Tags – They’re It!

• Posted March 8th, 2010
• By Scott (bio)
• Filed under: Using BatchBook

With all the attention that our SuperTags get, I’m starting to worry that our standard tags are feeling neglected. Sure the SuperTags have super powers but that doesn’t mean that our Tags aren’t also super useful.

Ah, the ubiquitous tag. At it’s core, a tag is just a word or phrase used to group similar items together. Here at BatchBlue we love tags and we use them for everything imaginable.

I think our Tags might just be a bit misunderstood living in the shadow of their SuperTag siblings. In talking to our customers, it seems that most are familair and comfortable using tags on their contacts. Did you know that they are also really handy for organizing your to-do items and communications?

Here are some examples:

To-do Items:

Why am I doing this? You can use tags to differentiate between different types of activities. By using tags like sales, marketing, admin, billing etc… you have an idea of the type of work that needs doing.

Where am I doing this? GTD folks may use them to apply their context like @home, @office, @phone and such.

Why aren’t I doing this yet? We offer a flagging option for your to-do items but with tags you can add a priority or a status to your tasks such as waiting, someday, next action or Urgent!

Show me the money! Is the task billable? Tag it appropriately and pull them all together easily.

Communications:

Why did I send this? Create tags tied to the purpose of the communication. Was it a proposal, a collection letter, or a thank you?

What happened because of this? Tags can describe the outcome. Did this communication lead to a win, a meeting, or a return?

Is this related to something else? Perhaps you want to track all communications about your widgets. Is it a suggestion or a complaint. Define a tag for each and see them all at once.

The beauty of a tag is that they are free-form and flexible and can be used to match your own needs and workflow. Hopefully I’ve given you some ideas on how you can better use tags to manage your information – I feel confident that once you start you’ll think of other great ways they can help you stay organized.

We love your feedback – share some of the creative ways you use tags in BatchBook.