

 A Model of Your Inbox - prakash
http://www.gaborcselle.com/blog/2008/11/model-of-your-inbox.html

======
byrneseyeview
The problem with this is that it isn't a model of an inbox -- it's a model of
a to-do list to which anybody but you can add items. What you _really_ want to
do is process an email into something besides an email -- by quickly
responding to it, by rephrasing it as a to-do item, by trashing it, or by
'hitting snooze' and getting a reminder in a day or a week.

Your inbox is for messages; it's a way to see what people are _saying to you_.
As messages leave the inbox, they should be transformed into something that
tells you what people _want from you_.

~~~
nebula
I have been wanting this functionality for my mailbox since quite sometime.

I managed to get a very small fraction of it done in Thunderbird through
tagging and filters. I pretty much generate a Todo list out of the messages by
tagging. But I want more: reminders for these items; setting a deadlines and
the amount of time it takes to finish items so that they will get auto-
arranged and they present themselves when I have to pay attention.

It should not be that hard to get this done by integrating calendar right into
the inbox. I have thought of doing this as a Thunderbird add-on, just haven't
gotten around to doing it.

~~~
joshwa
<http://gtdsupport.netcentrics.com/learn/productTour.php> (sadly, only for
outlook)

------
brentr
One of the topics I saw among the comments was a means of distinguishing
something that needed to be done and done now (urgent / important).

I propose a solution. Allow people to send you what I call a PEmail. This is
an email with a very specific project outlined. Instead of just a subject
line, the PEmail has a subject line for the project's name and a time due
line. Your email client then automatically organizes the incoming PEmails by
when the project is due.

------
debt
There's only two quadrants for me: important or unimportant.

An important email is something work-related or an email from a significant
other.

If it's important I read/respond immediately then archive it. All unimportant
emails get archived instantly. This keeps my inbox empty and my mind at ease.

If I'm bored, I'll read the unimportant emails.

This system is simple and makes life a little less complicated.

------
einarvollset
On a related note: I'm running an experiment on what people miss most in an
email client. Currently Snooze This Message and the ability to add private
notes to emails are winning.

Would be interesting to see what a more tech oriented crowd thinks, so feel
free to vote - or add your own ideas.

<http://ideas.vapormarket.com>

~~~
dhoe
For snoozing I use <http://www.iwantsandy.com>. Works really well - just
forward the email and add "r me in two days", and two days later you get an
email with a reminder. For private notes, I forward the mail to myself and add
notes in the body, and Gmail recognizes it as part of the same conversation.

------
yummyfajitas
To deal with emails like "cake on my desk", how about a "not relevant after
$TIME" tag?

I know the cake won't last, so why I would tag it for automatic deletion after
3 hours. Anyone who misses the email won't have to waste time deleting it
later.

------
rokhayakebe
Give me a "move email up/down" feature and you solve half of my problems.

~~~
byrneseyeview
A reddit/slinkset/news.arc-based mail reader would actually be really
interesting.

~~~
rokhayakebe
Exactly. A simple vote up and down system has completely changed the way news
are shared online. The same can be done for your email. I am sure someone has
already developed such a plugin for her/himself, or is currently working on
it.

------
arthurk
Basically Stephen Covey’s time management matrix applied on emails.

~~~
jedc
With the caveat that only one of the two dimensions can be determined easily.

------
paul9290
A categorized Twitter could be the answer to too much email!

Allow me to group followers into categories. Business, family & friends,
social media community, etc. It forces us to get to the point in 140
characters and should continue such, but add a link to view more of what the
communication received from a follower says(still keeping a character
limit)... if I choose to do so.

------
tsally
A similar thing was covered in Randy Pausch's lecture on time management.

