7 ms·

Three Years of Logging My Inbox Count

80 points by struys 11y ago

aout 11y ago
Working in email right now I can tell that this data is canonical. The email age graph is probably the most interesting. As I interpret it, most people keep some very old mails for a period of time, mostly because they use it often. This might be because they contain useful information (like a password...) or because they represent a task. If it is the latest it becomes a perpetual problem because it adds some kind of noise from this feed of info you get everyday. In our business we tried to separate these by either saving the useful part and discarding the rest (highlight and save) or by putting the thread somewhere else (in an Important category). For all the rest it appears it is just temporary info, updates, FYIs, etc... So we basically decided to reverse our email usage. Instead of focusing on the inbox we left it untouched but saved everything that mattered in other panels. We still have work to do to improve the usage but it seems promising. You can check it at getnimb.ly if you'd like
cyphunk 11y ago
Perhaps a recipe for disaster but I consider ignoring email count and avoiding sorting as a form of zen. The result is you use your fallible mind to prioritize and remember important mental threads. And if that fails often you may find it better to improve the mind (such as taking a vacation, sleeping better) rather than finding more tools to replace it. Also, consider that if you are focused on quickness and efficiency that there will be times that the communication this produces, while gratifying for you, is disappointingly hollow for others. And it probably has an additional effect on actual character, similar to how bar tenders form of conversation in personal life may over time start match the chitchat form from work.
- mynegation 11y ago
  That is what I do as well. I leave mails in the inbox and flag those that need action or follow-up, and unflag them when I am done. I rely on search to look for an e-mail, There is a rule set up that moves unflagged threads older than X to archive. What counts is not the size of inbox, but unread and flagged count. This works especially well for mobile clients where it is pretty inconvenient to sort e-mail.
ghubbard 11y ago
I'm interested in reading the solutions promised in part 2.
- peteretep 11y ago
  The easiest is: stop using your Inbox as a todo list, and use a dedicated Todo list system instead (like GTD). Any email that can be answered straight away is, anything else is archived and becomes an item in your Todo ledger.
  - graeme 11y ago
    I've trie this, but I never manage to deal with stuff once I file it. It piles up like my inbox. How do you deal with the dozens/hundreds of tasks that may accumulate?
    - normloman 11y ago
      If you get dozens to hundreds of tasks to do in a short period of time, isn't that the root of the problem? I suspect if you get too much email, it's usually because 1. You are the boss and insist on being CCed on everything, 2. Your job description is vauge, and everyone sends tasks to you, or 3. Your coworkers feel like they have to notify you of everything. All three are organizational dysfunction, and not a technology problem.
      - graeme 11y ago
        Entrepreneur. Though I didn't mean they all arrive at once. I meant I file them, work on something else, never process the filed stuff, and then it grows large and overwhelming. I stay on top of stuff sometimes, but then my main work goes slower. I do outsource a bunch, but some things I've found difficult.
vilmosi 11y ago
I don't understand this "Inbox Zero" stress. How hard is it to set up filters on your email? How hard is it to swipe it away to archive it? How many emails do you have to write a day?!
- stephengillie 11y ago
  You're using the Gmail model, where mail has labels and gets archived. I think a lot of people are using the other model, where email goes in folders and gets deleted. Living in the MS world, I struggle to use the Gmail model. I create an Archive folder and put it as a favorite folder. When I'm done with an email, instead of deleting it like Outlook wants, I stick it into the Archive folder. I constantly have to check my Sent Items folder to move those into the Archive folder as well, as there doesn't seem to be an automated way to move those there.
  - Jtsummers 11y ago
    https://support.office.com/en-za/article/Introduction-to-AutoArchive-in-Outlook-d3112f36-a590-4795-9f09-e7ec292bbb80 https://support.office.com/en-za/article/Introduction-to-Aut... Right click on the folder (Sent Items in this case). Select properties, go to the AutoArchive tab. Specify the rules (where to move it and when). AutoArchive gets executed periodically, but you can also force it through the File menu. File -> Info -> Cleanup Tools -> Mailbox Cleanup -> AutoArchive (probably a faster way but that's the way I found).
    - stephengillie 11y ago
      Ah yes, AutoArchive. Much as how AutoRecover (Word) is not AutoSave (N++), AutoArchive is not Archive. Archive is the manual process of dropping your mail into another folder when you've processed it from your inbox, in order to keep yourself organized. AutoArchive, as the link suggests, is an automated tool that will age mail from your archive folder (and rules-based folders) into older storage folders, for technical reasons - folder capacity is finite, but we can make more folders. Confusion between the two is probably exacerbating the Inbox Zero crisis.
  - 11y ago
webrender 11y ago
I feel like Google Inbox and the concept of snoozing emails helps a lot with this. A lot of emails that lie around in one's inbox are there because other people are blocking the task; snoozing the email allows for an "Inbox Zero" state while pushing off priorities until their proper due date, when they can be archived.
jacobevelyn 11y ago
Thanks for sharing! I use email in exactly the same way and it's very validating to learn I'm not the only one who's so "bad" at it.
coherentpony 11y ago
I currently have 2500 unread emails in my inbox :/
- cyphunk 11y ago
  5287 in my inbox (not gmail, all local, no lists) and not the least bit bothered. I treat it like a phone in perpetual silent mode.
- JoeAltmaier 11y ago
  In my work box, all are read. But in an old person account, 42250 unread. Mostly spam moved to a deleted folder. But still.
scott_s 11y ago
I wonder if the name "inbox" is what causes people so much stress. I don't think of it as an actual inbox. It's just where my mail goes - all of it. I read everything, but I don't bother organizing it. Occasionally I'll mark some message as important, or keep a few open so I can get to them later. But most often, I don't. Search is easy. I don't see the point in organizing my mail.
- soft_dev_person 11y ago
  True for Gmail (and similar, I'm sure), not so true for my corporate Outlook account where search sucks and is really slow, and has ridiculously tiny storage allocated so I actually have to archive older messages in an actual file...
  - toothbrush 11y ago
    What about something like OfflineIMAP + notmuch or mu? That works for me, and search is as good (or better) than it was for me using Gmail.
    - pm215 11y ago
      Not all Exchange setups are configured to allow IMAP access...
  - psychometry 11y ago
    Sounds like you just have an incompetent IT department. Storage is cheap and fast searching of databases is a solved problem.
  - scott_s 11y ago
    As of a week ago, I was on Notes at work, which had not-so-great search. I still did this. Once or twice in the past few years I had to go in an delete large attachments, but I do that when it becomes a problem. It's not worth the mental effort of categorizing emails. (And deleting counts as categorizing.) Now I'm on Verse (http://www.ibm.com/social-business/us/en/newway/ http://www.ibm.com/social-business/us/en/newway/), and it has great search. I'll keep doing what I was doing, just with even less pain.
lamontcg 11y ago
Weird. I have 2,200+ e-mails in my inbox dating back to 2011. They're all read and just archived and I positively give zero shits about them -- except occasionally I do a search to find an e-mail that I got months ago (often package deliveries or itineraries or something like that). If it scrolls off of the page then its largely out of sight and out of mind. I didn't respond to it, so I probably won't. Maybe the solution is to just stop caring about them as much and be a bit more brutal about your instant triage of if you're going to respond to them, and how much time you need to spend responding to them?
katrielalex 11y ago
https://www.beeminder.com/gmailzero https://www.beeminder.com/gmailzero will do this automatically for you. Together with https://www.followupthen.com/ https://www.followupthen.com/ it makes it pretty easy to keep Inbox Zero.

