When every email is in its place, that doesn’t mean you find stuff. At least not reliably, let alone fast. This is a scientifically proven fact (see this research paper or its summary).
Note that this is about folders that sort emails by content in some sort of hierarchy. There are folks who prefer action based “folders”, say a “Read later” or “urgent”, but those are essentially just labels meant to help with productivity, not real folders that are about filing and finding emails. //
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Sorting mails into folders doesn’t feel like a good use of my time. I should be doing something that carries more value, like actually acting on my email
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Of all the emails I receive (and that I want to keep), it’s my wild guess that I will need to find – at most – 10% ever again. The problem is: I don’t know which 10% of the 100% of received emails my future self will need. Moving an email to a folder takes time, and I can’t do it on autopilot.
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The filing system I set up will need to anticipate my future self’s search logic. Highly non-scientific empirical behavioral research on a sample of 1 (me) clearly shows that the brain functions governing filing things and finding things differ. If you are a folder person, I bet that you too have experienced going from folder to folder to folder, trying to figure out where the heck that email that you just know you diligently filed exactly where it belongs actually is.
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Some email I want to sort away may fit the topic of folder A just as well as folder B. Does it go in A? or in B? Put a copy in both? Decisions! More thought processes! //
Setting up a new rule, your email client usually allows you to apply the rule to existing emails. So it’s going through your emails and filters away according to the rule you just set up. You know what that is? This is, in fact, a search operation on your email database.
So what is the difference between an automated filtering rule and a search? A rule is a search that you set up without having a need yet. You may never need the rule you set up. You may be setting up the wrong rule/search.
(You may want to set up rules that filter away emails automatically so you don’t even see those emails – you can’t unsubscribe everything, this kind of rule is not really for filing, it’s like a spam filter. Ask yourself if you are actually looking at those emails ever, and be bold to unsubscribe.)
So if rules are the answer to the issues with folders, and search is kind of equivalent to rules, then the answer actually is to scrap all those folders! Ok. Most folders. //
If your preferred email program has a good search function, you may consider stopping to file stuff.
