Are you a piler, filer, or purger?

[z3r010]

When we looked into how people used email, we found some interesting patterns. It turns out that there are generally three types of people when it comes to email: pilers, filers, and purgers.

Which are you?

• Piler: “I generally don’t put email into a folder or archive. I don’t delete it. I just let it pile up in my inbox."
• Filer: “I generally categorize messages by moving them into folders I’ve created or assigning labels to each message.”
• Purger:  “I generally delete email after I’ve read it.”

Different strokes for different folks. It’s a fun engineering challenge to build an email service that works well for all three types of folks.

Here’s a bit of data on how pilers, filers, and purgers tend to manage the email in their accounts.

Source: Microsoft internal​

And a chart that will give you a sense as to what percentage of people are like you.



Coming up next – did you know that Hotmail has keyboard shortcuts? Did you know that you can choose between Outlook shortcuts and Gmail-compatible shortcuts? Pretty geeky, huh? I’ll talk next about how we think about those features that we geeks love and that most people never use.

Dick Craddock
Group Program Manager, Windows Live Hotmail

More...

 

[seekermeister]

All three. I was a filer (~8600 archived), but since I unintentionally downloaded my Gmail account to the inbox, I've never gotten around to filing or deleting them (~2900). Like most people I will delete many emails either upon read, or sometimes even before.

 

[Joan Archer]

I suppose I could be classed as all 3, incoming emails automatically go into folders depending on what they are, I do keep certain ones, again they are filed in their own folders, but the majority get deleted when I've read them.

 

[Luckystar]

Oh I am most definetly a piler. HA HA. I have probably got email from as far back as 2004. LOL.

 

[derekimo]

Purger, Except for receipts and software registrations, those I file.

 

[Scotteq]

At home? Or at work? Because I'd have to give two different answers...

At home, I File what I need (receipts and product keys, mostly), and periodically erase my inbox. So: Purger

At Work, each message gets a simple Pass/Fail test as to whether it's relevant. No? Gone immediately. Everything else gets filed according to subject, sender, project, etc... Actionable or not. So: Filer

 

[smsff7]

I guess I am a Filler. I save most every email and move then to a folder in outlook depending on which emaill account it was sent to

 

[MattRainier]

Filer, without question. I have pretty much unlimited space on my account; space that I've barely touched. I file EVERYTHING.

 

[sygnus21]

I’m definitely a Filer. I’ve got e-mails going all the way back to 2000. I also tend to keep my old .pst’s. Never know when you might need something

 

[Barman58]

Definitely a filer,
I use Pop to get my emails from the provider, but leave all messages on the server
I have a load of rules set-up in outlook that classify and file all mails, locally - I will delete some straight from the inbox or the file folder but the in the on-line storage all items are archived from the inbox every day or so

My outlook in-box is always kept as empty as possible so any messages that do not meet a rule criteria are easily found and actioned, If the mail is from a source that may be sending regularly then I add a rule and folder to file and classify.

The only messages that are ever actually deleted beyond recovery are spam

 

[smsff7]

Definitely a filer,
I use Pop to get my emails from the provider, but leave all messages on the server
I have a load of rules set-up in outlook that classify and file all mails, locally - I will delete some straight from the inbox or the file folder but the in the on-line storage all items are archived from the inbox every day or so

My outlook in-box is always kept as empty as possible so any messages that do not meet a rule criteria are easily found and actioned, If the mail is from a source that may be sending regularly then I add a rule and folder to file and classify.

The only messages that are ever actually deleted beyond recovery are spam

I have gmail so every email is kept on there as well just archived out of the inbox

 

[severedsolo]

i suppose im a filer and a piler, i scan the sender of each message and the subject line to decide if its worth reading, if its not it gets deleted, everything else gets read, then if its a receipt or soething important it gts filed, otherwise it just sits in the inbox

 

[Zen00]

I was a piler till about two years ago when I learned how to be a filer.

 

[rider68]

Hi Guys

I think I'm another of those all three - as work is very much filer / purger, but for personal use - so lasey - wait till there's 2-300 emails then glance through whats needed and delete the rest, file just whats needed,
Will get around to creating conditions for sorting emails soon, as the volume from work is becoming very challenging,

Regards........Peter

 

[Lordbob75]

I generally would qualify as a purger, but also filer.

I delete most emails (the irrelevant ones, or unimportant ones) after I read them.
However, I do file the most important ones for reference later.
(GMail saves my ass by keeping most deleted emails... thanks for that!)

~Lordbob

 

[profdlp]

I suppose I could be classed as all 3, incoming emails automatically go into folders depending on what they are, I do keep certain ones, again they are filed in their own folders, but the majority get deleted when I've read them.

This describes me as well.

 

[alphanumeric]

Filer and purger.
My e-mail is sorted into folders by rules before I even read it.
Once read though almost all of it is deleted.