Michael Osterman of Osterman Research asks and answers this question on his blog.

“I believe the answer is no. In many ways, email is more database than communications tool, a repository of unstructured content that you can add to at will simply be sending me an email. If content is unwanted and unusable, such as spam, obviously it should be discarded. However, we all receive content in email that might not need a response right away, or that might be more useful when aggregated with other content.”

I agree with Michael. Until a few years ago, I used to organize all incoming messages into folders by subject matter and delete the Spam and superfluous mails with the goal of having an empty inbox at the end of the day. In essence, I was using my inbox as a to-do list. This system became too difficult to manage after a while. I fell behind, messages got mis-categorized and I could not find older emails quick enough.

I then discovered the “Google approach” to email – keeping a flat inbox - using search, sort, flagging and tagging. While I personally don’t view Gmail as a viable option for my daily email needs yet, traditional email clients such as Lotus Notes and MS-Outlook already have all the built-in capabilities to make this approach very effective.

Here is how it works:

Searching – Keeping all messages in one place saves you from searching multiple folders. Both Notes and Outlook provide the capabilities to setup virtual search folders, which are in essence stored search queries.

Sorting – When reviewing a message, a simple sort by sender gives instant access to all emails previously received from that sender. Sorting by subject shows the entire message thread.

Flagging – Setting different priority flags on specific messages allows you to turn the emails into a prioritized to-do list. It also helps in highlighting the importance of certain messages so they don’t get overlooked or forgotten.

Tagging – Probably the most powerful and underutilized feature in email. Rather than organizing messages in folders, try using category or subject tags. While an email can only be stored in a single physical folder, it can be tagged with many keywords. Tagging combined with virtual search folders is a very productive way to organize messages.

There are still some exceptions when it might make sense to use folders to organize emails. Examples are personal emails or mailing lists subscriptions.

Overall, this approach works very well for me, removing any anxiety over having a full inbox. Now off to battling that unread message count…

Technorati Tags: full inbox, email best practices, MS-Outlook, Lotus Notes, email tagging, search folders, Osterman Research

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