Merlin Mann has served up another cracker post in his Inbox Zero series. He points out the importance of interrogating every piece of email that enters your inbox. Don’t assume it’s important. Don’t feel obliged to reply just because someone sent it to you. Don’t do the Pavlov’s Dog thing.

Rather, he suggests, ask each email as it comes in:

1. What does this message mean to me, and why do I care?
2. What action, if any, does this message require of me?
3. What’s the most elegant way to close out this message and the nested action it contains?

Of course, Merlin crafts it all with characteristic verve and wit, so you should read the whole post.

Learn how your emails to Merlin only have a 50% chance of making it past the first question. It’s a jungle out there.

On macOSXHints, sap.1 outlines a simple but clever way to use Address Book, Spotlight, and Smart Mailboxes in Mail.app to stay on top of a particular set of email obligations. It involves using the power of Smart Mailboxes to sort and present emails in a helpful and efficient way.mail.app, apple mail, tips, email, triage, spotlight, address book, smart mailboxes, productivity

Similar Posts:

• Get your head around Smart Mailboxes
• Mailboxer 5.0: Smart mailboxes for everyone
• Inbox Zero: Slash and Burn at 43 Folders
• Mailboxer: Smart mailboxes for contacts
• More informative smart mailboxes?

Tags: Address Book, Apple Mail, Apple Mail Tips, email, mail.app, Productivity, smart mailboxes, Spotlight, triage

This entry was posted on Wednesday, 22nd March, 2006 at 12:08 am and is filed under Apple Mail, Email in general. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.