Open Thread: Which Email client do you use? Why & How?
Email has become the necessary evil of modern communication – damn if you use it, and damn if you don’t. Like most modern virtual workers, I am swamped by an unending stream of email, which pours like torrential monsoon in downtown Bombay.
With over 500 emails a day, I have used every tip and trick, including fancy email add-ons such as superlative Mail Tags and Mail Act On, but I still find going a bit rough. As an Apple Mail user, I have optimized the client with smart folders, but still it is hard to keep up with the steady stream of messages. Result – I spend precious weekend answering emails, and missing out on fun in the sun.
Maybe I am missing something, or perhaps using the wrong email client. How do you manage your email life, and what client do you use. Are there any special tips and tricks you can share with us?
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It’s all about Gmail with me these days. I can access it from anywhere rather than being tied to one specific computer. The storage space is tremendous and doesn’t take up any room on my hard drive.
I also use Apple’s mail. Without Spotlight my life would be hell! Gmail is tempting, as is Google Apps for your Domain. Privacy and security would be a worry though.
My laptop is attached to me at all times, or at least it feels that way, so the multiple computer issue doesn’t come up, however connectivity does. I wish I could say I am able to get on the net 24/7, but that just isn’t reality. However that doesn’t mean I don’t want access to an archived email message. So I use Mail.app. I tried GMail for a while, and while cool, just didn’t provide that offline use. Yes, I know it supports POP, but then what is really the point. Why haven’t then gone with IMAP yet? If your going to just use POP with Gmail, then you might as well host your own, if for no other reason then security and privacy.
All this being said, I quickly work to get away from email. Backpack and Basecamp are working well for me in that regard, although they do present offline issues again. I just can’t win. :)
I use Outlook, with Rules applied to sort my incoming mail into appropriate folders. Thunderbird could do the same thing, but I use several Outlook-only plug-ins: Plaxo, LinkedIn, Barracuda. Barracuda covers the spam while Plaxo and LinkedIn keep my contacts up to date — so I can spend more time reading and replying to mail and less time keeping my contacts up to date.
I’ve been using Outlook on a Windows machine for several years now, more lately due to inertia; all my mail/contacts/calendar/to-do/etc. are tied up in it. I don’t make use of 90% of its features, but since it handles IMAP reasonably well — as does my Treo (with excellent mail app Chatter) — I’m still with it. Also, I like it because I don’t have to be online to read and answer mail as I would with a web-based service, and since I access the same IMAP mailboxes on the Treo, messages are always synchronized.
I use Apple Mail. Its so great, no rules, no folders – just spotlight thats enough for thousands of emails.
I use Thunderbird 2.0, deleted all the tags that came by default, but kept the the “To-Do” tag, which I review at the end of the week (it should be after every weekday…working on that). It’s not about what tool you use, though: it’s all about general principles for managing email.
The things I (try to) do are : never check your email first or last; blog something instead of CCing a dozen people (they’re just going to blog it anyway, so I might as well get the credit), exit completely from my email client when I need to get replying-to-email work done; disable comment notifications on my blog (my site has a “recently commented” page anyway); either don’t reply at all when something is done or have some way to note that a reply is not necessary (most replies just generates more email), and unsubscribe from every email list that has an RSS feed. I really need to turn off audio notification of email too: Thunderbird has it backwards, it should give me the satisfying, if illusory, “woosh” that Mail has (because remember, sending email just generates more email), but without the notice that I am about to besieged.
I use Lotus Notes. With rules, I can control what happens to most of the mail I expect, with unread marks I can easily find mail I still need to read, I can put everything in client folders or personal folders easily. It is a dream. I do have a couple of throw away acoounts that I use with Outlook, but it is much harder to manage than in Notes.
Of course, I also like Notes because I can write apps that interact with my mail, which I do quite often. It is just plain useful.
GMAIL!
I have all my domain accounts forwarding to Gmail. I have multiple Gmail accounts forwarding to my main Gmail. I’ve forwarded Lotus Notes at work to my Gmail. I use filters to segregate them into labels. I use Gmail FS to keep files handy. I can check Gmail over POP on my T-Mobile Sidekick II without losing any messages or read/unread status. The Spam filter is reliable and it’s (usually) lightning fast. It works the same on my iMac at home and my Toshiba laptop at work.
You cannot beat it.
While it is web-based, and requires connectivity, checking POP on my Sidekick II is always an option.
Mark – You forward your Lotus Notes mail account from work to Gmail? Even aside from being surprised that you find it more function, do you realize the security implications and business governance issues? I have no idea what business you are in, but it seems unlikely that a company that would buy Lotus Notes and use it for mail would approve of this. Just a thought.