Advanced Email Organization Supplement

8/3/2019 Advanced Email Organization Supplement

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Advanced EmaOrganizatio

using ta

Devon Cam

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If you’ve tried organizing email, you’ve

probably used folders. The metaphor has

been around since the early days of

computers, and it served us well in the

beginning. Users needed to anchor the

computer’s file system to something they

understood in the real world. The folder was

perfect.

However, in the past five years, developers

have recognized and filled a need to take full

advantage of the unique benefits of digital

organization. The innovation is tagging.

Think back on the folder metaphor. Here in

meatspace (the non-virtual world), a

document can only exist in a single folder. If you need a document to be filed in two

different places, you need copies. If you want

to change one copy, you change both. If you

forget to change both...

Physics tell us that a piece of paper can only be in one place at a time. Organization on

computers thankfully doesn’t need to concern

itself with the pitiful limitations of spacetime.

Overview

Folders: the prevaidigital organizat

metaphor but not

b

Tags: Not as stronmetaphor, but a betway to organize dig

informat



Tags are very much like folders but without

the exclusivity. A single item can have

multiple tags—as many as you want, in fact.

Here’s a concrete example. I have a tag called

“projects” which I use to track any work that

doesn’t fall into working tickets day-to-day.

This way, I can click the tag and, at a glance,

see where I am and what I need to do on all

my side-projects.

Another tag is called “trouble,” and it’s here I

keep computer problems. So, what if

someone emails me to say an entire computer

lab is down? That’s trouble, but it’s also a

pretty serious project. Luckily, I can organize

it as both.

Tagging realizes that, in two years when I’m

looking for that email, I’m not going to know

whether I put it into “projects” or “trouble,”

and it lets me put it in both.

Tag

I’m not sure whereput this email. It wo

really make sense to it in two differ

places. With tags, I do that easily. In fac

could put it indifferent places

want



Making tags is really easy in

ENA Webmail. Just click

the button shown. The hard

part is developing a system

that will still work long after you’ve forgotten

where you filed away that email.

Give some thought to the way you will tag

your email. I have some general rules I use to

develop tags.

•Use plural words for nouns, singular for

concepts

•Use all-lowercase letters for your tags except

in the case of a proper noun

•Use as many tags as apply to each message

•Use multiple word forms if necessary

Organizing is a game in which you develop a

system your brain can understand once you

have forgotten about it. When you look at an

email, try to guess what you would think of

when you want to find it later.

Tagging is simple; it’s word association!

Don’t think you will setup all your tags in the

beginning. You will almost certainly create

new tags as you go. Tagging is free-form.

Tagging i

Practic

You can create ytags in a numbe

places—even as yoapplying them. Just l

out for the tag ic

These are not hard fast rules. They j

happen to be what I uYou can probably co

up with better on

It’s still a good ideamaintain your tags. If

old tag would mbetter sense wit

different name, bymeans change



Tags make more sense for digital

organization, but folders still have their place.

I have put my folders to work turning my

inbox into a to-do list.

Most emails are actionable meaning

the recipient needs to take some

sort of action on them. This folder

structure allows every email to be

classified based on when it is actionable.

This is unlike my tag organization which sorts

messages based on their content. The basis

for the sorting of messages into folders is

dissimilar enough to warrant a different

mechanism to create separation from the

content organization. It also happens to be acase in which exclusivity makes perfect sense.

As such, the folder is an excellent mechanism

for this scheme.

As my messages come in, I will first tag them

while they are in the inbox. Then, I will sortthem based on when they can be acted upon.

You may want to check the folders

periodically and move your messages

between them as deadlines approach.

Folder

Have The

Plac

Folders work well for tbecause each action

be completed at oone time. Folders

help because I am forto sort each mess

into only one fol

The folder names self-explanatory for

most part. It’s importto note I lead the nam

with a numberinfluence the order.

“Archive” folder contacompleted itemsitems which are

actiona



Finally, we have reached the payoff. The sole

reason for organizing is so you can easily find

things later. If you use the tips here, you’ll

have no trouble finding the messages you

need to see now or months from now.

Searching in concert with tags and folders is

incredibly powerful.

Here’s a simple search that returns messages

tagged “projects.” It looks the same as

clicking on the projects tag in the left sidebar.

Not terribly useful. Here’s where things get

interesting.

This search finds a tag intersection. The

search will return messages tagged with both

tags. This will find the message I mentioned

earlier about the computer lab that is down.

This search looks like the last one but for the

inclusion of the keyword “OR.” Without it, an

“AND” is implied between all search terms.

