Email habits

Luke Burrage

I usually try to keep my inbox as empty as possible, replying to everything that needs it right away, archiving everything else. But yesterday something very strange happened...

I didn't receive a single email! I checked late on Sunday night, and there was one that came in at 00:36 on Monday morning. The next email to arrive was at 05:53 this morning (Tuesday).

Now I can't be sure, but this might be the first 24 hour period where I've not received an email since I signed up for a non-college account (on Yahoo) back in 2007. For a while I used to get 300-400 spam emails a day. As spam filtering got better the slack was picked up by email lists. Then switching to Gmail meant even better spam filtering, but then notifications took made my inbox fill up. In the last few months I've made an effort to remove myself from any list and opt out of notifications... pretty much anything to cut down on emails that aren't so important.

But it felt weird not to have a single email for the whole day. I thought Gmail might be broken, or Mail.app wasn't connecting to a server somewhere along the line. I guess not getting email in the first place is the easiest way to deal with it, but I missed the feeling of connection with the world, the validation that I exist. Of course this validation is automated, but it still tickles the right part of my brain.

Apreche

I always have everything read all the time.

Luke Burrage

I see a big distinction between having everything read and having an empty inbox. Some things leave totally unread, because the email itself is all I need (like a confirmation of an order on Amazon). For other things the reading is only the smallest part of it, and the real work comes in replying or following other courses of action.

Apreche

I see a big distinction between having everything read and having an empty inbox. Some things leave totally unread, because the email itself is all I need (like a confirmation of an order on Amazon). For other things the reading is only the smallest part of it, and the real work comes in replying or following other courses of action.

I get very few emails that need replies. Those that do, I reply immediately. I never empty the inbox. I leave everything in there. That's sort of the point of Gmail. No reason to delete anything. Some people archive everything, which doesn't delete and just removes from the inbox. I only do that to a handful of emails. For example, if I get an unwanted newsletter I'll unsubscribe, then archive the one I got to get it out of my face.

trogdor9

I used to do what Scott does - never archiving or deleting, but reading everything - but I've been doing the Inbox Zero archive thing in my Gmail since I installed Mailbox and it's working out pretty well, I think. I'm not really at a point in my life where I receive that many emails that require a response, though - maybe that will change when I start my first full-time job.

GroverBomb

The Inbox Zero method seems pretty useful. I used to keep everything (having read all of it) in my inbox, but some time ago I realized that the things that hit my inbox that couldn't be answered or acted upon immediately sometimes ended up getting buried or forgotten. There is always a to-do list, notes, or the search function, but why waste all that time?

I now use something like Luke's method, where I keep a very clean inbox. It's essentially a pending folder. I keep pending things in the inbox, archive important things that are "done" in respective folders like "personal," "receipts," "vacation," etc..., and delete the rest. My inbox hardly ever goes over a page long, so it's very easy to just open it and see how many things I have going on in a given day. I certainly feel more organized.

Axel

I never delete my email. People I know how do always lose important emails. They also don't all exclusively use Gmail as their only email. That is their primary mistake.

Rochelle

I pretty much keep everything and anything important I attach a tag/label with color.

MrRoboto

My email has like 10000000 unread mails, not tagged, starred, etc. The only "filter" I have is the automatic "important" "non important" inboxes gmail provides, but those are self generated and involved no effort on my side.

Forte

I use my university e-mail for any correspondence between me and my co-workers at the school I work at and for e-mailing any of my professors in graduate school. That keeps all of the e-mails that need replies in one uncluttered place so I never have to wonder about them getting lost in an e-mail shuffle.

My normal Gmail account is the one I use the most often, but I primarily receive e-mails that never need a response (Twitter e-mails, newsletters, etc.). Every morning and evening, I bring up my e-mail on my iPad, scroll through every new e-mail, star any important e-mails, and basically force myself to always have a completely read inbox. Seems to have worked pretty well.

Matt

I real every email as it comes in. Anything I can't reply to this second, or anything critical that I don't want to rely on search to be able to find, gets a star/flag. That is all.

Every now and then, I will select all of the crappy PR and spam emails I get form the past 50-100 messages, and set up a filter to auto-delete anything from those senders. Helps keep the tide back.

Linkigi(Link-ee-jee)

My college email account forwards automatically to my Gmail. I rarely even notice the difference.

Axel

My college email account forwards automatically to my Gmail. I rarely even notice the difference.

Also this. My college email is ANOTHER Gmail that I forward to my main Gmail.

Apsup

My college email account forwards automatically to my Gmail. I rarely even notice the difference.

Also this. My college email is ANOTHER Gmail that I forward to my main Gmail.

Same here.

Cremlian

Sorta sad that my college E-mail existed at a time when they got rid of it after you started going. I lost a lot of material and contacts I wish I still had.

Dragonmaster Lou

My college email account forwards automatically to my Gmail. I rarely even notice the difference.

Also this. My college email is ANOTHER Gmail that I forward to my main Gmail.

Same here.

A lot of colleges are going Google for their email hosting. My alma mater did it a couple years back and was even spotlighted by Google for "going Google." Their justification, not surprisingly, was that all their students were using Google Apps and Mail anyway, so they may as well just replace their old Exchange-based system (which they also set up after I left) with GApps.

BTW, I'm slightly annoyed that Google Apps for Domains is no longer free, but at least I'm grandfathered in.

Rym

I would pay for Google Apps for Domains if I wasn't also grandfathered in.

Apreche

I would pay for Google Apps for Domains if I wasn't also grandfathered in.

Just because managing an email server is the WORST.

ProfPangloss

I would pay for Google Apps for Domains if I wasn't also grandfathered in.

Just because managing an email server is the WORST.

Dat regex.

Dragonmaster Lou

I would pay for Google Apps for Domains if I wasn't also grandfathered in.

Just because managing an email server is the WORST.

I'd agree on all counts if I had a business. I still think it's the best option for any small to medium sized business that can't afford to hire a dedicated email server administrator. As a personal user, I'm less inclined to fork over $50/year/user for multiple users among my family and friends, but a lot of that does depend on how well I can do forwarding/POP/etc. to my regular GMail account from my domain registrar/hosting provider.