>Rule #1 of Kanban is that it is a "pull" system. By design e-mail is push. It would also be difficult to limit work-in-progress here, which is another cornerstone feature of a Kanban system.
I was actually just thinking about this the other day. To rephrase it slightly, an email inbox is essentially an opt-out model. Any person anywhere can put something in your inbox, and after reviewing/getting sufficiently annoyed you can opt-out from receiving their emails (marking them as spam, forwarding to trash, etc.)
Personally I've been interested in seeing how an opt-in inbox model would perform. Every email goes to spam and/or a review bucket, and then once a week (or whenever you feel like it) the user can skim the bucket for emails from people/lists they actually want to see, and approve them. Follow up emails from those address can then go straight to the inbox with out need for review.
This might not work for every use case, but I suspect I'd like this for my personal email use. No matter how many times I unsubscribe from an email list or service, a new one takes its place without me signing up for it. I think I would find significant less frustration being able to opt-in vs opt-out.
Google Inbox basically does this automatically for me. It has learned which email addresses I correspond with for work and other important topics, which it pushes directly to my inbox. It also automatically bins other emails into categories such as forums, commercial promos, social (newsletters and what not), which arrive in a single bundle each morning or each Monday morning. These bundles can be opened to see individual emails or archived as a bundle with a single click.
Definitely feels like an opt-in experience to me, and far better than previous email solutions I used.
Well, just treat your current inbox as your review bucket; and create another tag "approved" as your approved things. Every day you review your incoming messages and tag it approved.
I’m glad you mentioned this. I worked on an email client like this for a bit, but I found email difficult to work with. Basically I wanted to be able to whitelist important senders and have those emails appear to my desktop, then the rest I could get to when I had time to open my inbox.
I know ahead of time who I want to be able to reach me immediately. My boss, his boss, my team and my girlfriend. Everyone else can wait.
I was actually just thinking about this the other day. To rephrase it slightly, an email inbox is essentially an opt-out model. Any person anywhere can put something in your inbox, and after reviewing/getting sufficiently annoyed you can opt-out from receiving their emails (marking them as spam, forwarding to trash, etc.)
Personally I've been interested in seeing how an opt-in inbox model would perform. Every email goes to spam and/or a review bucket, and then once a week (or whenever you feel like it) the user can skim the bucket for emails from people/lists they actually want to see, and approve them. Follow up emails from those address can then go straight to the inbox with out need for review.
This might not work for every use case, but I suspect I'd like this for my personal email use. No matter how many times I unsubscribe from an email list or service, a new one takes its place without me signing up for it. I think I would find significant less frustration being able to opt-in vs opt-out.