Ever longed for a tool that could give you feedback on the health of your email inbox? Listen in as I take on the challenge of creating one from scratch.

Here in the second part of LiveLab 02, I continue working with Dr. Michael Einstein by delving into the formulae that would be at the heart of a sound email health calculator.
It's no easy conversation to follow - you will probably need a paper and pencil.



Months before I called Michael, I devised the following formula in my very first attempt.


Score = the sum of:


1. 5.0 max(0, [2 x (total messages-unread messages-tagged messages) [


2. 0.5 x (total messages - unread messages - incomplete tasks recalled)


3. 5.0 x (unread messages - incoming email per day)]/10)


4. # minutes spent



This is where our discussion started. It moved quickly and resulted in this formula which we produced in the first part of this episode.
Score = the sum of: 


1. (total messages-unread messages-tagged messages)  [more importance]  "BlindSpot measure"


2. # read messages * (age in days -1) [more importance]   "Morgue Measure"


3. # unread messages/ # incoming email per day [more importance]  "Backlog Measure"


4.  # threaded messages / # total messages  [moderate importance]


5.  # raw threaded messages [high importance]


6. # subscription email older than a day / # total messages older than a day  [low importance]



We took a break for about a month, then reconvened to record the second part of this episode.


During the discussion, we agreed on the following elements.
Score = the sum of: 


1. (total messages-unread messages-tagged messages)  [more important]


2a. # read non-subscribed messages * (age in days per message -1) [more important]


2b. # read subscription messages * (age in days per message -1) [more important]


3. # incoming email per day / ((#unread subs--sqrd> + #unread nonsubsc) [more important]


4.  <deleted>


5.  # raw threaded messages - for non-subscribes using geometric growth [high importance]


6. # subscription email older than a day / # total messages older than a day  [lower importance]


Our next and final conversation didn't take place until 10 months later. It's captured n part 3, episode 59.


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