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Do you use gmail or inbox now? Can you describe your workflow? One issue I have with gmail is that it takes a million clicks and like 10 seconds to filter ema

Do you use gmail or inbox now? Can you describe your workflow? One issue I have with gmail is that it takes a million clicks and like 10 seconds to filter email so that I never see that sender/subject/whatever again. Do you have a solution?

Jedd 9y ago
I use gmail app on mobile (and Nine for talking to work Exchange server). I don't use Priority inbox feature. I use incoming filters to apply labels. I try to process each message once - and am happy to archive anything non-actionable. For mail I don't wish to receive or keep, I'll take the time to stop it being sent to me, rather than set up a filter/blocker at my end. For mail I only want to be able to search for later I'll filter to auto-archive on receipt. I try to avoid using my inbox as a todo list - having a separate task tracker makes this possible (different tools vary the ease of this, of course). I suspect most people who struggle with email don't have a task tracker (or if they do, they aren't using that properly either) but that's based on a relatively small set of anecdata. When you say it takes a million clicks and 10 seconds to filter email - do you mean to create a new filter on an arbitrary email? How often are you creating new filters?
- bravura 9y ago
  For mail I don't wish to receive or keep, I'll take the time to stop it being sent to me, rather than set up a filter/blocker at my end. How? Through unsubscribes? I try to avoid using my inbox as a todo list - having a separate task tracker makes this possible (different tools vary the ease of this, of course). So on mobile you are switching back and forth between apps a bunch? While you process email? I just want to understand the workflow a bit better. I suspect most people who struggle with email don't have a task tracker (or if they do, they aren't using that properly either) How do you use a task tracker correctly/incorrectly? * When you say it takes a million clicks and 10 seconds to filter email - do you mean to create a new filter on an arbitrary email? How often are you creating new filters?* Yeah. I have a lot of transactional emails that I want to archive. Maybe if I sat down for two hours I'd be done. My personal inbox is a mess.
  - Jedd 9y ago
    I should mention I'm not fantastic at this stuff - it takes consistent effort to maintain, and of course we all have our unique challenges and preferences. I'd recommend searching around for some blogs that go into more detail on workflows, and reading Getting Things Done (Dave Allen). I've tried to adopt some of the key habits he describes. Yes - I take the effort to unsubscribe from unwanted mail. These days much easier, as the unsubscribe link is usually to be found in the email itself. (In the olden days it was a bit trickier, getting yourself off lists.) Worst case I'll mark it as spam. The intent is to not have my mail archive crufted up with stuff I don't want - it reduces search efficacy later. On mobile I usually don't do a lot of mail 'processing' -- phones frustrate me, and I defer most things to when I have a decent keyboard & screen in front of me. I do have trello and trello-add-card (widget) on my phone's home page, and the latter is a fast way to cut-n-paste new items into. There's also the option to forward email to your private trello board/inbox using the obfuscated email address they provide for each board. During your nightly task review you would then tidy up the card title & description. How do you use a task-tracker correctly ... now that's a big question :) Biggest thing for me is that I trust that when something goes into my task tracker, I can get rid of it from email, my brain, post-it notes, etc. Sensible columns categories, thoughtful card names, learn the keyboard shortcuts (desktop web trello client in my case), colour coding, try to make cards describe actionable steps, 'next steps' should be do-able right now (cards with dependencies can't be 'in progress', f.e.). Is there a requirement that you observe or interact with each of the transactional emails you're receiving? Is it something that could be handled by a script, log analyser, etc? Or when you say you want to archive them, do you mean the time-consuming process is identifying candidates for manual or automatic archival?
bobwaycott 9y ago
Keyboard shortcuts[0]. Unsubscribe links. [0]: Keyboard shortcut for More > arrow down to Filter messages like these > adjust rules if needed > Enter

Jedd 9y ago

I use gmail app on mobile (and Nine for talking to work Exchange server). I don't use Priority inbox feature. I use incoming filters to apply labels. I try to process each message once - and am happy to archive anything non-actionable. For mail I don't wish to receive or keep, I'll take the time to stop it being sent to me, rather than set up a filter/blocker at my end. For mail I only want to be able to search for later I'll filter to auto-archive on receipt. I try to avoid using my inbox as a todo list - having a separate task tracker makes this possible (different tools vary the ease of this, of course). I suspect most people who struggle with email don't have a task tracker (or if they do, they aren't using that properly either) but that's based on a relatively small set of anecdata. When you say it takes a million clicks and 10 seconds to filter email - do you mean to create a new filter on an arbitrary email? How often are you creating new filters?

bravura 9y ago
For mail I don't wish to receive or keep, I'll take the time to stop it being sent to me, rather than set up a filter/blocker at my end. How? Through unsubscribes? I try to avoid using my inbox as a todo list - having a separate task tracker makes this possible (different tools vary the ease of this, of course). So on mobile you are switching back and forth between apps a bunch? While you process email? I just want to understand the workflow a bit better. I suspect most people who struggle with email don't have a task tracker (or if they do, they aren't using that properly either) How do you use a task tracker correctly/incorrectly? * When you say it takes a million clicks and 10 seconds to filter email - do you mean to create a new filter on an arbitrary email? How often are you creating new filters?* Yeah. I have a lot of transactional emails that I want to archive. Maybe if I sat down for two hours I'd be done. My personal inbox is a mess.
- Jedd 9y ago
  I should mention I'm not fantastic at this stuff - it takes consistent effort to maintain, and of course we all have our unique challenges and preferences. I'd recommend searching around for some blogs that go into more detail on workflows, and reading Getting Things Done (Dave Allen). I've tried to adopt some of the key habits he describes. Yes - I take the effort to unsubscribe from unwanted mail. These days much easier, as the unsubscribe link is usually to be found in the email itself. (In the olden days it was a bit trickier, getting yourself off lists.) Worst case I'll mark it as spam. The intent is to not have my mail archive crufted up with stuff I don't want - it reduces search efficacy later. On mobile I usually don't do a lot of mail 'processing' -- phones frustrate me, and I defer most things to when I have a decent keyboard & screen in front of me. I do have trello and trello-add-card (widget) on my phone's home page, and the latter is a fast way to cut-n-paste new items into. There's also the option to forward email to your private trello board/inbox using the obfuscated email address they provide for each board. During your nightly task review you would then tidy up the card title & description. How do you use a task-tracker correctly ... now that's a big question :) Biggest thing for me is that I trust that when something goes into my task tracker, I can get rid of it from email, my brain, post-it notes, etc. Sensible columns categories, thoughtful card names, learn the keyboard shortcuts (desktop web trello client in my case), colour coding, try to make cards describe actionable steps, 'next steps' should be do-able right now (cards with dependencies can't be 'in progress', f.e.). Is there a requirement that you observe or interact with each of the transactional emails you're receiving? Is it something that could be handled by a script, log analyser, etc? Or when you say you want to archive them, do you mean the time-consuming process is identifying candidates for manual or automatic archival?

bobwaycott 9y ago

Keyboard shortcuts[0]. Unsubscribe links. [0]: Keyboard shortcut for More > arrow down to Filter messages like these > adjust rules if needed > Enter