Though it has definitely become part of our daily work routine, I have never really liked the programs I’ve had to use for getting access to my email account. To be more precise, reading isn’t the thing that bothers me, it’s the manner I’ve got to organize my emails that bother me. It’s very hard to keep track of conversations!!!
I’ve used most common email programs like Notes, Outlook, web based, thunderbird and am currently using evolution. But none of them is able to easily create a conversation record. Partly because not everybody pushes the reply button and partly because most people I guess don’t see it as a conversation.
The program would have to ask whether every email is part of a conversation or whether you want to create a new conversation based upon the email (I could think of several possible conversations like business, chittychat and friends). And that’s where there could come a vast improvement into the handling of email. It could prioritize those people I have business conversations with while the chittychat and friends could be delayed till I decide to look at those mails. (mind you, until i ask for them, i won’t see them!!!). It would even be better if before sending people would be asked about this.
One remark i need to make is that when something is important, people should always call, never email… But I guess most people find the email route just to convenient.
