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Thanks for visiting my blog. Hope you find some helpful hints for organizing your time and space. My passions are to help you make home a refuge instead of a crisis center, and to help you function in peace rather than chaos - at home or at work. I have switched my main blog to 1-2-3 ... Get Organized on WordPress, so please visit me there.



Thursday, May 26, 2011

The Most Efficient Way to Retrive Email - File It or Search It? IBM's Study

           
IBM conducted a study of 345 long-time email users to see whether it's more efficient to organize email into folders or simply search for an email when you need it. These email users conducted over 85,000 refinding actions - scrolling, searching, and filing of email into folders.

For a while I have been leaving my email in my inbox, deleting those emails I don't want, following my daughters' example.  I do admit though, that it somehow feels wrong to have thousands of emails in my inbox. 

Here's what IBM research found:

"There are direct technical implications of our results. Search was both efficient and led to more successful retrieval, in part supporting the search-based approach of clients like Gmail." 

So there you have it. It's more efficient to leave your inbox chaotic and search when you need something. So stop twitching and save yourself some time! If paper files were so easy!


More on efficient computer use:

Organizing Your To-Do Lists Online - 12 Great Choices

Wireless Printing - No Clutter, No Hassle

Trivial and Strategic Interruptions