How To Win At Email(nikilster.com)
nikilster.com
How To Win At Email
http://www.nikilster.com/thoughts/how-to-win-at-email
19 comments
I know it's silly, but this made me giggle: "It's never caused me to miss any important emails (that I'm aware of)."
Why not just unsubscribe from all these useless newsletters?
Oh man. They come at a dime a dozen. I think my method is much more effective.
Yeah! That's basically Step #1 for me except I was too scared to actually unsubscribe (especially in college). Turns out I don't read any of them and for the most part my life is still good :)
That's the most brilliant simple solution I've ever heard.
Brilliant solution, nearly a 100% reliable though, what are the chances of an important email containing "unsubscribe" ??
another option could be using https://unroll.me/
another option could be using https://unroll.me/
That filter doesn't prevent you from reading email lists?
Yeah that's been the one down-side. I've had to add an exception for the one email list I'm a part of.
The #1 thing that has helped me to keep emails organized is taking advantage of the + notation that gmail allows... Every store or website I give my email address to, I simply append ([email protected]) to my email address, which allows for easy filtering later. It also shows me who has been giving out my email address :)
On a similar note, gmail allows you so put dots in your email address, so when I give my email address out to humans, I use [email protected], and when I give it to computers, I use [email protected]
I find that this easily filters out machine generated addresses, always works on forms, and if spambots ever get wise to it, it'd be difficult for them to add in the dot at the correct place, whereas taking out the stuff after the plus would be quite easy
I find that this easily filters out machine generated addresses, always works on forms, and if spambots ever get wise to it, it'd be difficult for them to add in the dot at the correct place, whereas taking out the stuff after the plus would be quite easy
A significant amount of websites filter on the + and will throw an error as an invalid character in the email string. Very annoying.
Yes, it's very annoying.
I don't use gmail, but used to use <prefix><dash>username (prefix-username@) with qmail - and at some point had to have email at a site that used Exim with standard setup - that allowed <prefix><plus>username (prefix+user@) -- but not with a dash (it is possible to configure Exim to do this - but with qmail it is standard).
That's how I discovered that a lot of sites erroneously filter out + from the username part.
Now host my own email with Exim - but rather than use a prefix, I've just set up Exim to route all users at all subdomains to my inbox, so I can use adresses like:
[email protected] (s for spam). So far I that have worked fine.
I don't use gmail, but used to use <prefix><dash>username (prefix-username@) with qmail - and at some point had to have email at a site that used Exim with standard setup - that allowed <prefix><plus>username (prefix+user@) -- but not with a dash (it is possible to configure Exim to do this - but with qmail it is standard).
That's how I discovered that a lot of sites erroneously filter out + from the username part.
Now host my own email with Exim - but rather than use a prefix, I've just set up Exim to route all users at all subdomains to my inbox, so I can use adresses like:
[email protected] (s for spam). So far I that have worked fine.
Very, very annoying... This is what a friend of mine always sends to those who choose to filter valid characters from email addresses... https://gist.github.com/EHLOVader/4531693
A worse system (read: hack) is to put variable amounts of dots in your email address when you sign up for something, because Gmail strips dots from your account name when delivering your mail. It requires you to remember or write down who got what amount of dots though.
For most, I use sneak+tag@mydomain (Google Apps), but for those, they all get bucketed into my special noncompliant@mydomain email to guard against the eventuality of one of them selling me out.
I do something similar with `[email protected]`, which all get filtered to the same `[email protected]` which is imported into my gmail.
I get very strange looks whenever I give out my email address in person. But you're right; it's an excellent way to track who gives out my email and it's an easy way to block spam that gets through the filter.
I get very strange looks whenever I give out my email address in person. But you're right; it's an excellent way to track who gives out my email and it's an easy way to block spam that gets through the filter.
Whoa no way - I totally didn't know about this. Awesome, so cool! Thanks so much!
I'll just put this here: http://www.streak.com It's pretty awesome at this kind of email management stuff right inside gmail.
I was/am a big fan and a power user. I think it's worth pointing out around two weeks ago Streak automatically put a signature file into any Streak based email without asking you to opt in. I thought suddenly dropping "Lovingly managed by Streak" as a new signature file without permission showed poor judgement or desperation.
Co-founder of Streak here. Chalk that one up to poor judgement. We definitely screwed up with that one and are really friggin sorry about that.
We gave settings to disable that when it launched, but that was obviously not sufficient especially since it was on by default. After it started to roll out and we got complaints pretty much instantly, we turned it off within a few hours.
So ya, if this soured you permanent off of Streak then obviously that sucks big time. We definitely learned our lesson though, so hopefully we get one mulligan.
