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A bit ago I put together a script (details on how to do this in a later post) to keep track of the number of e-mails in my inbox. I keep e-mails in my inbox in Mail.app until I have resolved them (responded, read a paper, performed an action, etc.) keeping them as a bit of a to-do list.
I am really interested right now in passive or ambient indicators. This is an application. Especially because I believe that the amount of e-mail in my inbox is a good indicator of my current busyness, or generally how hectic I am at any given time. I plan to make this a bit better, put it up on the web as more of a sparkline, and also probably a more abstracted level of busyness. I am thinking the scale will be something like:
- 0-20 emails — So Relaxed That This Can Never Happen
- 20-50 emails — Doing Good, Time To Find More Work
- 50-110 emails — Average Busyness Insues, If It Can Wait, Let It Wait
- 110-200 emails — Very Hectic. Too Much To Do. Don’t Expect To See Patrick.
- >200 emails — Might Be Dead, Might Wish He Was.
(Note this idea was borrowed from Dave Shea’s Stress-O-Meter on his contact page at BrightCreative. However his functions differently, it is a constantly increasing counter, that he resets when he has free time, the more he remembers to reset it, the less he has to do, is the model behind it.)
comments
Brian S.
Oct 17, 12:15 PM #
Perhaps you could publish said script for the rest of the world to use? Sounds neat.
Patrick Gage Kelley
Oct 17, 12:30 PM #
Yes – that was the “details on how to do this” are coming later bit. So I will post those soon once I get them a bit cleaner – however, it’s mac only – you will need to port it.
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