Re: How to organize mail in folders?
On Fri, Jul 20, 2007 at 03:33:37PM +0200, Kai Grossjohann wrote:
> Michelle,
>
> I think there is a misunderstanding. I wanted to understand how other
> people process their email. You are giving me pointers to programs but
> don't describe how you use them.
This is an interesting and universal problem in this day and age. Some
months ago I rearranged my approach to my inbox, and I think it has helped
me to the point where I am less behind than I used to be. I'm still
seeking the holy grail of being "caught up," which sometimes seems like
futile quest, but things are better.
There are a bunch of resources out there, where people have expressed
their thoughts and techniques about managing email. For example,
this "inbox zero" series is pretty interesting:
http://www.43folders.com/izero/
I think one has to try to understand the problem before trying to fix
it. I started with a handful of realizations, including:
- You can't read everything. Mail, even from mailing lists that
you've signed up for and enjoy, shouldn't create a burden.
- Old and as-yet-unhandled email often becomes less critical to deal
with, not more, as time passes. I have a habit of deferring some of
the more challenging mail until I have more time to think about it,
but often that time never comes, and for each such message there
rapidly comes a point where that time will never come. Once a
message gets very old (and "very" doesn't have to be too long) one
should probably move on to newer things. Old piled-up messages
frustrate me by increasing my email load, and most of that is really
imaginary.
- You can not time-shift your way to efficiency. The more things you
time-shift to the future, the less time you have to deal with them.
Just look at your tivo or netflix queue :).
- I'm on a lot of mailing lists. Not every mailing list needs my
complete attention, and not every thread needs my comment.
- A cluttered primary inbox wastes time, especially if you are looking
at many of the same messages every time you go into it. I try very
hard to keep my inbox under a screenful, so that I can see everything
that's in it without scrolling around and wasting time and attention.
I hate losing something important because it gets lost in the inbox.
My strategy is:
- Keep the inbox small.
- I have a subdirectory (aka a folder collection, but we're all shell
users here, no?) called 'M/' which contains most of the mail that
gets autofiled using filter rules. (I created a nice control file
that describes to my delivery agent how things are filed into the
'M/' folders, but that's another tangent.) Various work-related mail
goes into folders there; high-volume mailing-list mail goes there.
Lower-volume mailing-list mail that I read immediately (like
mutt-users!) still goes directly to my inbox. Periodically I check
the 'M' folders in various ways; e.g. sometimes I want to check
recently-arrived mail, and other times I simply want to work in a
particular folder.
- I have an "action" subdirectory "A/" into which I triage messages
from my inbox. Old messages that might have a long life get filed
into A/long (this keeps me from scrolling in my inbox to see old
non-critical messages I haven't dealt with yet); if they stay there
long enough, I delete them or can easily ignore them. Interesting
material or references to material that I think I might want to read
later goes into A/read -- similarly, if they get old enough, I either
delete them or simply don't care about them. Stuff that I want to
respond to immediately goes into A/answer, and I make sure I clear
this promptly. Stuff I need to do goes into A/do and I look at this
as time permits.
So far this is working well. The hardest part is remembering to stick
with it.
-mm- (now I've added to your email burden)