We gave settings to disable that when it launched, but that was obviously not sufficient especially since it was on by default. After it started to roll out and we got complaints pretty much instantly, we turned it off within a few hours.
So ya, if this soured you permanent off of Streak then obviously that sucks big time. We definitely learned our lesson though, so hopefully we get one mulligan.
It was an interesting move and damaged my heretofore unabashed love. But all startups get a free pass on one thing like this if they quickly recognize, acknowledge and move on. Still using!
Thank you so much for building Streak!! Not sure what I'd do without it.
I've played with that for contact management. Like it!
I follow a lot of software mailing lists. I used to use Gmail with labels for them, but it still took a lot of time sifting through to the important stuff, and subscribing/unsubscribing felt like a pain. Also, I would end up never actually opening the stuff that skipped my inbox, filling up my account with never-read emails from lists that I might as well unsubscribe from.
Then I switched to Gnus in Emacs, and for mailing lists at least it is a world of difference. Scoring in Gnus ensures important emails are at the top, unimportant are at the bottom, I can press "c" to mark all as read, almost all frequently used functions require a single keypress, and subscribing to a new mailing list also typically only requires a couple keypresses, and unsubscribing is "ctrl+k".
Real world example: I want to follow any subjects in the high-volume libreoffice-dev list that contain the word "proofreading". I do "^" and search for "libreoffice", click enter to subscribe, enter to open the group and click "I" to add an increase-score-rule ('subject contains string "proofreading"). Next time I open the group, all high-scoring threads will be at the top and I can press "n" to go through them quickly, then "c" to mark the rest as read. You can do this sort of thing with filters and IMAP flags ("stars") of course, but they take so much more time to set up and change and yet only give one level of priority (what if you want certain authors to be more prioritised than others, when talking about proofreading?). If I ever tire of following those subjects, I just ctrl+k on the group to remove it forever, I never have to open an "unsubscribe" page – it's a single keypress, and it's offline. Switching from gmail to gnus for mailing lists was for me like switching from svn to git. Of course, you do need to be an Emacs user already, otherwise you'll probably just be frustrated …
Then I switched to Gnus in Emacs, and for mailing lists at least it is a world of difference. Scoring in Gnus ensures important emails are at the top, unimportant are at the bottom, I can press "c" to mark all as read, almost all frequently used functions require a single keypress, and subscribing to a new mailing list also typically only requires a couple keypresses, and unsubscribing is "ctrl+k".
Real world example: I want to follow any subjects in the high-volume libreoffice-dev list that contain the word "proofreading". I do "^" and search for "libreoffice", click enter to subscribe, enter to open the group and click "I" to add an increase-score-rule ('subject contains string "proofreading"). Next time I open the group, all high-scoring threads will be at the top and I can press "n" to go through them quickly, then "c" to mark the rest as read. You can do this sort of thing with filters and IMAP flags ("stars") of course, but they take so much more time to set up and change and yet only give one level of priority (what if you want certain authors to be more prioritised than others, when talking about proofreading?). If I ever tire of following those subjects, I just ctrl+k on the group to remove it forever, I never have to open an "unsubscribe" page – it's a single keypress, and it's offline. Switching from gmail to gnus for mailing lists was for me like switching from svn to git. Of course, you do need to be an Emacs user already, otherwise you'll probably just be frustrated …
The only problem I have with this approach (which I've been using for years now) is that I'm too fast. My procrastination takes less than 15 minutes and then I have to go back to working again!
When you've done this sort of thing for email, and it eventually becomes second nature to apply the same level of filtering to Google Reader, then to Twitter lists, then Facebook groups, etc - you end up blocking so much of the noise that it's disheartening when you finally discover that actually the signal isn't very interesting either.
sigh The organised person's first world problems, I guess...
When you've done this sort of thing for email, and it eventually becomes second nature to apply the same level of filtering to Google Reader, then to Twitter lists, then Facebook groups, etc - you end up blocking so much of the noise that it's disheartening when you finally discover that actually the signal isn't very interesting either.
sigh The organised person's first world problems, I guess...
I recently got serious about Priority Inbox and it has really turned my GMail experience around. After less than a week of being proactive about tagging important vs. not-important emails GMail was able to pick up the trend and do a perfect job of separation. I now have my phone and computer only notify me of priority inbox and then I clear the regular inbox at the end of the day. Reduced my active email volume by about half.
> The great part about this is that when you hit Inbox 0, you are DONE (yes thats amazing right?) with email.
Should perhaps add parentheses with "(but don't forget you're not really done, you've just hidden anything that takes more than two minutes to respond to out of view, make sure you deal with those emails later)".
