« Back to The Better Gmail Guide

In ActiveInbox, as in GTD®, a project is simply a goal that can contain actions leading to its completion. It is complete when no more actions remain.

In ActiveInbox, we define our Projects with a Gmail label prefixed with P/

In email, a project might might be something fully agreed upon, such as an official work project (that you might also keep in a project manager), or it might be something emergent and not well understood that becomes clearer as emails are sent. In both cases it is ultimately a way to direct email discussion towards a desirable outcome.

How to make a project label

It is simple, just create a label with the prefix 'P/' and ActiveInbox will turn it into a project. Use additional forward slashes to create sub projects. E.g. P/MyProject/MySubProject/MySubSubProject.

Choosing useful project names

The best names are the shortest and simplest possible description of a desired goal. In ActiveInbox, you can create sub projects to keep everything tidy. For example, we use P/Issues/<Bug Name>, where the goal is to fix the bug.

Progressing conversations through stages

In certain roles, such as sales and PR (and perhaps customer support), many conversations take a common, repeatable path through pre-defined steps. You might think of it as a pipeline, out of which pops a desired result.

When we began promoting ActiveInbox 3.1, I used the following labels:

• P/PR/AI3.1 Launch/1) Contacted
• P/PR/AI3.1 Launch/2) Responded
• P/PR/AI3.1 Launch/3) Written

Success is reached when every email ends up in "3) Written".

And for soliciting product feedback following support enquiries, I use:

• P/Feedback/AI3.1/1) Requested
• P/Feedback/AI3.1/2) Responded
• P/Feedback/Ai3.1/3) Actionable

Using this format lets you instantly glance at what stage a conversation is at, and to pull up all emails at a given stage and work to progress them to the next. It keeps everything moving and increases the likelihood of achieving your overall goal, which is the last stage.

(Tip: In ActiveInbox you can pin project labels to the Gmail interface for instant selection, which is very useful in common pipeline labels).

Capture the purpose behind incoming emails

Whenever a new conversation arrives in your inbox you have to figure out what it is about, and what your desired outcome is for it.

Because most emails are written quickly (and rarely proof read) it is often difficult to fully understand what they are about, and what you are expected to do about them. (This is perhaps a tip for another way to improve email: always make sure the emails you send are as complete, conscise and as useful as can be! But we deal in reality here, so lets find a more forgiving solution...).

For example, in customer support - where we mostly receive inbound email - we first hear of the issues people have found. Based on what the user reports, we create a Project label that best describes the issue (e.g. P/Issues/<Issue Description>). We then discuss the bug with back & forth emails to better understand it, perhaps changing the project label to reflect what we learn. If other people email about the same issue, all conversations go into the same project. Once the issue is well understood, we create a single issue in the Issue Tracker and link it back to the Project label in Gmail. Using this method, many emails result in just one entry in another system (i.e. keep as much in Gmail as possible). Finally, when we release the update we reply to everyone in the project.

(In our example, we have to move it to an issue tracker because that is the best tool for a software development team; it is possible that for you, you can keep everything within Gmail).

The essence is:

1. Receive an email, and if it is important, figure out the desired outcome and then either create a Project for it or add it to an existing Project.
2. Evolve your understanding with back & forth emails, possibly refining the Project name
3. When it is well understood, take action. Close the Project off, reply to all participants, and/or move the actionable to another system (and link it back to Gmail).

Finishing a Project

With ActiveInbox, lots of minor Project labels get created as you give a goal to everything passing through your inbox.

So, to keep the clutter to a minimum, and leave you with just a handful of active Projects to focus on at once, we recommend that when a Project (or Sub Project) is complete, that you rename the label with the 'Old/' prefix.

For example, P/AI Workflow 3.0 would become Old/P/AI Workflow 3.0. It will no longer be shown in your Projects, but you can still accesss it.

Something you can try: using sub projects to represent tasks

This is not a recommended use, but some people do it and we believe it's a neat tip. (It is really not very different from the tips above, the 'task' is just a smaller goal within a bigger project).

You can 'create' a task simply by creating a sub project label, and then add multiple emails to it. For example, for booking a holiday, you might have:

• P/Holiday2010/1 ChooseDate
• P/Holiday2010/2 BookChalet
• P/Holiday2010/3 BookFlights
• P/Holiday2010/4 CarHire
• P/Holiday2010/5 SkiAndBoardHire

To complete each task, just rename the label so it drops off your radar. For example:
P/Holiday2010/1 ChooseDate => Old/P/Holiday2010/1 ChooseDate.

Sign up for our Monthly Newsletter

The effortless (fun!) way to stay informed about ActiveInbox improvements & new Workflow ideas.