I recently bit the bullet, changed carriers and got an iphone – with the promise to myself that I would never turn into one of the many iphone zombies that are removed from the social situations going on around them in real life.  I am determined not to become a slave to the device.  (Check back with me on that one.)

When I set up my email on my iphone, it was rather simple and intuitive, as is the case with many Apple products. One issue that became immediately apparent to me was the way that I had my desktop email folders set up and how organizing your email for the iphone is a must if you want to use the device efficiently.  I have been using, what I now realize, a silly, convoluted system of sorting my emails into folders based on Outlook rules – in an effort to maintain control over my inbox.

After a discussion with a former colleague, I thought through a way to deal with organizing your email – “The Empty Inbox Method” – and I can attest to it working (at least for the last week it has). I’m not saying that I’ve discovered something revolutionary or even anything new – I’m just so happy to have an empty email inbox and less stress in my electronic communications.

This is the basic system:

The First Step to Organizing Your Email -  Completely empty your email inbox

Set aside some time to respond to any important messages in your inbox that have been lingering unanswered below your viewing pane.  Then, move everything in your inbox into a new “archive” folder – this will house your read/responded emails from now on.

You now have an empty email inbox. To keep it this way, when you receive a new message – do something with it. I know this sounds too simple, but really, I’ve had an empty email inbox at the end of each day for over a week now.  Basically, with each new email that you receive, take one of the following actions:

ARCHIVE THE EMAIL MESSAGE
Most of my emails require no response or action…CC:s, FYIs and automatic notifications.  Skim through them, then immediately move them into your archive folder.

RESPOND TO THE EMAIL MESSAGE
If the email message calls for an easy answer, send it- then move the email message into your archive folder.

FORWARD THE EMAIL MESSAGE
If the message is better handled by someone else – send it off to that person, then move it to the archive folder.

HOLD THE EMAIL MESSAGE FOR LATER
This is the one exception to an immediate empty email inbox.  Some e-mail messages need longer follow ups than you have time for or you just don’t have all of the answers at that point.  You can leave this in your inbox – it actually beats the default “flagging” option which I always do but rarely follow up on.

Avoid letting too many of these email messages stay in your inbox. Set aside some time at the end of each day to respond to as many of these as possible – with the goal of an empty email inbox.

If you try this method…or a variation of it – I’d love to hear from you on your method for organizing your email.

The people behind twitter never cease to amaze me with seemingly bad decisions, but the true die-hard “twits” don’t seem to mind the bumpy ride that I find rather frustrating.

The lack of solid scalability planning in twitters platform causes enough downtime to spawn sites, groups and even products surrounding the social utility’s iconic “Fail Whale” that is displayed when the site is inaccessible.

As I logged in tonight, I see that there is system maintenance planned for 6pm PST on July 4th. I think that even the most useless sites on the internet don’t do maintenance on major holidays. What adds insult to injury is that twitter’s main function is intended to let people know what you are up to. A lot of “twits” will be stagnant for 2 hours while they wait for twitter to come back online to find out where the best fireworks gathering is taking place.

Wake yourself up with our new Google Wake Up Kit!
Google didn’t let us down this year; here’s the first “new” Google product launch that is set to “launch” on April, 1 2008:

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From Google:

Just launched!

Wake yourself up with our new Google Wake Up Kit!
Do you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning? We do, too. In fact this problem became so serious at times that it sometimes resulted in lacklustre attendance at team meetings. To help solve the problem we’ve created an innovative solution called the Google Wake Up Kit.

In combination with the kit, you can receive a new type of notification from Google Calendar, called the “wake up” notification. This notification is relentless in ensuring your timely awakening from restful slumber.

The “wake up” notification uses several progressively more annoying alerts to wake you up. First it will send an SMS message to your phone. If that fails, more coercive means will be used. The kit includes an industrial-sized bucket and is designed to be connected to your water main for automatic filling. In addition, a bed-flipping device is included for forceful removal from your sleeping quarters.

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Personally, I think that last year’s new Google product launch was a bit more entertaining, but then again, I have been accused of having a dirty sense of humor.