The “OR” finds messages with either tag, as

you might expect. Try a search with “NOT.”

Findin

You

Message

Search is your frieSaved searches often automate

organization processsome deg

AND- Finds items wboth search terms.

multiple ANDs to fmo

OR- Finds items wone, the other, or b

search ter

NOT- Exclude itematching a search te



Let’s do a search for messages tagged

“trouble” that are actionable today. To do so,

I have to use the advanced search

functionality.

Despite it’s name, advanced search is really a

cinch. It’s much simpler than the tag

searching tricks you learned previously. You

can probably figure it out just by jumping in

and looking around the interface. Everything

is graphical.

After clicking “Advanced” next to the search

box, the area below clears out for the

advanced searching criteria. A bar shows the

available criteria. Clicking on “Folder” and

“Tag” in turn will reveal those search panes.

These two checkboxes will find what we need:

emails about “trouble” which are actionable

today. Click the “Search” button to see the

results.

Advance

Searche

Advanced searching mbe simpler than text-only searching

did before, but it isn’tpowerful. In advansearches, there is

way to find a intersect

Fortunately, you can the advanced criteri

tandem with the tb



If this or any other search is something you

will reuse, save the search. Instead of

searching again each time, just click the saved

search in your sidebar.

These saved searches can act like folders, but

they have a key advantage. They will update

each time you click. I know many of you like

to be able to see messages from key

colleagues. A saved search is the perfect way.

You’ll no longer have to manually sort all

these messages. Plus, you will not have locked

the message into monogamy with a folder

named for your colleague.

Use the “From:” field in the basic search

section of the advanced search. Enter theuser’s email address in the field, click “Save,”

and enjoy an auto-updating saved search with

every email from that individual.

Saved searches are incredibly versatile, but

use them somewhat sparingly. Only savesearches you know you will use again and

again. They eat up valuable screen space in

your email interface.

Save

Searche

Give your sasearches names in same way you migh

folder. Be sure yoconsiste

If a search will be usonce a day or onc

week, it probably nea saved search. If

useful once per monthat’s a maybe. If

terribly complex, thaanother good reason

sa



Just as saved searches make repeated queries

faster, filtering automates repeated sorting

tasks.

The best example is an email phenomenon

known as bacn (pronounced like the meat).

Bacn is the halfway point between time-

sensitive emails and spam. You probably

receive several newsletters in your inbox.

These are bacn. It’s not unsolicited like spam,

but it lacks the urgency of other email. You

may read your bacn at the end of the day or in

a week... or maybe never.

A given newsletter is typically sent from the

same email address each issue. For example,

our Techknow newsletter comes [email protected]. Using this information,

I can automatically sort these messages into a

tag called “bacn” or “newsletters,” if you

prefer.

Filters are located in ENA Webmail’spreferences. Once you click preferences, you

will see filters in the left sidebar.

Filterin

Filters will hautomate some of

sorting proce

“Bacn” would be a mgeneral t

“Newsletters” variety of ba

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacn

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacn



Once I navigate to Preferences > Filters, I can

click “New Filter” to summon the box shown

here. This is where I tell the filter which

messages to find and what to do with them.

In this example, I’m finding messages from

[email protected], moving them from the

inbox into the archive folder (they are

probably not actionable), and tagging them“bacn.” This gets them out of the inbox and

out of my way so I can deal with my truly

urgent messages.

Makin

Filter

Using “any” in tdropdown menu allo

me to use the plus sto add other sende

can use a single filtersort all my ba

The great thing abtagging my bacn is t

tags get an unrmessage count just

folders and the inbowill still be able to

that my “bacn” tag unread messages just

glancing at the tathe side



In this hour, you’ve acquired a toolset which

will make organizing and finding your email

as painless and headache-free as it can be.

If you have any questions or suggestions, I

would love to hear them. Feel free to contact

me at [email protected]. I hope you have

enjoyed the session. Thank you for your time.

•Folksonomies - Cooperative Classification

and Communication Through Shared

Metadata

•Singular vs. plural tags in a tag-based

categorization system

The author here merely poses a question. The

meat is in the comments.

•Tagging Best Practices

Although I disagree with the assertion that

singular (as opposed to plural) tags are best,

this is a well-thought set of tagging guidelines

Contac

M

Devon Campdcampbell@k12tn.

865.680.5

AdditionaResource

http://keithdevens.com/weblog/archive/2004/Dec/24/SvP.tags

http://www.adammathes.com/academic/computer-mediated-communication/folksonomies.html


mailto:[email protected]



http://tagamac.com/2007/07/best_practices/

http://tagamac.com/2007/07/best_practices/















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