Cluttered inboxes. Twitter and Facebook feeds. Notebooks full of to-do lists. Houses to show. Clients to meet. Bills to pay. With so much vying for our attention these days, the simple follow-up can sometimes be elusive. And yet it’s the very act that often leads to a sale.

Don’t ever miss that follow-up again! Boomerang is an app that will make you the king of the follow-up. You’ll never be unprepared for a meeting again. You’ll never forget the call back. You’ll never miss a bill. You’ll have a clear inbox and a clear mind. You’ll be so on top of your game, your colleagues will beg for your secrets.

OK, so what is it? It’s a simple plug-in for Gmail or Outlook that allows you to control when you send or receive emails. For instance, say you’ve been courting a client for a few weeks and you get an email from him saying he’s going to be out of town for the next three weeks but would like to get together when he returns. With Boomerang, you can create that follow-up email right now, and then choose to send it on a specific date at a specific time.

Other uses:

• Remind yourself to pay a bill on a certain date.
• Forward an email containing meeting materials to yourself and schedule it to arrive a few hours before the meeting so you can go over the documents and be prepared.
• Take email messages out of your inbox until you actually need them – like travel itineraries on the day of travel.

You can try and try to get to inbox zero – but what are you leaving behind in the process? Are you remembering to follow up on the important messages at the right time? Boomerang is worth trying if you find that your inbox is not getting through to you in the way it needs to. Boomerang is worth trying if you are going crazy from paper “follow-up” lists. Boomerang is worth trying if you find that you can never find the original email when you need it just before your meeting.

To give this free plug-in a try, go to this link for the Firefox/Chrome plug-in for use with Gmail, and this link for the plug-in for Outlook. Get on top of your game!