Email filters that I have settled on
Trying out different ways of managing emails, I have settled on the following system that seems to work well for me.
Essentially, there are two axes on which you can categorize every email:
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Notify: Whether I need to be notified of the email.
These are emails that are time-sensitive.
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Action: Whether the email requires some action from me.
These emails result in a todo queue. Note that reading the email itself is an action and therefore a todo.
So, then we arrive at these combinations:
Notify, actionable:
This is the default.
No Notify, actionable:
Examples include newsletters. These can be read with a delay.
Setup a folder called lazy_read and redirect all such emails to that folder. Turn off notifications for that folder on phone. Archive emails after the action has been performed.
Notify, non-actionable:
Examples include alerts of credit card transactions above certain value. Sign-in attempt into online account. These emails are time-sensitive. But usually, there is no action to perform.
These emails must send notification and then automatically get archived. Gmail doesn't allow notifications for archived emails. Therefore, I've setup a folder called archive_me where these emails land. Every once in a while I select all emails in the arhive_me folder and then archive them.
No notify, non actionable:
Examples include bank statements, receipts etc. These don't need to be notified. There is also no action to be taken.
Directly skip inbox and archive.