Recently, Keith and I have been trying out the free Sidekick app for Gmail. If you use the Boomerang app for scheduling emails, much of what Keith shares in this post will apply for the Boomerang app for Gmail as well. 

Learn how frequent guest blogger, Keith Seabourn, has been using Sidekick for MPD…

Using the Sidekick App for Scheduling MPD Emails

Scheduling emails with an app, like Sidekick, helps prevent your emails from getting buried in someone’s pile of incoming messages. However, I’ve found people are accessing their email all the time on their phones, so some of the previous rules seem to be less true today, but I still basically follow them.

In reading articles on the best times to send emails, I avoid Monday. Often, though, weekends work well for many of us to spend time on MPD. Without a scheduler, your email will probably be sitting in someone’s inbox on Monday morning. An email scheduler allows you to write emails when it is convenient for you and to deliver the emails when they’re more likely to be read, say on Tuesday mid-morning; I have noticed more opens.

Also, during focused MPD time, I write emails in the evening and schedule them for delivery during mid-morning business hours.

Sidekick’s alerts are very helpful, too. Sometimes, I schedule emails to send during a time that I’ve blocked to work on MPD so I can call quickly if an alert tells me our financial partner opened the email during that time block. (How this works: For Gmail or CruMail, Chrome has an icon in the bookmark bar with a notification indicator that alerts you instantly when someone opens an email you’re tracking through Sidekick. If you’re using Outlook, a narrow notification window pops open.)

The Send Later scheduler is a new feature for Sidekick and only available now to selected users. I emailed Sidekick’s support and asked to have it added. You can write to Sidekick support and request it to be added for you also.

Other Ideas for Scheduling All Emails

Even before Sidekick, I’ve used a Gmail add-in that had an email scheduling capability. I use it for my business emails. It’s not just donors who have my important emails disappearing in their email inbox, it might also be my colleagues! ActiveInbox is the the best Getting Things Done (GTD) tool I’ve found for managing my flow of incoming tasks since most of my tasks arrive via email.

Thanks, Keith! 

Cru staff, are you going to try Sidekick? Keith and I recommend it. Sidekick allows you to see opens, unopens, and clicks for emails you’ve sent as well as the scheduling feature Keith’s been using. You can also choose to have other features, like their Contact Profiles. You might want to also read my first reactions to Sidekick in this post, including more suggestions of how you might think about using it.

Get a free month of unlimited use of Sidekick here or sign up  at Sidekick.com.

Guest Post by Keith Seabourn

I serve as the field strategist for the Global Church Movements team in Orlando, Florida. I have a passion to see us use mobile social media to identify and equip people of peace to help reach their networks.

NOTES:

• Your Chrome browser needs to be open to see notifications from Sidekick whether you use it with Outlook or Gmail.
• Some staff have been using Boomerang scheduling emails (see these posts). Boomerang allows you to schedule reminders to follow-up emails that have not had a response (see this video).
• These other email apps help you manage emails in todo lists Evernote and Todoist. If you have something you’re using, please mention it in the comments!
• • See Syncing Google Apps and Outlook if you want the best of both worlds, Gmail and Outlook (or if you want to use Cru Mail in Outlook).
  • Sidekick blog