I like to keep all e-mails that aren't total chaff. Having a record of conversations is very useful.

I keep essential emails. When I say I empty out my inbox every day, I delete or use folders.

For anyone interested, the Get-It-Done-Guy podcasts have some great tips for managing your inbox (and other ways to become more efficient).

I like to have a record of stuff, but I also hate to have my inbox filled with crap. I should set up a system to manage that stuff, and I suppose I will once i get my work computer set up properly. Still, I like IM for stuff that I don't need a record of.

Life before Google: [link]

I keep my inbox and sent items ruthlessly clean. I archive the important stuff and delete the rest, as I get way too many emails to keep them all. Usually I'll delete stuff that's more than a year or two old unless it's somethinge very important.

As military people, I was always making huge lists of numbers I couldn't lose - the DMV in Tacoma, the Records office in MN where I was born, my former addresses, and so on. Google totally got rid of all that.

I remember when there was this new search engine called Google that would actually find what you wanted instead of giving you lists of crap before you got to the actual website. World-changing

That cartoon is perfect.

My system is basically:
1) immediately delete non-essentials: lunch plans, messages that are merely attachments (once downloaded), meeting announcements (automatic calendar), fun links, etc.

2) at least once a day go through my Inbox and either a) address it and delete; b) address it and file away (with each project having a "for eventual follow-up" folder for long-term outstanding things); c) leave in inbox as reminder for a short-term outstanding thing that I need to do.

3) at least once a day go through my Sent box and either delete, file away as proof I addressed something, or leave as a reminder of an outstanding thing that I'm waiting for someone else to address.

Life before Google: [link]

Heh. When I was doing the Bubblegum Book I spent all of my lunches going to bookstores, copying down little tidbits of research. I finally tracked down Andy Kim's whole story when I found an Encyclopedia of Canadian Rock Stars at Virgin, which is when I discovered that Andy was Lebanese by way of Montreal.

Also, pre-Google I spent as much as four hours on a Saturday parked in front of a magazine stand reading reviews and articles. Thank god for Bucketful of Brains, Option and the rest.

Fed Shaft this morning. He's still staying about four feet away and chowing down as soon as my car is leaving the driveway.

I think he needs a bit of bedding, but I'm unsure how to lure him into the carport where it's shady and cool in the summer.

Trail of catnip?