Comments on: Treat your email more like Photoshop

By: Eli

Eli — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 05:05:32 +0000

Sorry, but I don’t think I could ever treat an email like I treat a PSD file. I take hours composing a Photoshop document, and only a few minutes with an email. I really should proofread emails more often though, when I do I find embarrassing mistakes :)

By: communicatrix

communicatrix — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 14:47:57 +0000

RobG is exactly right—as long as it’s all “processed”, it doesn’t need to be physically moved. If I (and thousands of others like me, if message boards and blogs and book sales and TV schedules are any indication) could do it like Taylor, believe me, we would.

But we can’t, so we just look up to you zenmaster types and hope we make up for our gross inefficiency in some other area.

By: RobG

RobG — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 11:39:47 +0000

Good question,

I dont think it really matters as long as it is empty in your head. ie it has ALL been processed. If for you that is that it is read then that is fine, for me getting it out of inbox means I KNOW that I have dealt with it and there isnt stuff lurking there (pulling at my attention) that i have read but havent decided what to do with yet. I think it all comes down to whether you have what David Allen describes as a “trusted system”

I am 100% behind you on tags - if only every piece of software could use them.

Cheers

Rob

By: Taylor

Taylor — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 08:03:50 +0000

“3. Clear your inbox, don’t use it as a holding bin”

can someone please explain to me why this is so uber important? I argued at length with a friend who was adamant this is necessary, where I hold precisely the opposite viewpoint.

Why do you have to go to all the work of moving email that has been read? I do one very simple thing: Read the email.

Email that is read, I don’t have to deal with. Email that isn’t read must be dealt with. If I read an email that requires longer than a quick scan or a follow up, I drop it in my “ToDo” folder. (I’d use tags but they are not universal, sigh)

So what’s the difference between an empty email box and one that has no unread messages? The empty one has no messages, but that is how I view my inbox when there are no unread messages…

Please enlighten me….