A blog by and for productive people who get things done with IBM Lotus Notes
This 'categorized' functionality has been provided by IBM in all Mail template releases since Notes 7. Apparently some organizations - like IBM - have modified their standard mail template to make categorization of messages in the inbox become the default.
How the 'categorized' inbox works in Lotus Notes:
In the standard Lotus Notes Mail inbox, emails are presented in chronological order with the oldest message at the top and the newest at the bottom. No preference is give to messages flagged 'High priority' or calendar invites and meeting notices:
In the 'Categorized' Notes Mail Inbox, emails are presented in a categorized fashion so that:
- Calendar Invites/Updates will appear at the top of the inbox
- Next, all high priority emails will be displayed
- Finally, all normal priority emails will be displayed
I'm not sure whether I prefer the categorized inbox or not yet, but if you are a current eProductivity beta user and want to experience this, we've posted version 2.0.1.5 in the beta forum so you can try it out for yourself. Meanwhile, read on for my reactions...
My thoughts on the categorized inbox so far...
On the surface, this categorized view would appear to be a boon to anyone that gets lots of emails and wants to be sure that they won't miss an urgent email. At least that was my initial reaction. I like that all calendar items appear at the top of the inbox -- it makes it easier to process all of my calendar related invites, notices, and changes at once. At first glance, having the high priority emails at the top of the inbox means that I won't miss a high priority item -- as long as I remember to check that part of the view.
But is this really the most productive way to go, or does it encourage less productive email habits? That's what I wanted to know, so I made the change to my inbox and worked with it for a while.
What I like about the categorized inbox
As I stated earlier, I like having all of the calendar information in once place. That makes it easy for me to handle all calendar information at once. What I lose, however, is the context as I can longer see the email messages that came in before and after the calendar request or update. I haven't reached a conclusion about whether that is a big deal or not.
In the same way, I like that I can see and get to all urgent (flagged as High importance, but let's call it how people use it) email in one place. Here again, context is lost because these messages are now at the top instead of in the message flow.
What concerns me about the categorized inbox
For me, the biggest concern about a categorized inbox + lots of emails is that I'd FORGET to check the top of the stack. David Allen and I teach that the best practice around email is to process it once into a trusted system and then work from an empty inbox. We teach that your inbox should only be a temporary collection point for incoming stuff.
If you work this way and your process your inbox to zero at least once every 24 hours, then a categorized inbox might be helpful and may even be more productive. If you are buried in email and have a considerable backlog, then my concern is that a categorized inbox can become a hindrance to your overall productivity by encouraging you to deal with what's latest and loudest -- your urgent items -- and not the rest of the messages.
Also, if you have more than one screen full of email, you will have to scroll to the top to see these urgent emails. As a result, you risk losing focus on the rest of your inbox because you are either at the top or the bottom of the stack. For me, in the sort while that I have been evaluating the categorized inbox I found myself subject to the tyranny of the urgent. And, there was no incentive for be to process everything - I could simply wait until things were urgent enough to flag them as such. I try to process my email when it shows up instead of when it blows up.
What do YOU think?
Do you think the 'categorized' inbox would be a help or a hindrance? Do you currently use the categorized inbox? If so, what do you like or dislike about it ? If you don't, what are your thoughts? I'd like to know.
Discussion/Comments (22):
Thanks for the comparison Eric. I understand how the categorized layout would definitely be a bonus if you are constantly receiving calendar invites etc, but apart from the very annoying habit of some of my customers of marking all of their email as "High Importance", I would most likely find it more of a distraction from emails that are equally or more important.
Phil Evangelista (): 5/3/2010 4:13:07 PM
I had very thoughts. As someone that used a categorized inbox with Notes for as long as I can remember and then using eProductivity without one for a while, I now have the following conclusions.
Triage - Having calendar entries separated out is definitely a plus and I would like to keep that.
IBMers would like the categorized inbox but would probably like the most current email/invite first instead of oldest. This is what we are used to.
Of course I would like the have the best of both worlds - calendar entries categorized out and all of the emails then sorted in most current to oldest after the calendar entries. Why? I find that as I travel, many things work themselves out during my travels and it is always good to read the latest email first (IMHO) so I know if I can just delete the rest of the threads.
There's my 2 cents.
Peter Robinson (): 5/3/2010 4:17:32 PM
hi Eric, after having the default categorisation for years, I like some of it but really do not it much overall.
I do like having the incoming calendar entries in a separate section.
I really do not like that everything is sorted in descending order of date, leading to bad habits of processing only the latest to arrive, or as you noted, the supposedly high priority notes. btw, I see your snapshot has date ascending withing the categories which is ideal - far better than the default descending order.
Because of the way the default categorisation works, I mostly just sort my inbox by category and process the calendar entries, then sort by date ascending and process top down.
