I completely fail at keeping my (Gmail) inbox below 3,000 messages, because I get so many things that seem too important to delete, but that don’t require any specific action either, and I don’t know what to do with them. I’m getting better at tagging-and-archiving them, but I look at most of my folders so rarely that I don’t know why I bother saving things. I try to use stars to mark emails that require responses or other action, but that doesn’t do me any good once the starred email scrolls off the front page. I have a constant low-level worry that I lost something important in the flood of trivia.

Anyway, I like how you drew the connection between task management in bookmarks, in email, and in games. This is a thought-provoking post. Thanks!

In case that wasn’t clear, here is a flow:
I search for c++ debugger
google shows me some stuff, at the same time Xmarks (or weave, or surf canyon, or…) injects a pretty div that says “hey you tagged this gdb tutorial”

thems some bookmark’s i wouldn’t need to remember that I had.

Also, your labels conjecture is clearly false. Labels speak to very personal methods for organization, and to say that people naturally fit into the defaults of a system is ludicrous. If a user is advanced enough to use labels, I guarantee that they are making their own.

1. All serious WoW players actually install an extension to show where the quest ends, so clearly the fun is not in finding the end. Only allowing 25 things doesn’t teach prioritization, but over-reliance on machines without encouraging any use of short-term memory.

2. The defaults in software gives users a base to work from – they encourage a method of use. People are probably less likely to make their own labels if the defaults are close to what they would like, or even seem moderately applicable to their life.

3. Fail.

1. WoW

First of all, finding out where to complete a quest is the whole point of the quest. Second of all, limiting quests to 25 items teaches prioritization. Picking 25 things to give priority and then having several things limited to memory (people that make lists outside the game are lame) is a good real life less for depending on tools (the game’s quest tracker) for some tasks and memory/the self (what other quests can I take) for others. Also, because the game shows you where you can start quests, those things aren’t truly regulated to memory.

2. Thunderbird

The reason the labels are editable is so that you can go crazy GTD on it. The defaults are just that. I’d be surprised if many people using labels are just using the defaults.

3. Bookmarks

That would be cool. Sorry, too tired to devil’s advocate on this one for now, talk to me in the morning.