This paper reports a study of Personal Information
Management (PIM), which advances research in two ways:
(1) rather than focusing on one tool, we collected cross-tool
data relating to file, email and web bookmark usage for each
participant, and (2) we collected longitudinal data for a
subset of the participants. We found that individuals employ
a rich variety of strategies both within and across PIM tools,
and we present new strategy classifications that reflect this
behaviour. We discuss synergies and differences between
tools that may be useful in guiding the design of tool
integration. Our longitudinal data provides insight into how
PIM behaviour evolves over time, and suggests that the
supporting nature of PIM discourages reflection by users on
their strategies. We discuss how users may benefit if tools
and organizations promote increased reflection on PIM.
From Richard Boardman, M Angela Sasse in the text Stuff Goes into the Computer and Doesn’t Come Out (2004)