The 10%

May 7, 2008 · Filed Under Business, Change, Culture, Technology 

Outlook: friend of foe?A few nights ago I wrote about whether to archive your e-mails or not. While that discussion was really about ‘findability’, the actual question of archiving is really moot; that is, you are probably already archiving e-mail in some shape, form or fashion. Again, I dare say it, we are all e-mail packrats.

We keep everything - every little thing. From the mundane to the seemingly important, we keep it in the dire circumstance something may come back to bite us. So in a nutshell, it’s a C.Y.A. mentality folks.

To be nice about it, maybe we keep it for posterity - probably not. Well, maybe we keep it for some on-going projects or task items that we need to complete. But how to we manage our retention policy? How do we determine what goes and what stays.

There is some unique and personal algorithm that each of us executes to determine when, where, which, whether, and how each e-mail is or is not filed.

So this begs one question, “Have you ever lost anything in your e-mail folders you just knew you had kept?”

Here’s another, “When did that one e-mail you could produce as glowing evidence “C.Y.A.”?”

That’s “The 10%”… that elusive e-mail that escapes us even though we knew we filed it and that e-mail that was like a ray of sunshine from heaven above come to save us from certain doom.

Well if we only need 10%, can’t we just throw away the other 90% of e-mails we keep? I have 30,000 sent e-mails alone in my offline store “just in case”… With Outlook’s advanced search, what are the chances I am not going to type in the right phrase and miss what I was looking for (that’s sarcasm folks - and a rhetorical question)?

It’s that 10% of the time keeping us caught in the vicious cycle of saving everything, of amassing so much information it becomes useless. Quite literally it becomes too much information for us mere mortals to handle (see Information: Not Enough or Too Much?).

I would love to hear any tips or tricks any of you have found for managing the constant barrage of e-mails coming in, how to file them accurately, and which do you keep or throw away.

As the saying goes, it’s the 10% that drag the rest of us down.

  • To Archive or No: Ponderings of an e-mail Junky
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    Viewing 3 Comments

      • ^
      • v
      I'm a firm antiEmail archiver and organizer. I obviously keep emails of ongoing projects with clients and some that I just tend to keep but otherwise I ditch it. I clean out my Sent items every 90 days and my Inbox stays empty 60% of the time. I organize email using the 3 folder approach.

      1. If I can deal with an email in 1 minute or less I do it immediately and dispense with it. If I can't deal with it in under a minute and it requires action on my part I file it into an ACTION folder.

      2. If the email requires a response from someone else or additional info that I'm waiting on it goes to the HOLD folder

      3. If I need to keep it, it resides in ARCHIVE

      I have 2 suggestions about email archiving that I tell anyone who will listen.

      Email is a communication technology not a database. You wouldn't keep your voice mails on your answering machine would you?

      Secondly, It might be better not to have it. Unless you are under mandate or compliance law that requires you to keep it then you might appreciate the ability to say we just don't archive email. Sorry

      My 2 cents

      Tsudohnimh
      KnowtheNetwork.com
      • ^
      • v
      An avid GTD fan I see! I love it. I need to take a clue from this, but the scientific side of me has trouble slicing my life so neatly; perhaps that is the missing link!

      I love what you say about e-mail being a communication tool, not a database! My only contention would be that it works so wonderfully for CYA situations.

      But to this point, I actually am in the process of working on a document retention policy and guess what? I actually came to this very same conclusion myself. "We don't archive e-mails. If an individual does, so be it, but this is not a supported corporate policy, nor do we endorse this activity."

      I don't know where that would put us, but working in a privately held company does have some advantages with regards to compliance.
      • ^
      • v
      I and a GTD fan but I limit the koolaid intake.

      I completely agree about emails being a great fall back document in a sticky situation but I've yet to have (RGE - resume generating Event) caused or saved by and email so I don't worry it. Perhaps that will change someday.

      And in full disclosure I do keep somethings but I'd estimate that I keep about 3% of all email sent and received.
     

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