My Inbox

Lets talk about my inbox for a second. I never let it get over 200 messages, but it's never under 100 messages. I literally struggle every day to keep this thing from exploding. I have dozens? hundreds? of folders and I think the max number of server side rules that exchange will let me and I still can't deal. When I first started at Microsoft it was under 30 each day. But as my roles changed, my interests grew and my responsibility increased it's simply impossible for me to get back to this. When we shipped Virtual PC 6.1 I managed to get my inbox down to 4 messages, but a week later it was back to 150.

Robert Scoble mentioned a David Allen Seminar today and that got me intrigued. I'm not sure where he took it but I think I really need something like this. I went to his web site and already read this document that talks about e-mail tips, and then there is his book, a downloadable “paper” on using Outlook and finally his software that apparently implements his philosophy of e-mail management. I'm tempted to just throw down the $70 for his Outlook software cause I'm pretty much desperate at this point.

My work discipline around e-mail is so bad that it's spilled into my personal life and my “home” e-mail account is just as pathetic as my work inbox. I avoid looking at my other mailboxes because I can't even deal with my work one. I don't get any joy out of e-mail like I used to when I was new to the net.

BTW - I've always wondered. When you die, where does your e-mail go? Who answers it? Does it just stop when your don't pay your bills and your ISP shuts it down ;-).