications in the ClearContext suite of products. Much of this involves brand new functionality (related to the prototype/beta projects above) that we’ll discuss in more detail in the coming weeks and months.  On the technical side we’re working on ways to improve multi-machine support.  We’ll also continue to enhance existing IMS features, especially around areas of new v4 functionality like the dashboard.  Existing IMS areas we’re looking to improve/expand include: 

• Improved Threading
• Message Tagging
• Dashboard Flexibility
• Enhanced Automation Capabilities

We’ll have a more detailed post on this in the future, as well as a forum thread discussing the release plan.

For right now, though, our priority is making sure we get the right set of features delivered in our 4.x upgrade to improve the usability and value of new pieces of functionality such as the IMS Dashboard.  We really appreciate everyone’s feedback and pay close attention to every suggestion and forum thread.  Please post any ideas/suggestions you have there; we’ll continue to do our best to get as many of those features as possible into the product.

I stumbled across this Ferris Research article on measuring email response time and email SLA’s at Ferris Research.  David Sengupta basically says that using email response time as a metric is a sure fire way to develop unproductive work habits in the organization:

“Being hyper-responsive to email around the clock suggests that you live an interrupt-driven work life and that you likely have a hard time concentrating for prolonged periods of time. Your overall productivity is likely to be reduced as a result, making you less valuable.

…

Many people are intensely productive but block hours or even days of email-free time, in order to focus on priority projects. When you hear managers or others in the company suggesting that there is some inherent value in someone’s ability to be instantly responsive to any message that comes their way, or in someone’s ability to process a massive amount of email, think again.”

This is, of course, exactly what we have been saying.  Focus on your projects rather than your messages and you’ll be a lot more successful in the long run.