I get the impression that a lot of people are overwhelmed by their personal email inbox nowadays and get so much email that they’ve more or less given up on it.
I don’t have that problem and that’s by design, not by accident. This post explains the rules I use to keep my personal email useful and very manageable.
Unsubscribe aggressively
Any time you give your email address out nowadays, you will get put on a mailing list.
So the very first time you get a marketing email from a company, find the unsubscribe button and click it. (Gmail makes this really fucking easy with an “Unsubscribe” button at the top.)
This rule is nonnegotiable. If you aren’t doing this, you will get buried.
Email is not a task list
I’ve seen people keep email in this inbox because “they need to do XYZ with it” later.
Stop doing that. Email is not a task manager.
Put that task in your task manager and link back to the email.
Daily checking
Personal email inboxes only need to be checked once a day (or twice a day at most.)
Turn off notifications
Nothing in modern personal emails is urgent.
Turn off notifications and check it just once a day.
Trust me.
Use filters
If there is some email you need to get but don’t want to see (I’m looking at you, Backblaze backup notifications), configure a filter to automatically label and then archive them.
You can find them later by viewing the label.
Don’t be vague
Fewer emails to come to agreement is better.
If you are proposing to meet, give a few different dates which work for you. Don’t just ask “When’s good for you?”
Turn off the views
The only views worth your time in Gmail are Primary and Updates.