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David Pogue on his non-empty inbox:
I couldn’t do it. I just could not get my Inbox empty. I’m in the habit of treating my Inbox as a “to do” file; whenever I get time, I work through some more of the items there. It occurred to me that all you’re doing in Mr. Allen’s system, really, is hiding your unprocessed Inbox items by shuffling them around. What’s the difference between using my Inbox as a “to do” folder and just putting its contents into a “To Do” folder?
I've always liked David's work, but I have to disagree here. There is a huge difference between using an inbox and a to-do list for to-do management: namely, the power to defer items into the future. I write about this in Bit Literacy, but there's a good summary on my Lifehacker post about to-do lists.
Well, gootodo gives you the ability to talk to your future self. That's much more sophisticated than simply creating folders to categorize messages still requiring action.
I think David has a bit of a point about the use of folders. If you, like me, are used to just using the inbox as a "to do" list, then just creating categorized folders is psychologically tricking yourself into thinking that you've handled those messages. It'll basically allow and make ok in your head procrastination. If instead you leave them all in the inbox then they're in your face saying "don't forget me!"
Gootodo is brilliant because you are taking control back from the messages and they become, again, simply messages. Now they're just messages from your current self to your future self.
It takes advantage of time instead of space. Brilliant because most people don't think in 4D.
Peace.