How to Save Email Threads to Notion (Keep Conversations Together)

Single emails are easy to save to Notion. But what about email threads — those back-and-forth conversations that span multiple messages? Keeping the full conversation together in Notion requires a bit more thought.

The Challenge with Email Threads

When you forward an email from a thread, most email clients include the previous messages in the body (as quoted text below the latest message). This is actually helpful — it means forwarding the latest email in a thread captures the entire conversation.

But there are nuances:

• Long threads get very long, with deeply nested quoted text
• Multiple forwards of the same thread create duplicate content in Notion
• Thread participants may change mid-conversation
• Attachments from earlier messages may not be included in later forwards

Best Practices for Saving Threads

Forward the Latest Message

The simplest approach: forward the most recent email in the thread. It will include the full conversation as quoted text below.

When to use: When the conversation is complete (or at a natural stopping point) and you want the full context.

Forward Key Messages Only

If a thread is very long or contains a lot of noise (auto-replies, one-word acknowledgments), forward only the key messages:

• The original request or question
• The final answer or decision
• Any message with important attachments

When to use: Long threads where most messages aren't useful for reference.

Use the Gmail Add-on for Context

With Quicktion's Gmail add-on, you can open any message in the thread and save it. The add-on captures that specific email's content. For thread context, save the most comprehensive message (usually the latest one).

Organizing Threads in Notion

Thread Title

Email subjects in threads are often "Re: Re: Re: Original Subject". Edit the Notion page title to be descriptive:

• Instead of: "Re: Re: Re: Project Update"
• Use: "Project Update Thread - Jan 2025"

Thread Database Properties

Add properties that help you track conversations:

The Summary Property

This is the most valuable property for threads. After saving a thread, write a 1-2 sentence summary of the outcome:

• "Agreed on Q2 budget of $50K. Start date March 1."
• "Client approved the design mockup. Proceeding to development."
• "Issue resolved — DNS was misconfigured. Fixed by IT."

Future you will thank present you for these summaries.

Handling Duplicate Forwards

If multiple people on your team forward the same thread to Notion, you'll get duplicates. Strategies to avoid this:

1. Assign one person to be responsible for saving shared threads
2. Use a team convention — e.g., only the thread initiator saves it
3. Check before forwarding — Quick search in Notion to see if the thread is already saved
4. Deduplicate later — During your weekly review, merge or delete duplicate entries

Long Thread Strategy

For very long threads (20+ messages), consider these approaches:

Save the Summary, Not the Thread

Instead of saving the full thread, create a Notion page manually and write a summary of the key points, decisions, and action items. This is faster to reference than scrolling through 20 quoted emails.

Save Milestones

Forward the thread at key milestones:

1. Initial request or question
2. Midpoint discussion or decision
3. Final resolution

This gives you the conversation arc without the noise.

Split into Topics

If a thread covers multiple topics (as threads often do), save relevant messages to different Notion databases:

• Budget discussion → Finance database
• Timeline decision → Project database
• Technical question → Knowledge Base

Tips

1. Clean up titles — Remove "Re:", "Fwd:", and repeated prefixes from page titles
2. Add dates — Include a date or date range in the title for long-running threads
3. Use the summary field — A good summary is worth more than the full thread text
4. Link to projects — Use Notion relations to connect thread records to project pages
5. Tag consistently — Use a tagging and categorization system to make threads findable
6. Archive regularly — Mark resolved threads as "Archived" to keep active views clean

Get Started

Sign up for Quicktion and try saving an email thread. Forward the latest message in a conversation and see how the full context appears in your Notion database.