Work about work is not work

When Mailbox launched I jumped in line. The snooze email feature sold me. It’s an incredibly well designed and executed product. The team behind Mailbox knows mobile products.

Yet, I recently ditched Mailbox. Why?

It became work about work. Consider this common use case. I swipe an email to snooze it. First I set the snooze alarm. Then when the alarm goes off I receive a reminder I need to process. See what’s happening here. I’ve created work for myself without actually doing any work. In fact, no communication happened at all. When doing email I want to make forward progress - discuss a product idea, provide feedback on a document, and more.

I don’t want tools to organize my email. We’ve been cramming more and more of those into email over the last fifteen plus years. Email has become a bloated mess. Mailbox’s snooze feature is yet another feature creates more work. Instead, I want tools that actually let me get work done on my mobile device. Sadly, I got more work done on my BlackBerry in 2006 than I do on my iPhone seven years later.

Lately, I’ve noticed when work needs to get done I switch over to a messaging app. Meetings get organized faster. People share more and do so faster. The conversation flows more naturally.

Which reminds us that all mobile communication will gravitate towards an Instant Messenger like experience. No, email won’t entirely die. After all, you still need a way to get Groupon emails.