We attempted to categorize our participants using previous
strategy classifications [2,13], but were only partially
successful. Therefore we developed our own classification
based on participants’ strategy descriptions (Table 3). Our
sample included 2 no-filers (folderless spring-cleaners), and
8 frequent filers - but no spring-cleaners (users who only
clean their inbox periodically). The remaining 21 participants
had large inboxes (>75 items, average 1137), like the nofilers
and spring-cleaners in [13], however their reported
strategies did not match these classifications. They filed
some new emails immediately (typically those of perceived
long-term value such as e-commerce receipts), and deleted
low-value spam. Other messages were left in the inbox,
which was occasionally spring-cleaned. In other words they
employed multiple strategies – a combination of frequent
filer, spring cleaner, and no-filer, e.g. (P25: “I’d like to
manage as and when I receive them but I don’t. I do it
periodically - 10 minutes a day just to categorize the things
that are important. 10 or 15 I’ll categorize ... the rest of them
I think oh I’ll get round to doing that at some stage - but I
don’t normally. However I did spend an hour on a train last
week tidying my emails because I was bored. I reduced my
inbox by about 1500”). We divided the 21 multiple-strategy
participants into two sub-groups, E2 and E3, based on the
extent to which they reported manually filing new messages
on a daily basis. E2 users filed many emails everyday, whilst
E3 users only filed a few (<5) messages of particular longterm
value: (P31: “I have a folder for registrations. I’ve got
other [unused] folders – I don’t even know what they are.
The vast majority [of email] is a big long list”). E1/E2 users
indicated that organization was a priority for them, whilst
E3/E4 users considered it to be less important.