I will soon start a new job where I expect to receive significantly more emails than I do currently. So far, I haven’t had a system in place, except for marking emails as unread until I respond and occasionally using flags.
I would like to change that practice, now that I have a clean slate. But how do I start managing my inbox?
I use Mac Mail and would like to continue using it. I know how to set up rules and create smart mailboxes etc., but I can’t really see the potential.
Thank you!
In my role I get copious email, direct, cc’d for visibility or automated stuff.
In Gmail, I build a rule to label and archive automated things like alerts or bills and keeps them out of my inbox and I can choose to engage at my leisure.
For everything else I star and archive. I have a few points throughout the day I triage or act on. Immediate response things get responded too, things I need to address but it’s not urgent I star and archive. Then I look through my starred emails occasionally to see if anything has risen in priority for me to address, and I do so. Everything else lays untouched in starred.
What I find is this keeps me close to inbox zero, helps me keep important stuff visible and often stuff I’ve starred, given time takes care of itself before I engage and I eventually unstar it to never be seen again as it just wasn’t important or didn’t need my engagement.
It works well for me. Sometimes I get behind, and that’s ok. I’m only one person, and I have time boxed time to prevent email dominating my life