Control Your Day: A New Approach to Email Management Using Microsoft Outlook and Getting Things Done

by Jim McCullen

Struggling with email management? Is your Inbox out of Control? Control Your Day is a new and better way to manage your email using Microsoft Outlook. The system incorporates many of the productivity concepts made famous by David Allen in his book Getting Things Done (GTD). The author provides additional support through a website and Youtube videos. Download the book today to take back control of your Inbox. the concepts in the book apply to Microsoft Outlook for Windows. They do not apply for outlook.com, but I am working on some workarounds to apply some of the concepts to the web version of Outlook.

Genres: Productivity, Business, Nonfiction, Personal Development, Technology, Self Help

112 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 2, 2013

Reviews

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jim McCullen has been visible to GTD followers for the past few years, promoting his Control Your Day methodology which builds task and project management directly into an Outlook-based email system. This book lays that Implementation out so any Outlook user can adopt it. If you spend your day in an environment where your computer is routinely open to Outlook, this methodology could work well for you. If you use your lists away from your computer, the book could still give you iuseful ideas on how to set up your email even though a full implementation isn't for you.

[Juris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Over the time I have tried several different approaches on organizing my daily tasks and not missing any of them. GTD seemed to be the thing, but I was having difficulties with using it in various apps. UNTIL this book came along. This is terrific guide that has brought lots of order into my task management.

[Paul Eckert · Rating 5 out of 5]

My job is one that entails lots of emails, so there is no escaping them. I was bogged down with them, trapped in an endless drudgery of sorting into mailboxes and trying to find old emails that I still hadn't acted upon, all while receiving over 100 new emails a day.

My boss gave me a copy of Control Your Day, and it literally changed my work life. I no longer dread email. With Mr. McCullen's system I can easily get rid of emails I don't need, categorize the ones I want to keep, and schedule others for another day.

This books is highly recommended for anyone that feels overwhelmed with emails. The system outlined in this book has literally given me hours of life back, and I'm forever grateful. It may seem difficult to understand at first, but once it is set up and you grasp what just happened, you will never dread opening Outlook again.

[Sabrina Dunford · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was fantastic! I was a bit overwhelmed by the process at first and almost decided to stop reading it but I'm glad I didn't. I had several Aha! moments as I implemented the CYD program into Outlook.
I read Getting Things Done by David Allen a while back and really liked the idea of it, but have had some difficulty using the system to it's fullest potential. I've tried a few different programs to implement GTD (including Outlook), but none seemed to click. I think this method will work better for me due to using virtual folders (search folders) in place of actual folders. It seems more efficient and easier to manage over time.

[Kevin McClelland · Rating 4 out of 5]

After 30 minutes, my Outlook inbox makes sense!

Jim's system makes use of the best parts of GTD and applies to Outlook email management. I love GTD, but struggled to find an Outlook recipe I really connected with. After a week with CYD, the improvement is great. The only reason for not giving 5 stars were some knucklehead typos that made me feel like the whole project of getting this book out was rushed. Content wise, read this book, do what it says, and get more sleep!

[Dejan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful if you are drowning in emails

I started searching for solution when realised that I am constantly drowning in amount of emails received and diversity of subjects needing my attention. I am following CYD now for w months and it really helps.
Maybe I would prefer slightly different structure of the book - understanding first the process and after how to set everything up, but that’s my personal preference.

[Dennis Alzoubi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book is a bit weak, the concepts presented do not really solve the problem of getting LOTS of emails and the ability to address important ones in time, it’s just a mega tasks list filler without true emphasis on time-sensitive responses. Yeah it will be awesome if I can let things drift and not get addressed quickly, but in reality that is not the case.

[Russ · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you live out of Outlook, it’s great

It has great ideas, although I’ve gotten out of using outlook so much for holding this sort of stuff and have just moved onto online GTD systems at this point. Current favorite is GTDNext!

[Darryl L. Rowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seems to be a good system

OTOH I've done GTD before in Outlook and may end up doing it with a Bullet Journal. Made a follow up reminder to review CYD after doing GTD once again or stealing a couple ideas for a blended system. Or not.

[Heather Rynearson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, not effective long term

Started to use this method but there are too many manual steps to keep up with long term. Like the idea but need to automate more.

[Michael Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading just the first half of this book, I couldn't wait to get to work the next day. I immediately deleted 10 folders and substituted with 4 categories. It was a great improvement right there. Beyond the intended benefit of making you more organized, the book gives you the opportunity to change your mindset and think about what you do in a different way.

Then I came home and saw that my personal e-mail was entirely different. It's not task oriented, but personal interest and people oriented. Yet I was able to re-think now, using the skills from McCullen's book to re-arrange my personal communications life.

Again, I eliminated folders, substituted categories, and used rules to control my personal inbox. We all get lots of semi-junk e-mail at home, probably more than at work, where it's not really junk, but we've subscribed to this or that list because we might want to read it, or go to that restaurant, or this event.

So the CYD system helps again, in managing that flow. I recommend this book to anyone wanting kick up a notch their productivity at work and their free time at home, removing a layer of stress too. Bottom line, it is a really good Outlook tutorial as well.

[Ramon Bazan · Rating 5 out of 5]

So far so good

I like the suggested procedure to address the review all your emails titanic task, it is better than the one I'm using right now. I need to use it for a period of time and evaluate how good the improvement is.

[SMC · Rating 5 out of 5]

An awesome book! However, I AM a bit biased. : )

[Jim Mccullen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Control Your day is the best way to control and manage email

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative and easy to follow