# Beeminding queues **URL:** \ **Category:** uncategorized\ **Created:** [November 18, 2013, 10:41pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/beeminding-queues/1468 "2013-11-18T22:41:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![shepheb](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.beeminder.com/shepheb/32/486_2.png) [@shepheb](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/shepheb)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2013, 10:41pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/beeminding-queues/1468/1 "2013-11-18T22:41:23Z")
I’ve been using other ways of trying to keep my inbox queue under control, for both personal and work things. The trouble is that basically everything is based around the number of outstanding emails. It’s not practical for me to get to 0 frequently, since I’m using my inbox as a to-do list, often sending emails to myself to put things into that queue. Tracking only the number of emails is a problem because I frequently end up with tasks in the queue that are particularly painful, and I’d always rather do something else. So the queue stays shortish, but a few tasks are languishing effectively forever. My idea then is to Beemind something like task-days outstanding, so that an email that’s been languishing for nearly two weeks is worth a dozen from yesterday. I’m not sure what Beeminder goal type would be best for that. There’s an Inbox Zero goal, and perhaps I could just use that but feed it task-days as input instead of number of emails? A general Do Less? I’m not sure of the exact semantics of adding things to these goals (whether successive updates replace the level or stack, for example) and would love a point to those details. Beeminder users are mostly data nerds, after all. If I find that this is working for me, I’ll probably patch or write an extension for Gmail to count this value automatically, since it’s a bit of bookkeeping overhead. On the other hand it would force me to look at and acknowledge every task every day, so maybe that’s a good thing. Any thoughts? Is there a name for this I just don’t know? I tried various things about “support queues”, “backlog”, “SLA” and so on, but didn’t seem to find anything. Braden ---
**Author:** ![Alys1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@Alys1](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/Alys1)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2013, 11:17pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/beeminding-queues/1468/2 "2013-11-18T23:17:17Z")
> My idea then is to Beemind something like task-days outstanding, so that an email that’s been languishing for nearly two weeks is worth a dozen from yesterday. An interesting idea and I’ll look forward to anything else you post about it, but if you end up automating this based on any of the dates in the email header there’s something to beware of: Emails can sometimes be delivered several days late due to temporary problems with mail servers (four days isn’t unheard of). Worse, if a sending mail server is misconfigured, any or all of the dates in the email header can be dramatically incorrect - I’ve seen emails “sent” from the future or from years in the past. One badly-dated email could derail you if you don’t notice it in time. There’s ways to work around this of course, but you just need to keep it in mind if you’re automating anything based on email dates. On 19 November 2013 08:41, Braden Shepherdson [braden.shepherdson@gmail.com](mailto:braden.shepherdson@gmail.com) wrote: > I’ve been using other ways of trying to keep my inbox queue under control, > for both personal and work things. The trouble is that basically everything > is based around the number of outstanding emails. It’s not practical for me > to get to 0 frequently, since I’m using my inbox as a to-do list, often > sending emails to myself to put things into that queue. Tracking only the > number of emails is a problem because I frequently end up with tasks in the > queue that are particularly painful, and I’d always rather do something > else. So the queue stays shortish, but a few tasks are languishing > effectively forever. > > My idea then is to Beemind something like task-days outstanding, so that an > email that’s been languishing for nearly two weeks is worth a dozen from > yesterday. > > I’m not sure what Beeminder goal type would be best for that. There’s an > Inbox Zero goal, and perhaps I could just use that but feed it task-days as > input instead of number of emails? A general Do Less? I’m not sure of the > exact semantics of adding things to these goals (whether successive updates > replace the level or stack, for example) and would love a point to those > details. Beeminder users are mostly data nerds, after all. > > If I find that this is working for me, I’ll probably patch or write an > extension for Gmail to count this value automatically, since it’s a bit of > bookkeeping overhead. On the other hand it would force me to look at and > acknowledge every task every day, so maybe that’s a good thing. > > Any thoughts? Is there a name for this I just don’t know? I tried various > things about “support queues”, “backlog”, “SLA” and so on, but didn’t seem > to find anything. > > Braden > > – > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > “Akratics Anonymous” group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [akratics+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:akratics+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out). ---
**Author:** ![Alec\_Brooks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@Alec\_Brooks](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/Alec_Brooks)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2013, 11:53pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/beeminding-queues/1468/3 "2013-11-18T23:53:56Z")
I don’t think anyone’s done emails as to-dos adjusted for time, but Katja Grace blogged about a system similar to what you want for a standard to-do list on Overcoming Bias: [On the goodness of Beeminder - by Katja Grace](http://www.overcomingbias.com/2012/08/on-the-goodness-of-beeminder.html). Her system was positive: She had to earn a certain number of points from to-dos, earning more for tasks that were postponed longer — one extra point per week. So I would suggest either adapting her system for email, using a “do more” goal. Or you could do an Inbox Zero goal as you suggest assuming you can reconfigure it to weigh older messages more heavily. That would be a negative system: minimizing “outstanding task days” rather than maximizing to-do points earned. I don’t think “do less” is a good fit since it doesn’t describe what you’re aiming for. It comes down to 1) whether you want to think in terms of maximizing tasks completed or minimizing tasks remaining and 2) whether you want to decrease the backlog at a steady rate (moving toward the “zero” or whatever number you pick instead in InboxZero) or remove items at a steady rate (which might shrink, grow, or maintain the backlog depending how fast items are added). Best, Alec On Mon, Nov 18, 2013 at 02:41:23PM -0800, Braden Shepherdson wrote: > I’ve been using other ways of trying to keep my inbox queue under control, > for both personal and work things. The trouble is that basically everything > is based around the number of outstanding emails. It’s not practical for me > to get to 0 frequently, since I’m using my inbox as a to-do list, often > sending emails to myself to put things into that queue. Tracking only the > number of emails is a problem because I frequently end up with tasks in the > queue that are particularly painful, and I’d always rather do something > else. So the queue stays shortish, but a few tasks are languishing > effectively forever. > > My idea then is to Beemind something like task-days outstanding, so that an > email that’s been languishing for nearly two weeks is worth a dozen from > yesterday. > > I’m not sure what Beeminder goal type would be best for that. There’s an > Inbox Zero goal, and perhaps I could just use that but feed it task-days as > input instead of number of emails? A general Do Less? I’m not sure of the > exact semantics of adding things to these goals (whether successive updates > replace the level or stack, for example) and would love a point to those > details. Beeminder users are mostly data nerds, after all. > > If I find that this is working for me, I’ll probably patch or write an > extension for Gmail to count this value automatically, since it’s a bit of > bookkeeping overhead. On the other hand it would force me to look at and > acknowledge every task every day, so maybe that’s a good thing. > > Any thoughts? Is there a name for this I just don’t know? I tried various > things about “support queues”, “backlog”, “SLA” and so on, but didn’t seem > to find anything. > > Braden > > – > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups “Akratics Anonymous” group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [akratics+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:akratics+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out). ---
**Author:** ![Essentiae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Essentiae](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/Essentiae)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2014, 8:21pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/beeminding-queues/1468/4 "2014-02-13T20:21:06Z")
On Monday, November 18, 2013 5:41:23 PM UTC-5, Braden Shepherdson wrote: > My idea then is to Beemind something like task-days outstanding, so that > an email that’s been languishing for nearly two weeks is worth a dozen from > yesterday. I love this idea for emails. If you find an easy way to automate tracking it, let us know!