Wednesday Jan 18

And time to sort my desk out. It looks like it's been used a casual dumping ground for the past day or two, which I suppose it has. And now, having processed some kitchen issues, it's time to look through the 'unreads' - this pesky emails wearing nagging blue dots. A quick first glance suggests they're the usual gang - automated message from my servers and a few subscriptions.

9:32. Coffee - yes. And time for the list.

I've always had a thing about todo lists. I find them a great way of gathering up all the things you'd rather not do, sorting them in order of anxiety inducement or dullness, and then putting the list somewhere hoping it will never be disturbed. Pandora's todo list. Of course more modern times mean more modern ways to organise and avoid unpleasant tasks, and as a developer I can go one step further. Not just switching from one online widget or phone app to another (having to start a fresh list each time of course) but designing and building a todo system. Like all software systems, there's always something to fix or a feature to add or test, which helpfully tends to demand enough time to avoid having to look at the items on the list themselves.

I think the email 'Inbox' is part of why I've had problems with lists in the past. The Inbox is basically a todo list that anyone who has your email address can add to. Many years ago I tended to keep the number of messages in the Inbox to under 100. Some needed attention - some form of action, a decision and a reply, while others were kept there simply as reminders - to be looked at when time allowed (oh the naiveté!).

As my Inbox grew so did my ambition to organise its contents. If the actions within the emails could be funnelled into a list then standard production management concepts could be applied. This, of course, raises the issue of Mat's Paradox: "If you have so much to do that you need to put it all into lists, then the amount of time required to manage the lists is probably the amount of time you need to complete enough of the tasks so that you no longer need the lists".

Delete, repeat

The strongest tool for day to day Inbox management is, of course the delete key. The trick is to use this without reading the messages - just a quick skim of the subject and/or sender should be enough. Once the message count is heading towards 4 figures though, it's time to either let go of dream of ever have a cores Inbox, or to use the 'smart bomb' ie. archiving the contents of the Inbox into a folder. There are consequence of course. If you're sharing your Inbox across devices, you might need to consider access to the archive. And then there's the empty Inbox, and no doubt the accompanying resolve to keep it that way. Do you really want that pressure again?

Based in the oldest message currently in my Inbox, I think the last time I used the 'archive smart bomb' was about 5 years ago, and that message still needs a reply, so perhaps I'll make a game of trying to end each day with significantly few emails in the Inbox than the day before, starting today at 3,613. There must be loads of in there that can be simply deleted or field. But first, I really should look at the list...

18:22 Time for a pint

Ok. So. I did swerve off course a bit when looking at the list, but for list-related reasons. Well, sort of. The latest version of the list I’m using is part of a version of my system that has been re-developed using native JavaScript. A significant component of my stuff is a search widget that grabs results and populates a drop-down menu. A bit like the list of suggestions you might see when typing a search into a search engine. Anyway, the upshot is that I managed to get something working, and then addressed something important that is actually on the list. Progress of a sort - and as long as I don’t get too bogged down in distractions, tomorrow could be - well, perhaps better not to tempt fate.