I mentioned on a recent episode of Mac Power Users how much I like the workflow I created for automatically creating, dating, naming, and saving PDF files from third party iOS mail clients. Here is is. You can create this workflow yourself from the screenshots and at the bottom of this post is a short screencast showing both how I built it and the workflow in action.
For years now I’ve kept an “action” folder with all of my email accounts. This was particularly useful before I started deferring email with services like SaneBox. However, as of late, the “action” folder has turned into some sort of email purgatory for me. I haven’t been cleaning it out regularly and instead find myself letting things linger in there much too long.
A few weeks ago I was reminding myself to do a better job of clearing out the action folder when I got thinking about whether I even needed it any longer. My email is already filtered to put MacSparky “feedback” email into a particular folder and stuff that’s not quite as important into a “later” folder. Why do I need another place to put email?
Add to this the fact that I have pretty granular deferred email folders and it occurred to me that my new “action” folder is deferring email three hours or until tomorrow. In hindsight, that’s probably why I’ve been doing such a lousy job of cleaning out the action folder.
Anyway, as of a few weeks ago I removed all of the action folders from all of my email accounts. For the MacSparky email account, I’ve now got the following:
This is the place were the most important stuff arrives every day. This is the one I check several times a day.
This is a SaneBox automated folder. SaneBox puts email in there that it doesn’t think is as important as other email that is inbox worthy.
This is another SaneBox automated folder that takes feedback from the podcast, books, and this blog. It’s spooky how good the service is at figuring this out.
This is another filtered SaneBox folder that yanks catalog sales and other marketing email out of my inbox.
I’ve got deferred folders for three hours, tomorrow, two days, and seven days.
I’ve got folders that capture spam and the SaneBox blackhole for spam that gets through.
The place or email goes to sleep, a long time.
The interesting thing about all of this is that except for the archive, none of my email folders are manually sorted. Email arrives and gets automatically sorted. While I may occasionally reclassify an email to a different folder or defer it, there is no longer a process where I must open the inbox and manually file email to different places.
It’s probably too early to tell if I have deleted my action folder for good but after two weeks I can tell you that I’m not missing it. It feels as if I’m doing better at keeping up and it’s nice having one less place to routinely clean. I’ll check back in on this in a month or two.
(I’ve made references to SaneBox, an occasional sponsor of this blog, in this post because that’s the service I use. There are others and even some apps that can also defer email.)
I’ve talked and written before about deferring email. If you’ve never heard of it before, deferring email is the process of making your email disappear for a certain amount of time (usually days) or until a certain date in the future. Some applications do this by putting it in a hidden or obscure folder. SaneBox does it at the server level so it works in any application. Either way, on the designated day or after the set defer period, the email comes back to you.
I made fun of deferring email when I first heard of it. It seemed dishonest and gimmicky. However when I tried it out, I quickly became a believer. There’s a lot of email that can stand be putting off for a little bit of time but isn’t worth the extra work and baggage that come with adding it to your OmniFocus or other task manager database. In that case, deferring email really works.
When you’ve got a good email deferment system in place, you get used to seeing an empty inbox so when something shows up, you take it seriously. Simply leaving emails in your inbox (or for that matter any other email box box) results in you getting used to having a bunch of unanswered email and, in my case, malaise and despair. I’m much happier putting an email off for two days and getting it out of my sight than having to see it there every time I open my mail client. Maybe this is just psychology, but it works.
I wrote a little bit about deferred email in this week’s ad spot for SaneBox. Several people have written in asking me exactly how I set up my SaneBox defer folders. Here they are:
There is no rocket science involved here. Since going out on my own, Saturdays and Mondays are no longer as significant as they once were. I’m always working. As a result, I set up the defer folders not on specific days of the week but instead length of delay.
I use this one for something that comes in that I need to look at today but can’t look at right now. I use this more than you’d think.
This one is my pressure valve. When I can’t get to it today but it is something I’ll need to deal with soon, it goes here.
This one comes in handy when I’m waiting for something to happen. Quite often someone will ask me a question in an email and its not quite yet time for me to respond. I’m either waiting for another piece of information from someone else or haven’t had time to do whatever is needed to respond. Two days seems like the sweet spot to defer those emails. When it shows back up in a few days I usually have the answer or light a fire to get the answer.
