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Putting Emails In Folders Is a Waste of Time, Says IBM Study

Posted by timothy on from the perhaps-the-sorting-process-is-useful-though dept.

An anonymous reader writes "There are two types of office workers in the world — those who file their emails in folders, and those who use search. Well, it looks like the searchers are smarter. A 354-user study by IBM research found that users who just searched their inbox found emails slightly faster than users who had filed them by folder. Add the time spent filing and the searchers easily come out on top. Apparently the filers are using their inbox as a to-do list rather than wanting to categorize information to find it more easily."

10 of 434 comments (clear)

  1. Except that... by Trip6 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Your inbox gets too unwieldy.

    --
    I hate being bipolar; it's awesome!
    1. Re:Except that... by Joce640k · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yep. Scrollbars become unusable when one scrollbar pixel equals several pages of what's being scrolled.

      Plus...ummm, doesn't "search" work on folders too? Ooops!

      --
      No sig today...
    2. Re:Except that... by msauve · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Apparently, IBM hasn't discovered the concept of filter, which can organize emails automatically. Hopefully, when they do, there won't be a new patent forthcoming.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  2. No, wrong clonclusion. by Bill,+Shooter+of+Bul · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The right conclusion, is that people suck at organizing emails into folders. Therefore, for most people putting emails in folders is a waste of time.

    --
    Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
    1. Re:No, wrong clonclusion. by JoeMerchant · · Score: 4, Insightful

      for most people putting emails in folders is a waste of time.

      Many (most) people I know spend most of their work day on various wastes of time - sorting your mail not only makes you look busy while you do it, it also produces a tangible product of your labor, and gives you something to act overwhelmed about after you've been out for 3 days at a trade show: "I'll be working through my Inbox all morning."

  3. no way - wrong search terms leave things behind by rubycodez · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Project folders are superior, especially as time passes one can't remember proper keyword to bring up all relevant emails. Yes, I've used e-mail systems that were folderless and only search was possible, not quite as useful.

  4. Re:Depends on your email volume by snowgirl · · Score: 3, Insightful

    When I was working for a Particularly Large Software Company, I received a large number of automated emails every day from automated build processes. These emails were automatically filed into a special folder, so that they didn't clutter my inbox, and ping my smart phone every single time I got one of them. This followed through later for "Out of Office" emails, and a few others.

    Of course, as such, the only reason why I had folders was to keep a particular set of emails from pinging my smart phone, and bugging me all day, every day constantly with email build progress updates.

    --
    WARNING! This girl exceeds the MAXIMUM SAFE standards established by the FDA for BRATTINESS
  5. IBM Uses Lotus Notes for Email by Greyfox · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They're not what I'd call "Experts."

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

  6. Re:Was the test done with Lotus Notes? by djl4570 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not to mention that "Next" isn't the next email in the result set but the whatever email originally followed the one that appeared in the result set. The Interface Hall of Shame said the following about Notes: We wish we found IBM's Lotus Notes a long time ago. This single application could have formed the basis for the entire site. The interface is so problematic, that one might conclude that the designers had previously visited this site, and misread "Hall of Shame" as "Hall of Fame".

  7. Nonsense... by blahplusplus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... putting emails in folders means you restrict the search to just emails in those folders, if you get a lot of email folders definitely make sense. Especially if you are on a mailing list.