Vaniver comments on How I Am Productive - Less Wrong

38 Post author: peter_hurford 27 August 2013 01:04PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (33)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: Vaniver 27 August 2013 06:41:46PM 3 points [-]

I think that paper is about something slightly different. What peter_hurford is recommending is not "sort your emails so you can find them again easily later" as "sort your emails so that you read them in the right context."

For example, gmail now has its own automatic sorting / folders system that I've found tremendously useful. I don't use it to find listserv emails separately from Amazon shipping updates- if I'm looking for a particular email, I use search. What I do use it for is only paying attention to certain classes of email at the right times. Every day I check the "Updates" folder, see shipping emails from Amazon and Kickstarter updates, and archive them. When I have downtime for reading forum posts, I check the Forums tab. But when someone important emails me about something important, it goes straight into my inbox and my phone beeps at me.

Comment author: Nornagest 28 August 2013 02:31:55AM 1 point [-]

Hm. I've found the Gmail changes almost completely useless, since I read email almost exclusively on my phone (though I often reread or respond to it on my laptop) and the changes don't extend to the Android app. Reading between the lines, though, it doesn't sound like you're seeing the same behavior I am. Do you have a different email workflow? Or do you know if the changes are supported by some phones but not others, or require manual configuration, or something?

Comment author: Vaniver 28 August 2013 07:24:24PM 0 points [-]

I've found the Gmail changes almost completely useless, since I read email almost exclusively on my phone (though I often reread or respond to it on my laptop) and the changes don't extend to the Android app.

My android app on a Motorola Droid has the changes as well, and automatically switched over when I switched my browser setup. I would investigate your settings.

That it also works on my phone is a large part of what makes it so useful for me- of the ~30 emails I get a day, only the ~2 actually important ones ping me on my phone, and the rest wait patiently until I want to see them.