43 Folders

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

Desktop or web-based email?

After getting used to Gmail 3 years ago, I swore I'd stick to web-based email. With IMAP now available, I set it up last week in Apple's Mail client on my desktop to integrate better with offline storage, emailing links, etc, and found myself changing my ways.

It wasn't easy: The initial download took forever and I had to work at getting Apple's Junk Filters to cooperate. (I.e., still work on the 2 POP accounts I check in Mail while leaving Gmail's already filtered mail alone).

I'm a convert. I used to open a browser window with three tabs: Google homepage, RSS, and Gmail and check it throughout the day. Now I'm in Mail only when I need to be, and ignore RSS and news until it occurs to me to catch up.

I did really like the Gmail interface, with conversations, shortcuts, etc, but I've been trying to make Safari my full-time browser and it wasn't playing nice. I've found a surge of productivity by sticking to the desktop.

How do others find web-based vs. desktop email to impact their productivity?

NNM's picture

msn messenger!

Hello,

I just had to comment on this.. msn messenger does the job to perfection. It notifies you when you get an email, you see who sent it immediately, and can decide whether to click on the little tray popup or not. How can you possibly beat that? And all this bashing Microsoft is really annoying. It's just a silly trend and "cool" to bash Microsoft at every chance. I love Microsoft and have used its hotmail for well over a decade now... No complaints at all, it just gets better and better. And ever since hearing some "inbox zero" presentation (I wonder who that genius was.. hehe), my mail experience is much more relaxing...

edit: actually, when I think of it... At work I have three laptops, 4 different webmails, + the corp machine is also always on with the corp email in outlook... Applying Inbox Zero is really recommended for people like me or the ones who just giggled thinking "I have more mail accounts than you".

 
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