80 points by struys 11y ago

aout 11y ago

Working in email right now I can tell that this data is canonical. The email age graph is probably the most interesting. As I interpret it, most people keep some very old mails for a period of time, mostly because they use it often. This might be because they contain useful information (like a password...) or because they represent a task. If it is the latest it becomes a perpetual problem because it adds some kind of noise from this feed of info you get everyday. In our business we tried to separate these by either saving the useful part and discarding the rest (highlight and save) or by putting the thread somewhere else (in an Important category). For all the rest it appears it is just temporary info, updates, FYIs, etc... So we basically decided to reverse our email usage. Instead of focusing on the inbox we left it untouched but saved everything that mattered in other panels. We still have work to do to improve the usage but it seems promising. You can check it at getnimb.ly if you'd like

cyphunk 11y ago

Perhaps a recipe for disaster but I consider ignoring email count and avoiding sorting as a form of zen. The result is you use your fallible mind to prioritize and remember important mental threads. And if that fails often you may find it better to improve the mind (such as taking a vacation, sleeping better) rather than finding more tools to replace it. Also, consider that if you are focused on quickness and efficiency that there will be times that the communication this produces, while gratifying for you, is disappointingly hollow for others. And it probably has an additional effect on actual character, similar to how bar tenders form of conversation in personal life may over time start match the chitchat form from work.

mynegation 11y ago
That is what I do as well. I leave mails in the inbox and flag those that need action or follow-up, and unflag them when I am done. I rely on search to look for an e-mail, There is a rule set up that moves unflagged threads older than X to archive. What counts is not the size of inbox, but unread and flagged count. This works especially well for mobile clients where it is pretty inconvenient to sort e-mail.

ghubbard 11y ago

I'm interested in reading the solutions promised in part 2.

peteretep 11y ago
The easiest is: stop using your Inbox as a todo list, and use a dedicated Todo list system instead (like GTD). Any email that can be answered straight away is, anything else is archived and becomes an item in your Todo ledger.
- graeme 11y ago
  I've trie this, but I never manage to deal with stuff once I file it. It piles up like my inbox. How do you deal with the dozens/hundreds of tasks that may accumulate?
  - normloman 11y ago
    If you get dozens to hundreds of tasks to do in a short period of time, isn't that the root of the problem? I suspect if you get too much email, it's usually because 1. You are the boss and insist on being CCed on everything, 2. Your job description is vauge, and everyone sends tasks to you, or 3. Your coworkers feel like they have to notify you of everything. All three are organizational dysfunction, and not a technology problem.
    - graeme 11y ago
      Entrepreneur. Though I didn't mean they all arrive at once. I meant I file them, work on something else, never process the filed stuff, and then it grows large and overwhelming. I stay on top of stuff sometimes, but then my main work goes slower. I do outsource a bunch, but some things I've found difficult.

