- Original Poster
- #1
I've recently been trying climb on top of a mountain of emails and tasks until I discovered this old gem - the bring (or brought) forward system (BF). I say 'old gem' because I found out that the system isn't really news to anyone over 30 who has worked in an office, but colleagues my own age have never heard of it ;-).
[How does BF work? In rough summary, you create a folder for each month, and file tasks that need to be looked at in a particular month in its corresponding folder. Some guides suggest also making folders labelled 1-31 to for each day of the month, and that upon the start of each new month the monthly folder is emptied into the 1-31 folders as required. Depending on whether you group tasks by day (using 1-31) or month (1-12), each file is reviewed daily so that you can monitor what needs to be done].
However, I couldn't really find a neat description on how to work the system using a Gmail inbox. So here's my attempt:
1. Make a bunch of labels in Gmail labelled Jan - December. Put 01-12 in front of each name (e.g. 01 Jan) since that will help Gmail to order the folders correctly. If you don't put a number in front Gmail tends to order the labels alphabetically so August would be first.
To make labels, look at the left sidebar in Gmail where it lists Inbox, Sent mail, etc - and move your mouse towards the bottom of the list for the list to expand and show a link "manage labels". In there, scroll to the bottom of the page where you'll be able to make new labels.
I like to make another label called 00 Follow Up for general unassigned bits, too.
2. In each email that needs your attention later, add a label for the month in which you need to review the email. Do this by clicking the 'tag' icon in the top bar above your email message. It's next to the 'more' button.
You can even add multiple labels so that the email will appear in each month you want to review the same email. This doesn't create a duplicate of the email. As you finish a task, or decide that you don't need it in that month's folder you can remove the label using point 4 below.
3. In the same way as you would the paper-based BF system, click your current month's label on the left-side menu bar in your inbox to review the folder daily/monthly .
4. You can remove labels by clicking the 'x' next to the label on the top bar above the email contents itself.
In my experience I've found this to be useful for keeping narrowing focus down to tasks that need to be looked at in a particular month, without getting distracted by tasks that only need to be looked at later.
Another useful feature I noticed is that emails can be filed into multiple months unlike the paper-based system.
I hope this is useful to others out here. Perhaps you know a way it could be improved. Or perhaps you want it thrown into the bin. Let me know what you think!
[How does BF work? In rough summary, you create a folder for each month, and file tasks that need to be looked at in a particular month in its corresponding folder. Some guides suggest also making folders labelled 1-31 to for each day of the month, and that upon the start of each new month the monthly folder is emptied into the 1-31 folders as required. Depending on whether you group tasks by day (using 1-31) or month (1-12), each file is reviewed daily so that you can monitor what needs to be done].
However, I couldn't really find a neat description on how to work the system using a Gmail inbox. So here's my attempt:
1. Make a bunch of labels in Gmail labelled Jan - December. Put 01-12 in front of each name (e.g. 01 Jan) since that will help Gmail to order the folders correctly. If you don't put a number in front Gmail tends to order the labels alphabetically so August would be first.
To make labels, look at the left sidebar in Gmail where it lists Inbox, Sent mail, etc - and move your mouse towards the bottom of the list for the list to expand and show a link "manage labels". In there, scroll to the bottom of the page where you'll be able to make new labels.
I like to make another label called 00 Follow Up for general unassigned bits, too.
2. In each email that needs your attention later, add a label for the month in which you need to review the email. Do this by clicking the 'tag' icon in the top bar above your email message. It's next to the 'more' button.
You can even add multiple labels so that the email will appear in each month you want to review the same email. This doesn't create a duplicate of the email. As you finish a task, or decide that you don't need it in that month's folder you can remove the label using point 4 below.
3. In the same way as you would the paper-based BF system, click your current month's label on the left-side menu bar in your inbox to review the folder daily/monthly .
4. You can remove labels by clicking the 'x' next to the label on the top bar above the email contents itself.
In my experience I've found this to be useful for keeping narrowing focus down to tasks that need to be looked at in a particular month, without getting distracted by tasks that only need to be looked at later.
Another useful feature I noticed is that emails can be filed into multiple months unlike the paper-based system.
I hope this is useful to others out here. Perhaps you know a way it could be improved. Or perhaps you want it thrown into the bin. Let me know what you think!
