Don’t Let It Drown: Keeping Important Emails Afloat in the Daily Deluge

You know the feeling: you’re halfway through a chaotic workday, you’ve just wrapped up a video call where someone casually threw over a task your way (“Can you draft the report by Friday?”), and then, an hour later, an email lands in your inbox with more details. Subject line: “Report details”. No context. No clear ask. Just a few bullet points and a vague sign-off.

And you think: “Right, this is important… but what do I do with it?”

If that’s a familiar scenario, welcome to the club. One of the biggest challenges in task management isn’t necessarily managing the tasks themselves—it’s managing information about tasks, especially when that information drips in across meetings, Teams messages, and, of course, email.

In this post, I want to unpack what I’ve learned (the hard way) about not letting those crucial nuggets of information get lost in the inbox quicksand. Let’s start with that very example: the meeting + follow-up email combo.

The ‘Meeting-Then-Email’ Trap

So you’ve just been assigned a task in a meeting. Great. You jot it down in your notes and then create a quick task in Outlook or your to-do app. But then later that day, you get an email with further info—maybe even the key details that you’ll need when you go to do the work.

Here’s the question: what now?

• Do you flag the email and hope you remember why later?

• Do you drag it into your task list and turn it into its own new task?

• Do you paste its content into the original task, risking duplication or confusion?

• Or do you do none of the above and just think “I’ll remember this,” (aka famous last words)?

My System (Which I’m Constantly Tweaking)

Over time, I’ve settled on a rule of thumb: if an email contains information that will help me complete an existing task, I don’t treat it as a new task—I enhance the existing one.

Here’s how I usually handle it in Outlook:

1. Task First, Always
   When I get assigned something in a meeting, I immediately create a task for it. Sometimes that’s just a quick line in Microsoft To Do or a task in the Outlook task pane: “Draft client report,” and set the due date.

2. Email as Attachment (Yes, Really)
   If an email comes in with details, I drag it into the original task so it’s attached inside it. That way, when I open the task later to actually do the work, I’ve got the email right there. No digging through my inbox or wondering, “Where was that message with the bullet points?”

3. Alternatively: Copy-Paste the Key Info
   If it’s just a short message, I’ll copy the relevant parts of the email and just paste them into the task notes. I’ll usually add a “Source: Email from [Name] at [Time]” note so I can find it again if needed.

4. Then Archive the Email
   Once I’ve either attached it or copied the info into the task, I archive the email. I don’t leave it flagged. I don’t leave it in my inbox “just in case.” I trust that the task now holds what I need.

The Real Problem: Friction

I think the real reason important emails get lost is that it takes a few extra steps to do the right thing with them. And when you're in a rush—or context switching every ten minutes—it’s easy to just leave the email sitting there and hope for the best.

That’s why I’ve found it useful to make it as easy as possible to convert emails into task-linked info:

• Use drag-and-drop to attach emails to tasks (Outlook supports this).

• Set up keyboard shortcuts or quick actions if your task app allows it.

• As part of your daily ‘end of day’ routine, check there is nothing hanging around in your inbox that actually needs to be filed elsewhere.

Other Scenarios That Mess Things Up

It’s not just meeting follow-ups. Here are a few other tricky ones:

• Email with Multiple Tasks Inside
  One email might contain three different actions: send a file, confirm a date, and update a spreadsheet. Solution? Break it into three tasks. Yes, it’s more work up front—but way less chaos later.

• Email That’s Actually a Reference Document
  If it’s not something to act on but something you’ll need later (like a new pricing sheet), save it to a shared folder or document library and link to it from your task or notes. Don’t let it rot in your inbox.

• FYI Emails That Might Be Useful
  These are the trickiest. If you're not sure whether you’ll need it again, have a low-friction way to file them—like an “Archive” or “Maybe Useful” folder. Just don’t keep them in your inbox “just in case.” That’s how inboxes become quicksand.

Closing Thought: Your Inbox Is Not a Task Manager

That’s the core of it, really, and something we often repeat on Dreaming of the Office. Email is a channel, not a system. And if you treat it like a to-do list, it will betray you. Important things will get buried. Details will be forgotten. And those “Oh yeah, I was meant to…” moments will keep piling up.

So whenever something important comes in—especially something connected to a task—move it into your system. Attach it. Copy it. Paste it. But get it out of the inbox and into the place where your real work happens.