Mandaris Moore

I'm in the bedroom upstairs. It's kind of like an office because it has a desk and no one to bother me at the moment. It gives me a second to think about what I'm going to do next in life.

I usually take some time to go through my list of projects in OmniFocus or read through my emails. Throughout the years, I find myself using the default mail client that comes with macOS.

I think that it is because the first time that I really enjoyed working with email was in college which is when I started using macOS.

Of course, I have a couple posts about how I used web clients but I find that I use my laptop when I really want to clean up what's in my inbox.

I've been thinking about email a lot more than I would like to during the last couple of days due to my latest attempt to have a GTD based workflow and eliminate some of the friction¹ in my life.

I know for a fact that email is not really the problem when it comes to managing my life and the thoughts about how to handle the incoming maybe just my minds way of just "moving the food around on my plate".

BUT

This has been a problem for me every time that I get organized. I've been blessed to have two computers and it seems like a lot of trouble trying to get the two to have the same set up because I share one with the rest of the family and the other is my "work" computer that has all the latest do dads and what nots in it.

Right now, I'm at a crossroads when it comes to my feelings about Mail.app and email/Gmail. I have multiple account (3 gmail accounts and 1 iCloud/me.com/MobileMe²). I feel that if I can't control this kind of input into my life than I'm not going to be able to trust any kind of system that I set up. So made a little wish list of all the things that I need from an email client.

• Keyboard Shortcuts
• IMAP/POP for when I "eventually" leave gmail³.
• Scriptable/extendable - I want an easy way to send a link to a message to OmniFocus
• Stable - I want the app to do all of this without using plug-ins.

So where does this put me? Do I take the time to find that "Perfect" email client? Do I go back to Mail.app attempt to make it fit my imaginary workflow?

After writing all this, I think I'm just wasting my time with a first world problem.

I recently sent an email to Andy Ihnatko, a really cool journalist from the Chicago Sun Times and Macbreak Weekly. I thought it was pretty good and I'd like to post it to you the internet! (Note: I didn't take the time to do a second draft this is all from the top of my head).

Hello Andy, I'm a fan and a happy mac user. I've heard a lot of arguments that I've paid too much for my mac, but I can't think of a time when I had to worry about this or that not working. Anyway, you've probably heard and experienced this story yourself.

The point of me emailing is that I'm having a hard time arguing with my co-workers in regards to the iPhone. I got one and I love it, the thing is testimate to modern computing and we wouldn't even be having a discussion about "smart" or "feature" phones if it hadn't come to pass.

It seems to me, that a lot of the talk after google IO were complaints against Apple not being open and that the web wanted to be free, but it seems that no one brings up the fact that the very first applications that third party developers could put on the iPhone were gasp web apps that: 1) Free to develop 2) Free of censorship from apple 3) Freely available to everyone and can run on (basically) any webkit based browser

I can understand some of the frustration that some of the developers are experiencing when it comes for submitting there application, but it seems kind of silly when somebody complains that she or he can't use tool Z on product i so they want to have nothing to do with it (or cancel a national conference).

To me, I'm reminded of someone saying they want to run their playstation games on a nintendo, but then I look at the people who are actively complaining and I wonder how many of them are console gamers.

One other thing, I'm tempted to buy the playboy application and do a little blog post about it, because I keep Leo talking about how apple is being hypocritical on their porn policy. I don't think this is true, because the applications that were taken off the store all contain nudity. The description on the playboy application says that it doesn't explicitly. The only thing is that I'm afraid my wife might beat me if she sees it when she syncs here ipod touch, but I think I could get away with it if a respected journalist said I should in order to get the inside scoop.

Lastly, I'd like to thank you for doing what you do. You explain your arguments a lot better than I do and it comes across and solid reasoning. I hope that you've read this and smiled!

Salutations!

Wow, I can't believe I spent so much time looking into productivity p0rn! I used to look at 43folders.com almost every other hour looking for that "One secret that would make me productive".

The secret, just do it.

Recently, Mac Developer Brent Simmons discussed on his blog about the importance of a good email client. Although, he said he wouldn't spearhead the project, he did start up a mailing list (ironic) for it. The list has been going crazy with people going back and forth over what the ideal mail client was and what should be in the 1.0 release.

One of the posters, Matthieu Cormier, has posted on his blog how he uses Mail.app and I thought it would be a good exercise to re-evaulate how I use mail and maybe that would help move the discussion along.

Last year, I made the switch from .mac to gmail and it's been kind of interesting to see how Mail.app handles mail. Before this point I was having gmail send all my email to my mac address and then using Act-on to sort it into different folders. This worked alright when I was at home and had time to sort my email, unfortunately, I'm not always on my mac... and sometimes .mac was down. Currently, I only use gmail and I've set up some labels and filters to manage it all. I have emails sent individually so that I can follow different threads quickly.

But I still enjoy working with a desktop client, if only for the sake of it flowing well with the rest of my "workflow" that includes working with omnifocus and a couple other tools that I like to use. If I can add one more issue against Mail.app that I haven't seen mentioned yet is that it doesn't allow you to color the heading on different threads.

Well, thank you for your time!