It’s one of my first steps in implementing Getting Things Done.
I used to leave messages “unread” (even after reading them) to indicate a further action (answer, do something, archive an attachment…) Result (obvious in hindsight): hundreds of unread messages, some more than 1 year old.
I’ve created three folders (_ACTION, _READ, _WAITING FOR). Now:
- I answer immediately and file the message, or
- I drag the mail in _ACTION when I have to do something about it (a longer answer, some research…)
- The mail goes in _READ if there’s some reading to do later (eg mailing list, newsletter)
- If I’m waiting for something I have no control over, it goes into _WAITING FOR
I’ll exercise the setup some more and mark the goal done!