A better way to tame your buddy list

Is your buddy list still out of control?

In our debut post, we recommended grouping your buddies by how often you chat with them. Just split your buddies into three groups: Frequent, Occasional, and Rare.

Interaction designer Joshua Kaufman liked our idea but favors a better way. Instead of frequency, Joshua divides his buddies by “importance,” using groups labeled Alpha, Beta and Gamma:

It’s not about how frequently you talk to people; it’s about how important they are to you right now. If someone is important to you, you’re often likely to talk to them frequently. Vice versa if they’re not important to you. But sometimes there’s someone who I don’t talk to frequently who suddenly becomes more important, for example, because I’m working with them on a project. In this case, moving them to a group called Frequent doesn’t make much sense. Instead, I move them to a group called Alpha — as in “most important”.

Kudos to Joshua for this smart and clever buddy list hack. Also, check out his tips for taming email and trimming your RSS feeds

So I’m curious, how do you organize your buddy list?