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.

Covering of the Behind with Inbox Zero

As part of my job, I receive a lot of requests for quotes on various things. These are lovely and easy to turn into actions, but a problem arises with what to do with the email itself afterwords. It is important in my role to keep copies of correspondence between myself and people wanting quotes - partly to cover myself when they come back to me 12 months later saying 'I asked for this'. Do you guys recommend putting them all into the archive and using the remarkably powerful new search functionality available nowadays, or using subfolders based on the sender in the archive, or something else entirely? Subfolders don't seem like a very Inbox Zero sort of thing to do.

williamk's picture

Re: Covering of the Behind with Inbox Zero

I use Google Apps for my email and just because I dont have a cluttered inbox doesnt mean I dont keep copies. I used to use a bunch of tags, trying to replicate my old multi-folder Outlook setup, but now I delete what I dont need and everything else goes in the archive. I just search for what I need if I have to pull up anything later on to back check. Folders/Tags just slow me down too much and the search hasnt let me down yet.

 
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