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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)