Like most readers, I get a lot of email. Despite my best efforts, my inbox frequently gets completely out of control… I make all sorts of plans to keep my emails organized, usually creating elaborate file structures and vowing to quickly file each email when it comes in. Invariably this does not happen.
The main reason, for me, seems to be that the vast majority of emails that I get seem to defy the clear-cut categorization schema which I devised. This leaves me in the position of either putting the item in a folder where it doesn’t really “fit” (which raises the question, Will I ever find this email again?), or creating a whole new category and a folder to match it. The latter option raises a slew of new questions: is the new category a sub-set of an existing category? What should it be? Will it be flexible enough to hold other, future emails, or will this one email be its only contents? Even worse, will this begin a trend of creating new folders and categories for every new hard-to-place item, to the point that each email sits securely filed in its very own unique category1?
1 Theoretically, the number of systems of numeration is unlimited.
The most complex (for the use of divinities and angels) would
record an infinite number of symbols, one for each whole number…
– Jorge Luis Borges, The Analytical Language of John Wilkins
Gmail’s system of tagging is theoretically “better,” since you could tag an item with as many tags as you like, thus alleviating the process of deciding which one and only one folder should store the email. In practice, I’ve found that if I am not careful, it is just as uncontrollable; I’ve wound up with far more tags than I want to remember, and I still find myself occasionally either creating a new tag, or tagging an email with something that doesn’t really fit.
Clearly, my email organization techniques needed an overhaul. So, I sat down with a blank sheet of paper and started from scratch, trying to determine a new way to organize my email. My main goals were to have the system be simple (to guarantee that I could actually use it indefinitely without getting bogged down again) and practical (so it would actually work, sensibly, as a method for finding emails which I filed last week, last month, or last year).
This is what I devised.
It seems obvious now, but I really hadn’t thought of it formally before. The first question to ask when looking at the email in the inbox must be Keep or Delete?
Once you know what you’re going to keep, I decided the next necessary differentiation would be: Is this item asking me to DO SOMETHING (ie, it’s a Next Action or a Project, for the GTD devotees out there), or is it just Information? Actions, I decided, would go into an Actions/Pending folder; Information would go into a “Data” folder.
The Data folder could be allowed to have a few sub-folders, but not too many (this would defeat the purpose of trying to keep the system simple & usable).
The Actions folder would also have a “Completed” folder, in case there are actions which I want to keep track of even after completion. Not every action would need to go into the “Completed” folder, however; some would, others would be deleted when they were finished, and others might be filed under “Information” if appropriate.
Done.
So, this is what I’m using now. It seems as though it should work well; it is simple enough that I can quickly decide where to put an email (Actions/Pending, Information, or Delete). I use Thunderbird, but any email client you use allows you to order email by Sender, Recipient, Title, Subject,or Date, etc, which helps find particular emails even if they are in a huge list. Thunderbird, in particular, also lets you search for keywords in the subject line.
It’s not perfect, but it may be close enough. My “information” folder will probably eventually end up with more and more sub-folders, but that shouldn’t be a problem; the system will still let me quickly dump items out of my Inbox, so I always know that whatever is in there is new and needs attention. Also, I’ll be able to quickly scan a list of emails containing “to-do” tasks, and then to file those as data, “completed” tasks, or just delete them.
How do you manage your email? If you’ve found a simple system that works for you, please make a comment — any suggestions and tips are welcome.
