Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Take Control publisher Adam Engst uses an entirely different approach, which he describes
in a series of TidBITS articles called
Zen and the Art of Gmail
. I could never stand to use
Adam's approach and he could never stand to use mine, yet both of us feel that our email is
under control. That's because we each thought deeply about which parts of our email exper-
ience were bothering us and worked out solutions that fit our respective needs and person-
alities. So, as I said in
Take Responsibility
,
the point is not to do things
my
way but to figure
out what
your
way is, and stick to it.
Another factor to consider is how and when you process new incoming messages. Some
people find they're most productive if they keep Mail closed most of the time, opening it
just once or twice a day and dealing with all their email in batches. For me, the opposite is
true—having to process so many messages at once makes me anxious, and I feel more relaxed
if I notice and address messages as they come in, so that I never get behind. (I say more about
this in my Macworld article
Simplify your email
.
) Even so, I dislike notifications popping up
on the screen when I'm trying to concentrate. So I restrict Mail's notifications (in both OS X
and iOS) to badging the Dock icon.
Even though I get tons of email, the techniques I've just mentioned enable me to stay in con-
trol of my Inbox. In some situations, however, a bit of technology can help overcome frus-
trations with developing a manual strategy. For example, a service called
SaneBox
will, for
a monthly fee, perform an automated analysis of your incoming messages, determine what's
likely to be less important to you, and move it out of your Inbox (providing only a brief sum-
mary). It can do other tricks too, such as providing server-based rules—even if your email
provider doesn't offer them—and automatically moving attachments to cloud storage such as
Dropbox. Although SaneBox doesn't fit my model of email management, many people find it
immensely helpful.
One final tip for iOS users. I already urged you to
Consolidate Your Accounts
, but if you can
devise a scheme whereby you have just
one
account (iCloud, Gmail, IMAP, or Exchange) on
your iOS device, do so. It'll save battery life and network bandwidth—and it'll make reading
and organizing your messages much simpler, given iOS Mail's limited interface. Even if you
can't achieve this ideal, set up as few accounts as you can—for example, one for work email
and one for personal—and avoid POP, if possible.
