Great comments – I got a lot of inspiration from reading these! and some good ideas!

I use Thunderbird for work emails, I have about 30 folders i try to move them to those folders (some using ‘rules’)

my question is – how is it possible to have just 2 folders e.g. action, archive? what happens if i can’t remember much about what i want to find?

Once taken care of, they are moved into a client folder, since I often need to reference them again at some point. This keeps my inbox down to about 10-25 messages visible at a time, and they have a color hierarchy to when I should deal with them.

From there I have a few folders set up, but not too many. One of the biggest problems I see in office management is over-categorization. People tend to want to set up dozens of folders with very specific categories. Then when it comes time to find something, they can’t remember where they put it. I find that 5-7 general categories work best. Most people can’t remember more than that.

To keep my inbox number down, I use a task list. The one in Outlook works great, but you can also use a notepad or planner if you’re more tactile. If an e-mail requires a task, I put it on my list and delete the e-mail. If the e-mail has information I need to complete the task I’ll keep it in my inbox until it’s completed or put it in a TO DO file. If an e-mail has important business information that I’ll need to refer back to periodically, I’ll put that in an ARCHIVE file.

Basically my theory is, if you can turn the e-mail into an action item, then you can delete it. Now we need to talk about how to manage task lists.

I put in filters to auto-archive things I want to recieve, but don’t require any action. I can always search for these another time.

I fly through my email, making gratuitous use of the “Y” key, which simply archives a message or removes tags from a message.

If something requires action that will take juts a sec, I handle it (people friending me on various networks, etc.)

If it’s a ToDo item, I star it and then Archive it so that it shows up on my RTM task list. The 2 Tags I talked about are Hold and FollowUp. I used to use FollowUp to tag action Items before I got the RTM GMail plugin.

Things that I need to keep for immediate reference (tracking codes, new account info) may get the Hold tag. I haven’t really been Hold’ing much, though.

after making it a habit, I just feel uncomfortable whenever there is email in my inbox and willclear them under Tyr above rules.

I would like to do a more GTD like approach. I have adopted a few principles and they work great. I like simple solutions.

I am a Mac user and have loved Mail. I have a Gmail account too. I keep thinking that more and more I should use Gmail as it seems to offer everything. I tried Mail Tags and Act on but would prefer not to have to purchase a solution if one exists and it works well. I have read many tutorials and anecdotes about using GTD with Gmail. Do you have a favorite link that explains it?

I use Smart mailboxes but the mail stays in your inbox as well so how do you empty that thing?

How do I archive mail with Mac Mail?

Since I share my Mac account with my partner I am thinking that moving everything else to Gmail, it is me that clutters it up not him though. Is there a good place to see the 2 compared and in particular with attention paid to GTD?

Can I save mail from Gmail to my desktop easily? How?

Is it possible to forward personal Mail I might receive in my Mail account to my Gmail account based on rules, ie not having to do it manualy?

I like having my Mail mail locally and I worry that if I am without an internet connection at least in Mail I can access the mails from up to the last time I checked. This is probably silly but with Gmail I worry I might be stuck without a connection and not be able to easily access that one special email from last Thursday.

I really enjoyed reading all your responses and look forward to your help. And I am doing something I decided I was not going to do anymore after reading your responses, checking “Notify me of followup comments via e-mail” so I can follow any of your comments. So mch for i0

I also put things in Junk Folder whenever it is something I do not need to save, like newsletters and what not. I purge the Junk Mail every couple of days. I have the Junk Mail folder in the “Favorite Folder” section to make this easy.