Postpone Email Sending in Gmail?

Over at Google Blogoscoped there is a discussion about whether Gmail should have a feature called: Postpone Email Sending

I think this is a must have feature for any email client, especially if the interface was simple and quick. Apparently Outlook and some other clients do have it.

You could then email yourself reminders to come at a certain date. Of course all calendar software (both desktop and online) can do this, but the interfaces are so cumbersome (especially on Google Calendar). Currently I can add a todo list item in about 2-4 seconds in my GTD system. It needs to be under 5 seconds to remain ubiquitous. The other problem is that there is a difference between tickler file reminders and genuine calendar entries, which you don’t want to have confused when you open your calendar.

Postponed email would be a killer productivity feature because it would in effect allow a “Tickler File” like functionality for those using gmail labels for “GTD”.

In effect what this does is a kind of reverse prioritisation of action items. The action items that are time based or not important just yet, will not appear on your todo lists until the postponed email item arrives. This leaves more urgent tasks on the todo lists. This is why it is ok David Allen doesn’t like prioritised lists, because the tickler file is meant to clear out currently low priority cruft for you.

I have also explored some of the Firefox extensions and web services (email relays) that offer delayed email. I haven’t found them simple enough to use to be useful in my workflow.

This is a simple idea but the implementation would be difficult. You need a quick an easy way to specify the time period. You also need a way to browse and claim back the items that are in the postponed queue.

A similar feature would be to tell an email client: “Hide this email and put it back in my inbox in N days”. For example, Jetstar emailed me last friday about their 1 cent flights that go on sale tonight (Tuesday). It would be nice to have a simple button to tell the email client to hide (archive?) the email and bring it back to my inbox sometime Tuesday afternoon, when it is actually then relevant to me.

The goal of all this? Maintain a steady workflow, keep track of all my action items, and keep my inbox at zero!