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Email Reply Reminder

making email remind you to expect a reply from a friend
  (+9, -1)(+9, -1)
(+9, -1)
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this, ideally, would be an Outlook add-on on the lines of Dissapearing email (bug off for a minute non-outlook users and read on).

Often, when you want something you send an email.. (hey Jim, do you know Bob's email address, or hey ATI why do my drivers suck so bad, or Betty could you get me a report on the Mongolese by Tuesday)

Only, I often forget I've sent it -- and I know I'm not the only one. When I send an email just add one dialog box which says "Expect reply in x" with choices for 1 hour to 30 days. Then if they haven't replied in that given time the email program can remind you and you can bug them again.

Of course, you could add a task in outlook for every silly question I ask somebody - but that's way overboard. Just somethig simple that will help me remember to be angry at my friend and coworkers for not getting back to me

nhyatt, Jan 14 2002

(??) Dissapearing Email http://www.disappearing.com
Different functionality (allows you to set a time for the email to delete itself) but probably similar interface/infrastructure [nhyatt, Jan 18 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004]

(??) what happens when email goes unanswered http://www.unitedme...lbert-20011225.html
[sappho, Jan 19 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004]

[link]






       Doh! Guilty as charged.
thumbwax, Jan 14 2002
  

       When you send an important email, CC yourself. Your copy will come back to you immediately. Right click on it and choose "Follow Up...". Choose the date and time that you want to be reminded, and this is baked. You can also create a sub-folder in your inbox to put the CC messages in to keep them from cluttering up your inbox.
mwburden, Jan 14 2002
  

       true mwburden, and as mentioned it is also baked if you set a task for everything you send out.. which you can also put in a folder and check. but it does seem like an awful lot of trouble when all I wanted to do was ask Jim if he wanted to get beers on saturday. Something more casual and integrated. But your right... oh, and any day now I really need to start categorizing my email in seperate folders and then remember to go read them.
nhyatt, Jan 15 2002
  

       If Jim doesn't respond, presume he doesn't want beers with you and is trying to avoid having to come right out and tell you.
waugsqueke, Jan 15 2002
  

       Yeah, but setting a task is a lot more steps than clicking the email and clicking "Follow Up". Since choosing the time and date that you want the reminder to go off is 75% of the work, I don't think that even a more integrated system will pare the number of clicks down by much...
mwburden, Jan 15 2002
  

       is it too complicated to have a reminder pad by your desk where you note beside 5pm tuesday 'have I got a reply from Jim?' ok it doesn't go 'bing' in the corner of your screen at 5pm on tuesday but it serves the same purpose and you can't have the function accidentally switched off.
sappho, Jan 15 2002
  

       and what an elegant solution that is. in fact, I'm clearing my desk now so that I can devote the left side of it to post-it notes reminding me of upcoming meetings. i'll keep the right side for to-dos.. and right down the middle i'll use for trivial little things that I just sent an email for.   

       whew.. I can finally get rid of that pesky Outlook. :)
nhyatt, Jan 17 2002
  

       I don't think there's any need to be quite so sarcastic, nyhatt. You don't need to use post-it notes. You can keep everything together in a diary. You can get desk diaries with full A4 pages with the time on them - it's amazing, they look just like you've printed out the calendar in outlook - you could write in red for meetings, and for when you have to do something in preparation for a meeting, and blue for 'has Jim replied yet' Just becuase you have a computer doesnt mean you have to eschew every non-techy method of doing anything your precious computer could do for you. These things are only bloody tools after all. Oh I almost forgot. You know how useful it is to be able to download your outlook onto your pda so that you can look at your appointments at home too... well guess what you can even take a desk diary off a desk and some people can even still have the physical ability to use it at home with a pen and everything. Jeez if I'd known this site was for users so down on people who don't rely on a computer to live their lives for them I wouldn't have come.
sappho, Jan 17 2002
  

       aww come on, there's always a need to be sarcastic.   

       perhaps I didn't mean it quite so offensively as it sounded, eh Sappho. hey, peace to all and goodwill towards men and all that.   

       there is a long list of reasons I don't use day-minders, indeed I would say that Outlook has some advantages other than just being a digital version of a day-minder. For one, my paper dayminder never beeped at me so I always forgot to look at the right time (I'm sorry, I'm busy and I get focused). I also inevitably ran out of room on busy days and had huge white spaces on dead days. There is no way to back it up, no way to network or share to-dos/contacts, no way of categorizing over time, etc etc.   

       Anyway, the point being that I probably send out 50-60 emails a day. There are things that are   

       a) not important enough to actually make an appointment/task/post-it whatever to remind you   

       b) something that would be nice to remember if someone followed up on   

       so the thought goes, how do you manage the little things in a simple way- and since most computer users often send those kind of requests out via email...
nhyatt, Jan 18 2002
  

       Tie a string of XML code tags to your finger.
thumbwax, Jan 19 2002
  

       ugh. or that if we are going to carry important info on computers we should have UPS (as many places, but not enough, already do).   

       or that everyone needs a palm, or a laptop, or an online backup service.. or we should chisel all important information on to long slate slabs so that we cannot be caught in a horrible child-killing situation because our paper copies of phone numbers were disolved in a flood or burnt in a fire.   

       i tire of my own subject because somehow it became computer bashing. i thought we were past the points of technophobia, but frankly let me be perfectly honest -- when it comes to keeping data there is absolutely nothing more reliable than a computer -- anyone who thinks differently doesn't remember the power of a floppy drive and online backup
nhyatt, Jan 19 2002
  

       //aww come on, there's always a need to be sarcastic.//
thumbwax, Jan 19 2002
  

       I agree. Until then you just haven't lived.   

       I'll take parking my dorry anywhere near the bench where I do most of my important writing and reading.
reensure, Jan 20 2002
  

       good point thumbwax.   

       and it took me about a week of continually coming back to this page to get the joke GeorgeTheRobin.   

       Okay, it wasn't really a week continually, but I meant it to be.
nhyatt, Jan 29 2002
  

       There should be a top ten list for ideas for whom posters fail the most to read the real meaning in all the other posts. This reads like about five different conversations between people who haven't listened to a word anyone else has said. Fantastic. It's just this sought of confused discussion that keeps me coming back.
Oh and by the way, "Mornington Crescent".
goff, Jan 29 2002
  

       //Top ten list of meaningless posters? Who'd be in the top five, I wonder?// Doh! Guilty as charged. - thumbwax, Jan 14 2002
thumbwax, Apr 08 2002
  

       Sounds to me like nhyatt's got this all round the wrong way. If you need a reply, especially a quick reply, then a personal visit or a telephone call are much the better options. E-mail is merely the electronic equivalent of sticking a memo in someone's in-tray.
DrBob, Apr 08 2002
  

       I think thats a good idea. but a lot of people will hate the idea of having to make a choice between one day and 30 days everytime they send out an idea
nomadic_wonderer, Nov 13 2003
  

       Anything that generates more email cannot be a good thing... that's just more email to delete, sorry.
flynn, Jan 02 2007
  
      
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