Quick Links
Email inbox gimmicks keep popping up.
First Google introduced Priority Inbox, and now it’s usingcategory tabs.
Dropbox purchased Mailbox, which turns your inbox into more of a to-do-list.
Microsoft’s Outlook.com has aSweep featurethat automatically cleans your inbox.
All of these are attempts to manage your email inbox for you.
We’ll be using Gmail here, but the principles should be similar for any email client.
These inboxes never get the categories and prioritization perfectly right.
To use a more classic inbox in Gmail, tap the gear icon and select configs.
Click over to the Inbox tab, hit the Inbox pop in box, and select Unread first.
All the tabs and priority options will vanish.
Consider the punch in of emails you don’t want to see.
However, some companies either haven’t gotten the memo or don’t care.
Use your filter to send all such emails to the trash.
For example, online stores may send you a confirmation receipt every time you purchase something from them.
Tell Gmail to automatically archive the emails and mark them as read so they won’t bother you.
This will allow you to quickly find the emails in the future if you actually need them.
Now we’ll help you sort the emails you do care about.
Try creating filters that automatically sort your incoming email into specific labels.
Receipts for purchased products could get a “Receipts” label.
This isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it process.
