Compusthetics

I've been using Gmail full time since January of 2006, and a little over three years later I have approximately 8,000 emails archived in my personal Gmail account, totaling about 700 MB or roughly 9% of capacity. While Gmail has many noteworthy features, such as labels (which I greatly prefer to folders but ironically I don't find myself using since search is generally sufficient), and ever increasing free storage (which has roughly paralleled my own consumption, keeping my usage nearly level around 7-10%), the archive button and integrated search are undoubtably among the most important in my opinion. The tag line is simple: never have to delete again.

It's so simple, it's ingenious! If there is one thing I've learned in the last few years it's that many people spend more time organizing than they stand to gain from that same activity.

I used to spend precious time filing important little papers in a nice little file cabinet, with nicely labeled little files, where I put my nicely sorted little stacks of paper. Why?! One day better sense got the best of me (thanks to a friend), and better sense hit me like a freight train.

Here I was, with limited time on this Earth, wasting away my valuable time filing documents that I would more than likely never look at again! Even the handful of documents that I might ever look at again would only be looked at once or twice. Am I a cog, or what?! To make matters worse, file systems make us draw lines, and when we draw lines, things get lost. I don't care who or how careful you are, or how you draw your lines, not everything fits nicely into a single bucket, and things get lost.

Since my epiphany I've adopted a very simple two pile filing system: one pile for things needing action, the other for those that don't (or already have had action). The former is on my desk, the latter in a box. Everything, and I mean everything goes into the box at some point, and there is a new box for every year. For me, a 3-4" high box does nicely to fit all the paper baggage I generate in a year. If I ever need to find a document, I always know where to look: in the box! My system has been working well for about three years now and I've only ever needed to look through the boxes a handful of times (taking maybe 5-10 minutes each time), and I always find what I need because I consistently use them for everything!

This is essentially the Gmail archive and search features. Of course other email clients support this workflow too by creating a folder designated as the archive, but the problem with this approach is the sheer tedium of it! A button is much better: no dragging; just a single, simple, pain free click (or better yet, use the keyboard interface) and you're worry free. Your email is always there, awaiting your beck and call should you ever need it again. A few moments of though will surely allow one to come up with a way to find any email using the ultra-powerful and ultra-quick integrated search.

In order for this to work, I believe you must never delete! Deleting is the same as drawing a line--what to and what not to delete--and then we're back to the same old segregation based filing system. You'll find yourself wanting to fudge that line, to delete something that you're pretty sure you'll never need, or keep something around that you would normally delete but this one seems more useful somehow. Later you will need to find something, but you just won't seem to be able to locate it. And you'll wonder, did I delete it? Don't let this be you! This life is complicated and you have enough decisions to make every day, why would you force yourself to make another decision when the answer is so obviously in front of you? I still find it ludicrous when I see people deleting emails in Gmail. Life can be simpler if you let it.