This is the one I use the least. In order for an email to fall into this box it needs to be both of low importance and low urgency. Things that I’m putting off five days usually get their own OmniFocus task but once in a while something falls into that area where it’s not worth an OmniFocus task and I still want to keep it in play.
Like I said earlier, there are apps that can accommodate these deferred emails or you can use a service like SaneBox. If the volume of email is giving you trouble, I’d recommend giving deferred email a try. I use it on my legal, MacSparky, and personal accounts and, at this point, can’t imagine going back. Also, if you’d like to learn more about email, I know of a pretty good book.
Speaking of email, I’ve been hard at work updating the Email Field Guide to version 1.2. It’s now live in the iBooks Store. There are a lot of changes:
I love that I can update content for my readers. If you’ve already bought the book in the iBooks Store, you should see the update badge light up. I’m finalizing the PDF version and will have that up by the weekend. Also, did you know that the Email book has 99 reviews? That is just one shy of 100. I’m just making an observation here. No pressure.
I recently did an interview on email with the Project Management for the Masses podcast. Cesar Abeid is a great host and, of course, insanely organized. How could he not be with a podcast of that title?
Back when I was doing traditional print books, it made me nuts that something would change a week after my book shipped and there was nothing I could do about it. One of the things I love about publishing my books through the iBookstore is the ability to update them. This lets me fix mistakes and add new content.
Email version 1.1 is now available for download. If you bought it in the iBookstore, you should see the update icon in your iBooks app. It’s a big download so make sure you’re on WiFi and have some time on your hands.
I’m still finishing up the custom PDF version of Email 1.1. That will be going up this weekend.
A partial list of the updates include the following:
Speaking of udpates, version 1.4 of Paperless and version 1.2 of Markdown are both nearly done and will ship in January. These updates will include new screencasts, content, and other bits of love and affection.
When I was on Brett Terpstra’s Systematic podcast this week, we both bemoaned the inability to change search token criteria without using the mouse. Turns out we were both wrong. You can. The key shortcuts are:
Option-Command-F to get in the Apple Mail search bar (We got that one right).
Up Arrow, Down Arrow, Return to select a name.
Shift-Left Arrow to get into the search token selections, like To, From, Any.
Below is a 20 second screencast demonstrating it with 100% more banjo than anything I’ve ever made before. Thanks listener Thomas for the tip.
Two of my favorite podcasts are Adam Christianson’s MacCast and Chuck Joiner’s MacVoices.
The MacCast was the first legitimate Mac podcast. Adam has been producing his show with his pleasant mix of news and tips for years. I joined Adam to talk about the Email Field Guide and my experiences with iBooks and self publishing.
Chuck Joiner is the James Lipton of the Mac community with his regular interviews of Mac and Apple luminaries. Chuck lowered his standards to let me on the show this week to also talk about Email. I feel privileged to be on both of these shows.
The initial reception for the new Email Field Guide has been fantastic. I’ve already received some great emails from readers explaining how the book has changed their game and feedback like that pushes every single one of my buttons.
There is an error in the book with respect to Screencast 4.20. I’ve posted the missing screencast on Vimeo and I’ve got it at the bottom of this post. I’ll fix this problem with the 1.1 update that will ship in December. If you haven’t bought the book, watch the screencast anyway so you can get an idea of its content. There are 36 separate screencasts in the book showing how to use different email technologies.
Over the weekend, the Mac Power Users published a new episode about email. I promise it’s not a one hour commercial for the book but instead some real practical tips for making email easier.
I honestly believe the MacSparky Field Guides are some of the best work I’ve done in my life. Thank you again everyone for supporting me in this.
I just published the fourth MacSparky Field Guide. This one is all about email. I’ve spent most of the past year looking very closely at email and how it works. This new book explains the best methods, technologies, services, apps, and workflows to make email work for you.
There are over 300 pages and nearly 1.5 hours of video screencasts and 200 screenshots as I walk you through. I’ve also included several audio interviews with friends including Serenity Caldwell, Rob Corddry, Merlin Mann, Fraser Speirs, Jeff Taekman, Aisha Tyler, David Wain, and Gabe Weatherhead, that provide even more perspective on the best ways to tackle email.
The book features a new craftsman-style design and is illustrated by Mike Rohde. In a lot of ways, this book feels like the culmination of everything I’ve learned along the way. I’m really proud of this book and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed creating it. It is available in the iBooks Store and PDF for $9.99.