Should perhaps add parentheses with "(but don't forget you're not really done, you've just hidden anything that takes more than two minutes to respond to out of view, make sure you deal with those emails later)".
Yes, thank you. You still see them in your inbox view (due to multiple inbox) so you are still aware of them.
My point (and I was being a bit snide, sorry) was not that you haven't been clear enough - anyone who needs a picture to understand the end result hasn't been paying attention while reading - but that I don't count it as "inbox zero". It feels like cheating, like saying "here's how to completely clean all of the rubbish out of your living room: dump it in the kitchen".
Yeah I definitely don't have a perfect solution for this. Sometimes it piles up. One thing that I have found effective is having a designated end of day "clean up to-do list" time. Definitely open to hearing what you think would be a good solution.
I think I'm going to add a picture of multiple inbox to make this clearer.
We have a saying, "If you're getting too many emails, then you're not good enough at Gmail."
Especially with keyboard shortcuts, I can glance at the important emails, check any others that catch my eye, and then archive/mark the rest. Priority inbox, labels, etc. became almost automatic mental cues to check or delete email.
Especially with keyboard shortcuts, I can glance at the important emails, check any others that catch my eye, and then archive/mark the rest. Priority inbox, labels, etc. became almost automatic mental cues to check or delete email.
The more complex the system, the harder it is to maintain. That's what happens when people start to follow GTD.
Speed is the key to email management. The Email Game (http://emailga.me/) accomplishes this very well.
I like a lot about the information presented in this article. I've got the accounts stuff figured out, and reasonably good filters setup. But the rest it handled by mailboxapp.com on my iPhone. Gestures getting through my email is such a win (Later? <-, Archive? ->, Trash? --->). I'm not nearly disciplined enough to go through a "todo" filter. With Mailbox, I can say when I should look at it again, and then I'm reminded about it.
Another thing I've done is the [email protected] trick. Easiest account filtering possible.
Another thing I've done is the [email protected] trick. Easiest account filtering possible.
This is very similar to the system in the book, "Getting Things Done", which is what I use for Outlook. The salient point is to use your inbox only as a temp bin for processing email. I create folders for all my projects and file emails there. I also have 3 folders: "Action", "Waiting", and "Bills". Action items are To-do items. Waiting is where I am waiting for a response, such as a delivery confirmation email. Bills are email bills to be paid. After acting on the email, it gets moved to the relevant project folder for archiving.
"STOP. Right now."
I dislike this new trend which consist of SHOUTING at your reader and ordering them to do or not do something (for their own good, obviously).
This is used to give some weight to very dull advices, like when you should or ~n't read your emails, which books to buy, etc. Strangely enough, genuinely useful advices about important topics like how to educate your kids or how to behave in foreign countries do not need to be SHOUTED at the readership.
I dislike this new trend which consist of SHOUTING at your reader and ordering them to do or not do something (for their own good, obviously).
This is used to give some weight to very dull advices, like when you should or ~n't read your emails, which books to buy, etc. Strangely enough, genuinely useful advices about important topics like how to educate your kids or how to behave in foreign countries do not need to be SHOUTED at the readership.
Seems relevant: I ended up writing my own little app to help me quickly process my GMail emails on iPhone. Back when I wrote it there was no "Mailbox" which is a similar concept. It really has helped a lot for staying on top of my email: http://app.net/emptyinbox
I get maybe four or five e-mails a week and actively look forward to - no, ache for the experience of - reading each of them. I can only imagine what it must be like to live a life where I am so in demand that I literally cannot process my inbox.
Sanebox is an awesome service. It has reduced my email woes to almost nil.
Just turn on Gmail's Priority Inbox feature and be done with it.
I tried that but found that this worked much better for me personally. Also I had emails in very different levels of "response required" - email lists (don't need to look at vs response required immediately).
Also a big plus of this approach is feeling like you are "done" with email. I know it seems a bit complicated but its actually quite simple - most of the setup is a one time upfront cost of about 20 min. Try it out and let me know what you think about this strategy!
Also a big plus of this approach is feeling like you are "done" with email. I know it seems a bit complicated but its actually quite simple - most of the setup is a one time upfront cost of about 20 min. Try it out and let me know what you think about this strategy!
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Why not use a free email sorting tool like this?
http://www.emailtray.com/email-sorting-software.html
It takes care of unnecessary email junk
http://www.emailtray.com/email-sorting-software.html
It takes care of unnecessary email junk
Looks similar to GTD.
I've heard good things about GTD but haven't read it. I'll check it out, thanks!
I've shared this with a few friends who love it. It's pretty flawless. It's never caused me to miss any important emails (that I'm aware of).