Comments on: Of Inboxes and Men

By: Patsy Terrell

Patsy Terrell — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 05:51:57 +0000

I am that rare breed number 4. I like to just leave things accessible so I can refer back to them at any time. It works for me. It’s why “search” was created as far as I’m concerned.

By: The email inbox as personality indicator

The email inbox as personality indicator — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:46:02 +0000

[...] much contemplation the Mind of MandoRon has developed four categories of people according to their approach to email. Which one are [...]

By: Ronnie

Ronnie — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:08:03 +0000

Great comments!

Eron - I was thinking of this from a work standpoint. My personal email inbox (yahoo…) is 425 message + personal folders… I don’t know how many GB’s total. Yahoo stopped tracking it when they went to unlimited mailboxes.

I definitely archive everything for a year at work though… Comes in handy.

Maybe I’ll take a stab at email etiquette next week… Hit the delegation comment and the “you suck; please advise” emails that I see at work.

By: cody

cody — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:38:41 +0000

i am a #2 as well. The only thing I archive is my sent items that way I can prove I handled something if problems arise.

What about the people who forward their emails on to others to get out of doing work. Silly stuff that could be answered with a short sentence. We could call these people “My Inbox Improves My Delegation Skills”

Or the worst of them all…the “I Will cc: Everyone I Know With This One Because It Makes Me Feel Important” When I get included in this event and am copied throughout the entire conversation, my office mysteriously hears the weirdest of pages.

By: Eron Rawson

Eron Rawson — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:17:45 +0000

I’m definately #4… but I’ve got gmail. I’ve had gmail for a very long time now. I can go back to emails from 2004 if i want to.

I have almost 2.200 in my inbox and 3,400 emails in all of my folders (minus spam) total. I am using almost 1.2GB of my 7.3GB available.

Maybe you should add an alternate name to number 4 as “gmail hoarders.” The big sell with gmail is “why delete emails? just keep them all, and be able to search all of your emails at once.” I take advantage of this.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:52:03 +0000

Good post! I fall into #2 category. Except, I usually have around 200 emails (one week’s worth) in my Inbox at all times and I archive 6 months worth. I found early on that if I delete emails it comes back to bite me because most of the time that’s my primary mode of communication and I usually need proof of what was said regarding situations.

My advisor at KU is a #4 kind of guy. Literally 5000+ emails in his Inbox and many of them never read over years… crazy.

I won’t be a slave to my email, but it is a good workflow tool.