vilmosi 11y ago

I don't understand this "Inbox Zero" stress. How hard is it to set up filters on your email? How hard is it to swipe it away to archive it? How many emails do you have to write a day?!

stephengillie 11y ago
You're using the Gmail model, where mail has labels and gets archived. I think a lot of people are using the other model, where email goes in folders and gets deleted. Living in the MS world, I struggle to use the Gmail model. I create an Archive folder and put it as a favorite folder. When I'm done with an email, instead of deleting it like Outlook wants, I stick it into the Archive folder. I constantly have to check my Sent Items folder to move those into the Archive folder as well, as there doesn't seem to be an automated way to move those there.
- Jtsummers 11y ago
  https://support.office.com/en-za/article/Introduction-to-AutoArchive-in-Outlook-d3112f36-a590-4795-9f09-e7ec292bbb80 https://support.office.com/en-za/article/Introduction-to-Aut... Right click on the folder (Sent Items in this case). Select properties, go to the AutoArchive tab. Specify the rules (where to move it and when). AutoArchive gets executed periodically, but you can also force it through the File menu. File -> Info -> Cleanup Tools -> Mailbox Cleanup -> AutoArchive (probably a faster way but that's the way I found).
  - stephengillie 11y ago
    Ah yes, AutoArchive. Much as how AutoRecover (Word) is not AutoSave (N++), AutoArchive is not Archive. Archive is the manual process of dropping your mail into another folder when you've processed it from your inbox, in order to keep yourself organized. AutoArchive, as the link suggests, is an automated tool that will age mail from your archive folder (and rules-based folders) into older storage folders, for technical reasons - folder capacity is finite, but we can make more folders. Confusion between the two is probably exacerbating the Inbox Zero crisis.
- 11y ago

webrender 11y ago

I feel like Google Inbox and the concept of snoozing emails helps a lot with this. A lot of emails that lie around in one's inbox are there because other people are blocking the task; snoozing the email allows for an "Inbox Zero" state while pushing off priorities until their proper due date, when they can be archived.

jacobevelyn 11y ago

Thanks for sharing! I use email in exactly the same way and it's very validating to learn I'm not the only one who's so "bad" at it.

coherentpony 11y ago

I currently have 2500 unread emails in my inbox :/

cyphunk 11y ago
5287 in my inbox (not gmail, all local, no lists) and not the least bit bothered. I treat it like a phone in perpetual silent mode.
JoeAltmaier 11y ago
In my work box, all are read. But in an old person account, 42250 unread. Mostly spam moved to a deleted folder. But still.

scott_s 11y ago

I wonder if the name "inbox" is what causes people so much stress. I don't think of it as an actual inbox. It's just where my mail goes - all of it. I read everything, but I don't bother organizing it. Occasionally I'll mark some message as important, or keep a few open so I can get to them later. But most often, I don't. Search is easy. I don't see the point in organizing my mail.

soft_dev_person 11y ago
True for Gmail (and similar, I'm sure), not so true for my corporate Outlook account where search sucks and is really slow, and has ridiculously tiny storage allocated so I actually have to archive older messages in an actual file...
- toothbrush 11y ago
  What about something like OfflineIMAP + notmuch or mu? That works for me, and search is as good (or better) than it was for me using Gmail.
  - pm215 11y ago
    Not all Exchange setups are configured to allow IMAP access...
- psychometry 11y ago
  Sounds like you just have an incompetent IT department. Storage is cheap and fast searching of databases is a solved problem.
- scott_s 11y ago
  As of a week ago, I was on Notes at work, which had not-so-great search. I still did this. Once or twice in the past few years I had to go in an delete large attachments, but I do that when it becomes a problem. It's not worth the mental effort of categorizing emails. (And deleting counts as categorizing.) Now I'm on Verse (http://www.ibm.com/social-business/us/en/newway/ http://www.ibm.com/social-business/us/en/newway/), and it has great search. I'll keep doing what I was doing, just with even less pain.

lamontcg 11y ago

Weird. I have 2,200+ e-mails in my inbox dating back to 2011. They're all read and just archived and I positively give zero shits about them -- except occasionally I do a search to find an e-mail that I got months ago (often package deliveries or itineraries or something like that). If it scrolls off of the page then its largely out of sight and out of mind. I didn't respond to it, so I probably won't. Maybe the solution is to just stop caring about them as much and be a bit more brutal about your instant triage of if you're going to respond to them, and how much time you need to spend responding to them?

katrielalex 11y ago

https://www.beeminder.com/gmailzero https://www.beeminder.com/gmailzero will do this automatically for you. Together with https://www.followupthen.com/ https://www.followupthen.com/ it makes it pretty easy to keep Inbox Zero.