that's a cool little trick to get emails into OneNote, but... WHY? why do you want your emails in OneNote? What does that give you? Or, i suppose, more specifically, why do i want to put my emails into OneNote and what will it give me?
Thanks for asking - just to make sure I'm responding to the right question, is your question "Why would you move emails out of your inbox" or "Why would you use OneNote for email storage"?
Why move emails out of inbox - LOL - No, i get that part. i try to get to inbox zero. I think i'm asking why move emails to OneNote. Right now i pay for an additional 365 account called ClientEmails, and i have folders for each client. My assistant and my two employees (and me) all have access to that account and can read emails saved there.
So, you have a shared mailbox that has exceeded the 50GB storage limit or you literally have an entirely additional MS365 license as a user?
There's a bigger organizational question of "who's on first" with a shared inbox (who is in charge of addressing the client issue) but I first need to say that you don't have to use OneNote as email storage - I just do because I like the various search and linking features (and other great storage features).
Overall, I don't like keeping client emails just in Outlook for several reasons - I find it challenging to pull together a "client storyline", especially when there's multiple email chains nested in one thread; only a certain number of emails are available and then I have to check the archive; I don't think the search function is that great?; I'm still dealing with processing the email, whether its extracting an attachment, responding to a question or setting up a new task/project.
This baby flow is just the first step in learning other ways to process that email before it gets to its end home. It's really easy to add steps in between the 'Get Email' action and the 'Create a page in OneNote' action. My goal is to start folks off slow and then we can add more "pizazz" to this basic flow.
So, to answer your question, I use OneNote for email storage, but other folks convert to PDF and save on OneDrive or Sharepoint, other folks send it off somewhere else outside the Microsoft ecosystem. I just don't like leaving emails in an inbox, whether shared or not, because then they're still... live? Like cookie dough vs the baked cookie?
I pay for an additional MS365 license. Everybody gets an email {name}@domain.com and then i also have clientemails@domain.com and also Vendors@domain.com. I have an addin called Simplyfile that prompts me for every email i send to ask whether i want to save it, and in what folder. Those emails all get saved in the client folder in the clientemails@domain.com mailbox.
i can clear my inbox, but all the emails and replies are saved in a client folder so anybody can go back through that folder to find a particular email.
beyond that, the database of emails is useless. The search function is useless. And like you say, the client storyline isn't great.
but i don't like working from an email - i was converting the email to an outlook task, which i could then prioritize and schedule, but that doesn't work as well with having people work with me. I'm having to move to something else for task management and delegation.
So you're using OneNote for email storage - do you save those emails in one notebook? a separate notebook for each client? do you go into OneNote and file those emails away?
Yeah, I totally hear you. I don't know your particular set up or why it was set up that way, but just from a 10,000 ft level, it seems unnecessarily complicated. I suspect that you're paying more money than you need to for either the same or less functionality than what would be available just reconfiguring your set up. My suggestion would be to bring in a MS365 consultant to help you sort it out and get a better workflow that captures everything in a more effective way for you. I honestly don't think you need that extra MS365 license, but a consultant could examine your set up and tell you more.
In OneNote i have a tab for each client, and then i save pages - sometimes i save an email to OneNote using the icon in Outlook to save the message in OneNote. i get a prompt for what page to save the email to. It isn't automated, but i can put it in a specific place. I was then flagging that email in OneNote to make it a task in Outlook, but that flag was too unstable and sometimes disconnected from outlook.
that's a cool little trick to get emails into OneNote, but... WHY? why do you want your emails in OneNote? What does that give you? Or, i suppose, more specifically, why do i want to put my emails into OneNote and what will it give me?
Hi Brian,
Thanks for asking - just to make sure I'm responding to the right question, is your question "Why would you move emails out of your inbox" or "Why would you use OneNote for email storage"?
Why move emails out of inbox - LOL - No, i get that part. i try to get to inbox zero. I think i'm asking why move emails to OneNote. Right now i pay for an additional 365 account called ClientEmails, and i have folders for each client. My assistant and my two employees (and me) all have access to that account and can read emails saved there.
Oh, ah, okay. Hrm.
So, you have a shared mailbox that has exceeded the 50GB storage limit or you literally have an entirely additional MS365 license as a user?
There's a bigger organizational question of "who's on first" with a shared inbox (who is in charge of addressing the client issue) but I first need to say that you don't have to use OneNote as email storage - I just do because I like the various search and linking features (and other great storage features).
Overall, I don't like keeping client emails just in Outlook for several reasons - I find it challenging to pull together a "client storyline", especially when there's multiple email chains nested in one thread; only a certain number of emails are available and then I have to check the archive; I don't think the search function is that great?; I'm still dealing with processing the email, whether its extracting an attachment, responding to a question or setting up a new task/project.
This baby flow is just the first step in learning other ways to process that email before it gets to its end home. It's really easy to add steps in between the 'Get Email' action and the 'Create a page in OneNote' action. My goal is to start folks off slow and then we can add more "pizazz" to this basic flow.
So, to answer your question, I use OneNote for email storage, but other folks convert to PDF and save on OneDrive or Sharepoint, other folks send it off somewhere else outside the Microsoft ecosystem. I just don't like leaving emails in an inbox, whether shared or not, because then they're still... live? Like cookie dough vs the baked cookie?
I pay for an additional MS365 license. Everybody gets an email {name}@domain.com and then i also have clientemails@domain.com and also Vendors@domain.com. I have an addin called Simplyfile that prompts me for every email i send to ask whether i want to save it, and in what folder. Those emails all get saved in the client folder in the clientemails@domain.com mailbox.
i can clear my inbox, but all the emails and replies are saved in a client folder so anybody can go back through that folder to find a particular email.
beyond that, the database of emails is useless. The search function is useless. And like you say, the client storyline isn't great.
but i don't like working from an email - i was converting the email to an outlook task, which i could then prioritize and schedule, but that doesn't work as well with having people work with me. I'm having to move to something else for task management and delegation.
So you're using OneNote for email storage - do you save those emails in one notebook? a separate notebook for each client? do you go into OneNote and file those emails away?
Yeah, I totally hear you. I don't know your particular set up or why it was set up that way, but just from a 10,000 ft level, it seems unnecessarily complicated. I suspect that you're paying more money than you need to for either the same or less functionality than what would be available just reconfiguring your set up. My suggestion would be to bring in a MS365 consultant to help you sort it out and get a better workflow that captures everything in a more effective way for you. I honestly don't think you need that extra MS365 license, but a consultant could examine your set up and tell you more.
In OneNote i have a tab for each client, and then i save pages - sometimes i save an email to OneNote using the icon in Outlook to save the message in OneNote. i get a prompt for what page to save the email to. It isn't automated, but i can put it in a specific place. I was then flagging that email in OneNote to make it a task in Outlook, but that flag was too unstable and sometimes disconnected from outlook.