Re the high importance, I have a notes rule that just removes that flag from every document as it arrives, so those notes are treated just like any other note and processed as I get to them.
If you could make the categorisation controlled by preferences, that would be really useful. I would like to have it set so the calendar entries are at the top, and then all the rest of mail, regardless of 'priority' listed below, in ascending date order as you have shown. That would be perfect.
pjr
Eric Mack (www.ica.com): 5/3/2010 4:23:30 PM
Thanks for joining the discussion. I look forward to reading more comments so that, hopefully, we can see if this is a feature we should include into eProductivity.
Andrea Ames (): 5/3/2010 6:34:35 PM
I've been using Lotus Notes at IBM since 2001 with the default categorized inbox -- until last year when I tried eProductivity.
I like the categorized inbox primarily for the separation of calendar invites and meeting notices.
As you note, Eric, I do find that when I have a backlog (sadly more of the time that I wish), I miss "urgent" notes b/c I'm working at the bottom of the list and vice versa. And after vacations or other long offline periods, I do find that my attention is focused solely on the urgent, calendar items, and most recent items, to the detriment of others (which I might "never" get to).
As Peter says, ideally, this could be controlled with preferences, and I could decide which things are categorized and in what order they are displayed.
THANK YOU for providing the categorized Beta -- I'm downloading it now. I will let you know how I like it coupled w/eProductivity. I AM looking forward to getting the calendar item separation back. :-)
Sander Zwart (http://www.socialsoftwareblog.nl): 5/3/2010 11:50:51 PM
Since I am using eProductivity my inbox is nearly empty, which makes a categorized unnecessary for me.
Nikolay Vlasov (http://www.ibm.com/): 5/3/2010 11:53:01 PM
As for me, I like to process and categorize email in my inbox by myself as a simple stream of messages, sorted by date. I think it is simple, allows me to control the whole process by myself and be sure I didn't missed anything.
Peter Whateley (): 5/5/2010 2:23:52 AM
Eric,
I have just done some tests to refresh my memory. Your current beta implementation is a little different from the internal IBM one. I think that the IBM version overcomes some of your fears about categorization leading to bad GTD habits.
From what I can see, you have implemented Calendar with oldest at top, then High Importance with newest at top and then Normal with oldest at top. You then have a single sort on the date column giving newest at the top for the whole inbox.
Users of the IBM standard mail template also see a categorized view by default: High Importance then Calendar stuff then Normal email. However the default sort order is *newest* at the top in each category. You could argue about the logic of the order of the categories and their sort order - I prefer your calendar sort order but got confused by the different sort order for High Importance and Normal.
In IBM the Date column then has an ascending and decending arrow. The first click eliminates the categories and sorts the whole inbox *oldest* at the top. Second click sorts the whole inbox *newest* a the top. Third click returns to the categorized view.
With that secnario I would quickly scan for urgent items (often this is news about nearing or exceeding our mailfile quota!) but would *not* usually action the urgents at that point. I would then process calendar invitations which I see as a separate pass activity on my inbox, for me not requiring the context of other inbox items. I would then single click the date column to sort oldest first and process the inbox with the urgent items in context with the rest of the incoming mail, in GTD fashion: in to empty.
Typically I would also redesign my folders from time to time to the All Documents design so that any new ones created since the last redesign default to oldest at the top.
Andrew Magerman (http://www.magerman.com): 5/5/2010 6:27:40 AM
IMHO,
If you are exact about keeping your inbox empty, you empty it every day. In my case that means something like 1 or 2 screens to scroll through.
I would vote against the categorized inbox, because it goes against the principle of "empty inboxes" - one needs the categorization when the inbox is full!
Additionally, The "High Importance" flag is one set by the sender of the mail, not by me! This once again goes against the principle of GTD where it is up to me to decide what is urgent, what is important, and what I should do today. I work part-time as third level support, and *every* query is urgent to the sender, no matter how trivial the problem actually is.
Best Regards,
Andrew Magerman
Eric Mack (www.ica.com): 5/5/2010 10:14:04 AM
Hi Peter,
We used the categorized view, as shipped in the standard Notes mail template. Apparently, IBM must have further customized their categorized view. In any case, the changes you describe are not hard to implement. What I'm trying to wrap my head around is whether or not to provide/support a categorized view at all. Comments and feedback welcome.
Eric Mack (www.ica.com): 5/5/2010 10:16:09 AM
Excellent points Andrew. Thanks for the feedback
Eric Mack (www.ica.com): 5/5/2010 10:16:44 AM
Andrea, I look forward to learning from your experience as you share it in this comment thread.
Dave Walczak (): 5/6/2010 3:57:07 AM
After using the categorized view for the last few days, I do like it. It would be even better if the categories were sorted from newest to oldest.
In that sort order I find it easier to process emails. Many of the emails I get are chain emails. So after I see the newest one, I just delete the older ones.
