The inbox as a secret task list
Almost everyone does it. A message that implies work is left unread or flagged. The inbox becomes a second task list, and a poor one.
It has the wrong properties. Messages are sorted by arrival, not by urgency. A message has no effort and no date on which you intend to work on it. It cannot be broken into steps. And it mixes with newsletters and invoices that are not work at all.
The duplication weighs heavier. If you keep tasks partly in a list and partly in a mailbox, you cannot trust either. So you check both, several times a day.
What the mailbox on the board does
Aevo pulls messages in over IMAP or through a connected Microsoft 365 account. A message becomes a tile like any other. From there it can do what an email cannot:
- carry a date on which you intend to work on it, and a time estimate,
- break into subtasks when it turns out to be more than a reply,
- link to a note or a project,
- gain attention when you postpone it repeatedly.
What is only information stays in the mailbox. What implies work lands on the board.
How the fetch works
Three things worth knowing beforehand.
The fetch happens on request. No service sits there reading your mailbox continuously. You trigger it when you need it.
It is limited to the last 50 messages. The mailbox on the board is not a mail archive but a handover point for what is arriving now.
Credentials are stored encrypted. IMAP server, port, username and password are encrypted with AES-256 via pgcrypto. With Microsoft 365 the sign-in runs over OAuth 2.0. Aevo receives access and refresh tokens, but never your password.
The integration is optional and must be set up deliberately. Disconnect it in the settings and the credentials are deleted. What exactly is processed is described in sections 9 and 11 of the privacy policy. The processing chain as a whole is set out under task management and the GDPR.
If you connect a mailbox holding client correspondence, you are putting third-party personal data into another system. That is permitted and documented, but it belongs in your record of processing activities.
Together with the calendar
Mailbox and calendar only add up to a full day together. The calendar supplies the appointments and therefore the free time, the mailbox the work arriving from outside. On the board both sit beside what you set yourself. More on that under realistic day planning and calendars over CalDAV and Microsoft 365.
What it is not
Aevo is not an email client. You do not write replies in it, there is no folder management, no signatures and no search across years. Your mail application stays where it is. The integration only lifts out what turns into work.
The mailbox on the board is part of Pro, at 7.00 euro a month or 70.00 euro a year including VAT. See pricing.