My method of organizing email
Tags: email, gtd, organization
Published: 2020-02-28 00:46:03

Today I wanted to share a quick email organization tip that I've refined over the years.  Ideally, I try to pull every piece of relevant information out of email as often as possible and stick it into Evernote or an org-mode notes file. Getting information _out_ of email and into an information system of some sort gets you 90% of the way, but there will always be that bit of info you missed in the flood of new emails.  To deal with this I follow the process below to increase my ability to find the information I need.



	
  1. The first order of business is to _get information out of email_. Email is a great tool for communication but it was never intended to be an information repository. Search will almost always be cumbersome and even if you find the email you were looking for it can take a great deal of cognitive effort to reconstruct what the train of thought was or way that email was important.  Email generally doesn't allow for meta-data so by capturing and "editorializing" the information in your own note-taking system you can add in the relevant context

	
  2. Practice Inbox Zero.  There are really only three "states" that email should live in.  By practicing the art of quickly classifying emails in these categories you can quickly "deal with" large volumes of email rather than letting it build up:

	
    1. "New" - email that you haven't seen yet

	
    2. "Actions" - something you need to do

	
    3. "Archive" - something you need to hang on to




	
  3. Here is my modified version of "Inbox Zero" with the different folders I have found fit my work-style feel free to improve on this.

	
    1. 0-Action - Emails that are requests or reminders of things i need to do.  If there is a specific task/deadline I will generally remove this to my "official" todo list in a different application and archive the email.  Generally what is in here are reminders or items I need to do _sometime._

	
    2. 1-Hold - Informational emails that i need close at hand but do not represent a "todo" item.  This should be a temporary holding place for "favorites".  An example was a code that I needed for access to a system.  I knew I'd only need it for a short amount of time so I moved the email there and then moved it to 2-Archive after a week.

	
    3. 2-Archive - This is where you put _everything_ that isn't in another folder.  Storage is cheap.  Save Everything.  Rely on good search abilities in your mail client to retrieve anything that you haven't deemed important enough to add to your notes.  If you spend more than three minutes searching for something _add it to your note-taking system_ for the future.

	
    4. 3-Feedback - This is where I keep positive (and negative) feedback to refer back to periodically.

	
    5. 4-Awesome - Funny emails, pick-me-ups, etc.  It's good to make time during the day to stop being so serious and enjoying work

	
    6. 5-Templates - If i write the same email or answer the same question more than once I create a blank email and use it as a template





What organization systems do you use to keep the flood of email/information manageable? Please let me know!