Albert Blog

Since close to 15 years, I've been using Google products for most of my daily tasks. That includes from Gmail to Contacts Management, from Calendar to Google Keep, from Google Drive to Google Tasks. It's very convenient, it has excellent synchronization across devices, excellent search and much more. Of course the downside is that they know way way too much about me and at some point that's enough. So a few weeks back I decided to look for alternatives and slowly get out of Google.

First thing I needed to solve was email. My setup was to manage all my emails (two personal, four work) from Gmail. Using labels, snoozing and archiving was a great way to organize my work for the day, so I needed something similar. Inspired by Derek Sivers excellent article "Have a private email account", I decided to have a generic Gmail account (without using my full name) to be used in social media, Internet sites, etc and a very private email used only with friends & family. That's in addition to all my work emails. After looking for some alternatives I decide to use mailbox.org for my private email. They offer the option to use my domain and in addition to email offer contacts management, calendar, storage, etc. With 1 euro/month the price is worth. Next issue to solve was the email client for mobile (Android) and desktop (Windows). That turned out to be difficult and complicated. My requirements included:

• Manage multiple accounts including gmail
• Support for CardDAV protocol (so I can sync my contacts across devices)
• Calendar integration and support for CalDAV
• Integration with other platforms such as Slack, Todoist, Trello, etc.
• Easy way to archive emails and maintain Inbox Zero
• Snoozing support

These features would be nice in mobile, but are very very important in desktop. After testing some alternatives, I settled (for the moment) to use Outlook for Android in mobile. I'm not very happy, but that's the best I could find. For desktop, I spent much more time testing alternatives and crossed out Thunderbird, Microsoft Outlook, Hexamail, Claws Mail and more. Only Mailbird, EM Client and Postbox made my final list and here are my notes on them:

Mailbird
+++ Nice integration with todoist/slack/others
++ Snooze feature
+ Archive support
- Kind of expensive ~40 euro with coupon
-- Slow sync with server
-- No CalDav support, maybe it works with Kin Calendar (has support for google calendar)
--- No CardDav integration (only gmail/exchange!!!), alternative to import contacts.

EM Client
+++ CalDav/CardDav Integration (Native)
+ Nice UI
+ Fast sync
- Kind of expensive $50
- No todoist integration - use separate app (maybe widgets?)
- No snoozing - use todoist/categories
-- No archive support (can use move to folder shortcut). Planned for v8, 1st quarter 2020

Postbox
+++++ Great UI
++ Support Archives
- No snoozing - use todoist
- No todoist integration - use separate app (maybe use home button)
- messed up threads
-- Must pay $30/year - a bit too much
-- No Calendar - ???
--- No CardDav support :( - import contacts regularly

Even though, I really liked Postbox great UI and Mailbird archive and snooze support, I did settle for EM Client at least for now. Lack for CardDAV was a deal breaker for both Mailbird and Postbox. Until now EM Client seems solid and using some workarounds I have emulated manual snoozing (using categories), archiving (using move to folder) and todoist integration (using widgets). With CardDAV support from EM Client, Davx5 app for Android and mailbox.org support for contact management, I did solve contacts issue as well. Next in list are notes :)

The last few decades communication has changed dramatically. From fax and fixed line phones, now we have mobile phones, SMS, instant messaging, email and more. Basically now it is possible to have instant communication with anyone in the World. However being possible and doing it are not the same and unfortunately too many people abuse it. There are numerous studies that show that if you are interrupted from doing something you need 10-30 minutes to concentrate again (check this out). So if you get like 5 calls per day it means that you waste 25% of your time! That's a huge waste of time and money and very few people are actually paying attention!

Now to get some work done, you need to communicate with other people. However, you have to do it minimizing the impact for both you and the other party. My simple rules for this are:

1. Except if you're getting a heart attack, send an email first. This give the chance to the other party to read it when they want and not get distracted. On the other hand check the email only in regular intervals (I'm guilty of breaking the rule, but that's what I try to do).
2. If it's urgent (and I mean urgent!) and you're not getting a reply in email send an instant message to the work instant messaging app (like Skype).
3. The above should cover 99.99% of cases. In the remaining cases:
   1. Send a SMS to let the other person know something is urgent and needs attention.
   2. Call her/him only if you don't get a reply.

Of course the rules above do not apply for normal office communication. It does not make sense to email the person next to you to ask for simple answer; common sense should prevail.

You may say this is reasonable, however what do do when my boss calls me? Or when a customer calls? Well, I don't have a silver bullet, but here are some guidelines. The people you communicate with, pretty much fall in one of the following groups:

1. Subordinate - this is the easiest one. Make the rules clear to them and they will follow them :)
2. Colleague - you can't make rules for them, but you can point it out. If they call you for something that can wait, say "Please email it to me, I'm busy right now". After some time, they should get the lesson.
3. Superior - that's a tricky one. If he does not value your time, probably he's not the right boss to work for. However you can try and explain and if he's not listening, look for another job!
4. Third party - except for customers (below), you can force standard email communication. There may be some exceptions, but on the long term you can settle with email.
5. Customer - in the initial phase you can't do much. But once you have a contract in place be very careful about means of communication. Put a premium price for a call so it's worth the distraction.

In the end: Anytime you need to communicate with someone ask yourself: Does this requires a call? Can I send an email? Instant Message? SMS? If people would be more careful, I'm sure a lot of time and money could be saved!

Yesterday, 1^st of June 2013, at 06:45 AM, Matias was born. Mother Anila, father Albert and little sister Sofia wish him a long and happy life :)

Hello again. I've tried and failed several times to regularly post on my blog. One of the reason is that it's difficult to find "free" time but after some reflection the main reason is that I hadn't decided on what to write and where to focus. As a software developer, this is a field that I'm interested, but aside from that there are several other fields that I'm interested and would like to share my thoughts. So mainly here you'll find:

• Software development posts, mostly related to software methodologies, but technical stuff also.
• Sport, mainly Formula 1 and football. I'm a "hardcore" fun of Nationalmannschaft and German clubs and also "hardcore" fun of Formula 1 currently rooting for Vettel :)
• Physics are also one of my interests and I try closely follow the latest development on fields such as Quantum Physics, String Theory, Dark Matter, Dark Energy, etc
• Social, political and philosophical topics are also on the agenda
• and last but not least occasionally I may post something about my family.

The target is to publish at least once per week and hopefully this time it will work out.

Happy reading :)

Albert

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