Michael Urspringer (http://www.urspringer.de): 5/6/2010 1:33:01 PM
It is GREAT to have the categorized inbox back... as an IBMer I was used to that view and it is very nice to have it back again.
I agree with Dave: The newest mail has to be first in every category. I changed it by myself in the code and it is now as I would expect it.
As there is mixed feedback here maybe you would like to make this an option which the user can change? I really, really would like to have the categorized inbox also in the production release!
Jeff Land (http://www.ibm.com): 5/6/2010 2:19:51 PM
I like the categorized inbox. However, I also would prefer the order in the categories to be newest email first, not last.
Since I can be on the road for half a day, I can easily accumulate 30-50 emails or more before I can get to my inbox, and in that bunch of emails, there can be many calendar requests - this is the best feature of the categorized inbox.
On that point, is the calendar shadow feature working? I don't seem to see it. This is a feature in Notes 8.5 in which any calendar request shows up in your calendar but grayed out, until you accept (or decline). Thank you.
Andrea Ames (http://www.ibm.com): 5/6/2010 4:13:48 PM
After using the categorized Beta for a few days, now, I am still in favor of it. :) At a minimum, I find it much better for me to get my calendar items categorized separately and at the top of the inbox. I am away from my inbox for enough long periods, and get enough inbox volume over short periods, that categorization is a VERY noticeable benefit for me around calendar items. I would vote VERY strongly in favor of keeping this for the final 2.0 release.
For the rest, it would be nice to have the option to separate "urgent" items, but not necessary for me (and it would be nice to be able to choose/turn this on/off).
As for sort order, I've adapted to both most-recent on top, as well as oldest on top. I could go either way, but that would be another nice preference option.
I also do not think it's critical/important for the categorization to extend into my folders -- just inbox is fine.
Jeff, re: calendar shadow, it's working fine for me. I'm using LN 8.5.1.
Kevin Brady (): 5/7/2010 4:40:10 PM
I would like to see the categorization as defined in the Notes 8.x template. Allow the user to select which categories to display and if possible in what order. View should default to newest on top, but allow sort by date.
Sorting by (name and date), or date, or (subject and date) - sort by subject should strip out 'RE','FWD', etc.
Peter Robinson (): 5/9/2010 6:51:53 PM
@Eric, that's interesting, when I use the IBM version, I see my notes in date descending order, but when I use the eProductivity view I see them in date ascending which I very much prefer. Perhaps I have some config that is causing the IBM inbox to show the opposite.
I agree, in general, that the categorisation should not be required, but I work with some worldwide teams and can start work with a full inbox when it had been empty the night before. Categorisation to split the calendar notes and regular emails (not by importance for me) is useful in this case so I can quickly check whether any meeting requests are for today.
pjr
Pierre-Alain Luder (): 5/20/2010 7:27:01 AM
I set up my mail not to have meeting notices coming in the inbox, using the miniview instead.
Tom Giovanetti (): 5/20/2010 10:20:26 PM
It's not clear to me how a Notes user can choose the categorized view. Can someone help?
Thanks.
Ryan Heathers (http://Inside.eProductivity.com): 5/21/2010 2:03:53 AM
@Tom,
If you're running the eProductivity 2.x beta, we provide the Categorized view as an option. Alternatively, if your company has customized your regular Notes mail template to unhide the Categorized view, then it would be available to you.
These are the two primary ways to get the Categorized feature.
Paul Scheuer (): 6/4/2010 8:43:43 AM
I just started using the categorized view after using only the standard eP view for about 14 months. In about 30 sec I was reminded of what I missed most in the IBM template:
1. Ability to "see" my new meeting invites from my inbox (don't have to switch views), threfore no risk of missing meetings.
2. A more "in your face" reminder of urgent emails (not that looking for the red ! is difficult)
I agree with "feeling" of many other IBMers that staying in this view sorted oldest to youngest (top to bottom) feels like a detractor, but I think it's just because of being accustomed to the IBM template. Think about this:
Should we process non-urgent mails youngest to oldest? In the context of GTD, it is incorrect - you may find that the oldest email really is a "hidden" task that had you made it a task before processing everythng else, by virtue of its due date becomes your highest priority.
How I process now (with what I call the IBM view + IBM backward sort):
1. Act on meeting notices from the inbox - save many clicks
2. Act on oldest urgent emails
3. drop to the bottom on the normal priority emails and "slide-up" the preview pane to view the oldest, non-urgent email. take 1 of 4 acions:
a. Delete (I have a button on my mouse programmed to do this)
b.drag right (associate to an existing project or action)
c.drag left (convert it to a new project or action)
d.reply (if I think I can beat the 2min rule) & process the reply as either a "drag left" or "drag right" item
The template will them advance to the next oldest email automatically.
so, don't get hung-up of the direction that you're using in "plowing through" your emails. Once I made these steps a habbit, I was less anxious about not getting to aging emails.