Freedom from the tyranny of the inbox!

It seems that email has long ago ceased to be the undisputed boon it once was and is now a millstone around most people's necks!

I've tried all sorts of tricks over the years to minimize the time it takes to stay on top of my email with no real success. Its enough to make you want to cry sometimes.

Never being one to give up, I'm trying a new approach I came up with after a chat I had with my mate Simon recently. The goal he emphasized is to arrange things to stay focussed on just those few messages that you really don't want to drop, and spend little or no time worrying about the rest.

The description that follows assumes that (being the enlightened and emancipated person you are) you're using Apple's Mail program on Mac OS X, but I'm sure (well almost sure) other mail readers and operating systems have similar features (actually, many probably don't!).

Here's the idea:

• Mail searching has become so reliable that its feasible just to drop all the mail you want to keep into an "archive" mailbox or two and be done. i.e. no more fiddling about filing mail messages into hierarchical folders so you can find them again!
• With this in mind, create a mailbox "On My Mac" and setup a Mail rule to move all incoming messages to it. (I've setup separate mailboxes per month to archive each of my active accounts on the premise that thousands of messages in a single folder may not be a good thing, and the desire to separate work and personal email):

• The next step is to take advantage of Apple Mail's "Smart Mailbox" capability and setup two mailboxes to show unread and flagged messages. This feature provides the means to focus on only the important messages:

• With this setup done, the process for keeping on top of email is simplified to keeping an eye on the "Unread messages" smart mailbox, and following these steps when new mail arrives:
  1. Delete mail you don't want to keep.
  2. Read mail that justifies your attention and it'll automatically drop out of the "Unread messages" smart mailbox.
  3. Flag mail that requires more than a cursory reply and it'll automatically show up in the "Flagged messages" smart mailbox.
  4. Unflag mail once you've dealt with it and it'll automatically drop out of the "Flagged messages" smart mailbox.

With this method, you'll find that you never look at your inbox, that unread mail is kept to a minimum, and that you can stay focussed on the mail that requires your considered attention.

QED.

Hobie heaven

I've long been interested sailing, and have been pretty handy at the tiller of a dinghy for some time.

We recently spent a week at Donner Lake in the Sierra Nevadas, and got the chance to mess about with a Hobie Wave.

The picture shows the placid affair on the first occasion, but the next day the wind came up nicely and we all got thoroughly wet cutting through the chop!

I'm really tempted to buy a boat like this - a new Hobie Wave costs ~$4500 - and trailer it around the Bay Area.

We've got both the Shoreline Aquatic Center right by us,  with more adventurous places like Coyote Point at Redwood City, the San Francisco Bay, Half Moon Bay or even Santa Cruz all around. Sailing paradise.

I remember having great fun any time I got to hang out with friends sailing as a teenager growing up in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, so its something I want my kids to enjoy too.