Ask HN: I'b building an email analytics plugin/app

9 points·sturza··4 comments

Would you use: - days since reply from [x] - not marked as done - [x] awaits your reply for [y] days - most emailed person last [x] - least responsive person is [x] - most action items from [x] - most requests from [x]

Would this increase your productivity? (assuming email is 90% of your day)

View on HN

Fairly heavy email user here, but I (personally) wouldn't find use in those metrics. But I like the general idea. I seem to remember that Eudora used to have some analytics.

I recently kept an Excel chart of my inbox, so I could see over time how close I was getting to Inbox Zero and how many emails a day I'd need to get through. Combining that with intelligence on how many emails I receive per day on average to calculate an Inbox Zero date estimate could be interesting.

This could be incredibly useful. I drafted something up about this (and some other similar metrics to blend) a year or so back. I ran by an engineer Ive been freelancing with a few years (Im marketing) and they felt it was too much outside their skillset so it got mothballed.

I definitly feel there is a solid oppurtunity here. Good luck with it.

For your stats I'd keep it simple. I think the best 2 here are;

- most emailed person

- most actions / requests from

I think whether this can help with my productivity depends on how it can integrate with my existing email provider. If it augments the existing experience by working as a browser extension of some sort, it might.

How would it work with different email programs?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com