For years now i’ve managed my ‘to-dos’ within my Outlook inbox… basically the emails I keep in my inbox are the things I need to do, plus I use the handy tasks feature that was updated with Outlook 2007.

This system has worked fine for me for many years, however some new client work that I took on recently has required that I keep track of many more projects for many different clients. Outlook just wasn’t cutting it anymore, I needed to find something new. I’ve tried some of the other online project management systems out there (Basecamp, Smartsheets) but found that they became almost more work to remember to update than if I just used good ole Outlook. Great systems, just not the answer for me.

My colleague Lori Benns introduced me to Wrike, and there is one thing that immediately tickled my fancy about their system. You can send tasks from your inbox to your Wrike account just by cc’ing the wrike email address (that they provide when you sign up). So love this! Instead of requiring that I a) login to my account b) type in my task instead I can just a) send the email to the wrike email addess and it is automatically added to my list of to-dos. You can also categorize into folders (ie: client names, projects, etc) and include due dates by putting this information [inside square brackets] in the email subject line. Easy peasy.

I’m a fan of keeping things simple, and this system marries what im already doing in my inbox with the function of keeping myself organized and on task with a traditional project management system. I give Wrike two thumbs up and a snap, there is a free 30-day trial so check it out.