ClearContext for Outlook

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Posted by Jack Crawford
Apr 9, 2008 at 12:50 PM

With the recent conversations here about GTD and emails, I felt inspired enough to start wading through the literally hundreds of GTD apps and many Outlook plug-ins. I came across an absolute stand-out in this field, which for some strange reason has never been mentioned in our discussions – ClearContext IMS (for Information Management System) for MS Outlook. (http://www.clearcontext.com)

After some 4 years of continuous development, ClearContext seems to attract a seemingly inexhaustible source of testimonials and is supported by a thriving user community. Perhaps the most impressive is their willingness to engage with GTD theory and refine it when they thought it was necessary in software design. Their daily workflow information management process is a simple but effective tool.

Installation was straightforward and did not require administrator rights. Task and calendar functions are well integrated with the core email functionality along with special functions like defer, delegate and follow-up. A variety of views are available including powerful filtering, integrated project and action views. Outlook categories become true contexts and filtering tools rather than the amorphous mass of projects that many people use.

ClearContext also offers the automated prioritization of emails and, although you can customise the settings, I don’t completely trust the results. The importance of a work relationship often can’t be gleaned from email. Also over-reliance on this feature may result in lesser priority items being ignored or missed altogether.

Starting with 1200 emails in my inbox and sent folder after a tough week, I’m now cutting a swathe through them with ClearContext. It seems both nimble and rock solid. There are some additional feautures I’d like to see such as the ability to associate emails with multiple topics (projects). But hopefully, it is the start of a beautiful friendship.
The price (c. US$90) is at the upper range in this market. However, I have just finished my annual tax return where I noticed a whole bunch of $20 software apps that I had purchased during the year which had disappeared without trace. No doubt you get what you pay for! So if you’re using Outlook in a high volume email environment, this may be what you’re looking for.

Jack

Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Apr 9, 2008 at 08:21 PM

Excellent presentation; many thanks

alx

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