43 Folders

Back to Work

Merlin’s weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.

Join us via RSS, iTunes, or at 5by5.tv.

”What’s 43 Folders?”
43Folders.com is Merlin Mann’s website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.

Bouncing between computers.

I see the "Too many email accounts" post and thought about posting there, but I think it varies just a little too much.

My problem is I've been a GMail user for a few years now, and love every bit of it, except that it doesn't support IMAP and a true Folder system (just uses labels). That's becoming an issue because I would like to start getting my life more organized with folders and such, and across the different computers I use in my life, have Outlook and Mail.app (and my iPhone) to use IMAP from one provider.

Do most of you agree that because of how light-weight GMail is, I may as well just get used to the labeling system and continue using it web-based, or do any of you offer a solution to the problem? AOL Mail is a free IMAP provider, but I've loathed AOL from day one and never saw myself actually thinking about signing up for an account, however, right now it's the free and therefor best solution.

Stew's picture

Being a Gmail user myself,...

Being a Gmail user myself, I rarely apply labels to my email messages. I find that searching usually gets me what I need. However, for my file organization, I tend to use a combination of folders and desktop search: The desktop search to find the file I'm looking for, and the folders to remind me of its context. Maybe a similar system would work in Gmail - could you apply labels for areas of interest, and find what you need by searching? I find labels to be synonymous with folders, the only difference being that an item can be in more than one "folder" at a time.

 
EXPLORE 43Folders THE GOOD STUFF

Popular
Today

Popular
Classics

An Oblique Strategy:
Honor thy error as a hidden intention


STAY IN THE LOOP:

Subscribe with Google Reader

Subscribe on Netvibes

Add to Technorati Favorites

Subscribe on Pageflakes

Add RSS feed

The Podcast Feed

Cranking

Merlin used to crank. He’s not cranking any more.

This is an essay about family, priorities, and Shakey’s Pizza, and it’s probably the best thing he’s written. »

Scared Shitless

Merlin’s scared. You’re scared. Everybody is scared.

This is the video of Merlin’s keynote at Webstock 2011. The one where he cried. You should watch it. »