Comments on: Avoid EMail Bankruptcy with Inbox 0.5

By: echidnina

echidnina — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 05:36:02 +0000

I think having all your emails in one place makes it easier for single messages to get lost in the shuffle – either ignored, or read once and forgotten. I also use the folders as a way to keep stuff around that’s less pressing, but may be useful in the future – I don’t need to have all my receipts and order confirmations at my fingertips, but I feel good having them piled away in a “back corner” of my inbox.

By: echidnina

echidnina — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 05:33:29 +0000

I agree, I find folders very important to keep my inbox organized. If I’m very overwhelmed, sometimes I’ll distribute my important unread messages to the folders first, so I can get through the other stuff quickly (skim & delete).

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 19:15:55 +0000

Its amazing how quickly your info ends up in the hands of people who want to sell you something.

By: Caitlin

Caitlin — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:11:44 +0000

We’re talking about cleaning out unread email messages, right? Not just any and all in the inbox?

I’ve never really understood the point of getting your email inbox entirely empty (especially since I use Gmail – I might feel differently if I use Thunderbird or Outlook or something). Is having emails scattered about in folders really easier than a quick scan down the page or a search? It’s not like an email inbox get messy looking like a stack of unsorted papers would.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:31:19 +0000

I get few enough emails that I have no trouble keeping on top of them.

Most of them are just info from companies so very few require any work from me.

I’ll keep this post in mind if the volume ever increases.

By: eric

eric — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 12:32:45 +0000

thanks for the site. it’ll come in handy!

By: javi

javi — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 23:56:31 +0000

This is a great idea. It allows you to have progress over your email queue and will only take less time as each day passes.

By: nickel

nickel — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:46:00 +0000

That’s actually a brilliant strategy, and beats the heck out of my “triage until you hit zero, then let another couple thousand build up before acting again” strategy.

By: BrianC

BrianC — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:24:17 +0000

I try to respond to anything important while it’s on the first page–if it falls off I may not get to it for awhile. I do have separate addresses for personal and business, but that’s the only filtering I do.

By: jsbrendog

jsbrendog — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:25:48 +0000

after 4 years of just letting it go i finally sat down and created folders and organized everything so my inbox was 90% empty. Now,a s stuff comes in it gets read and filed appropriately. It took a hell of a lot of time to setup after so many years but now unless i blow it i should be able to maintain it no problem

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:30:30 +0000

I can relate to the “getting behind on emails” thing.. Sometimes you just have to do your best to follow up quickly and delete the rest! I also set up gmail filters to help filter out some of the ones I don’t need.

Speaking of which – Jim, have you filtered my emails to go directly to the trash or spam? jk.

Like another commenter – my mother-in-law also is completely email bankrupt. She always calls me wondering why she is having problems with her outlook express email inbox, and when you look she has over 9000 emails in her inbox. Are you kidding me? I keep telling her that she needs to delete emails, but apparently she needs all 9000 of those emails just in case. She’s an email hoarder!

By: NateUVM

NateUVM — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:07:42 +0000

Definitely need to stay on top of all the information that I have streaming in. Plenty of good strategies here, in the OP and in the posted commentary. Thanks Jim for a great topic!

By: zapeta

zapeta — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:27:10 +0000

Smart strategy! I know I have a hard time keeping up with email sometimes and I get far fewer than you do Jim. The strategy that keeps me organized are lots of filters and labels in Gmail so every email gets where it needs to go and the less important emails I can put off for a couple days.

By: Mark Wolfinger

Mark Wolfinger — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:11:44 +0000

This idea assumes all e-mails are equal.

You know that some ae very important and others are trash.

This software does not help with that issue.

By: echidnina

echidnina — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:03:40 +0000

Sounds like a good strategy – divide and conquer! My inbox is at about 500 now, mostly because I’m signed up for 3 or 4 daily newsletters and I rarely keep up with them. I should probably work on that…