The sane default

Might sound crazy, but I delete 99% my email as soon as I have read it. After 30 days the email is gone forever.

Most of the information we receive is either needed temporarily or is just noise (spam). I think the sane default for all information is deletion after some time. The amount of time will be dependent upon what type of information. An ad has no value after viewing it, while a conversation about an ongoing purchase order might have value for a longer time. 99% of the email received, I need for 30 days or less.

I do the same for Imessage and Whatsapp, my default timer is 24 hours and 30 days for auto-deletion of messages.

Put information where it should be

But what about really important information? It should be in a system. Email, sms etc. are all best used as temporary communication channels, having a delete as default rule forces you to put information in the appropriate systems.

Some examples:

• An ongoing purchase order with a factory should be in a system for managing POs / inventory management software. Or just excel.
• Agreements should be saved as signed pdfs and stored in signing software or google drive.
• Receipts should be in the accounting software or stored in Google drive(software optional of course)
• Important sales information should be in a CRM system