In this newsletter:
Post: Inbox Zero: Your Gateway to a Digital Utopia
In Case You Missed It: The CrowdStrike Update
In Case You Missed It: Amazon and Microsoft’s AI Tools
Pick of the Week: Medisafe Pill & Med Reminder
Featured Product: Therabody Theragun Mini Massager.
Inbox Zero: Your Gateway to a Digital Utopia
Recently, I was invited as a guest on the House Dads Podcast to discuss all things tech, including automation and AI. Since then, I’ve had a few friends ask about other email tips and tricks to help manage Inbox Zero.
Email is supposed to help your life and work, right? Not make it harder to do your day-to-day tasks. It's a tool to work for you. And like most tools, if you don't use it properly, you may be wasting a lot of time or energy (like this guy). How many of you have ever said this to yourself, "I just spent all morning going through emails that I know I've already looked at?"
This post isn't meant to make you think I can show you how to keep from receiving emails - although there is a trick for a lot of unwanted emails. However, this is a practice I've been using for the past few years, and it makes working in my inboxes manageable. The common saying about cleaning your house - a little bit every day - definitely applies here. To keep your inbox manageable, you need a schedule of "cleaning out." A once-a-year spring cleaning will not work here. Another reason being on a schedule is helpful is it will make it a habit. While many of these tips are a one-and-done tip, you must spend at least a little time filtering and practicing these tips.
I’ve broken this up into 5 tips I hope will help you reach and keep Inbox Zero.
1) Move all current emails into a new folder called “.Old Inbox”
While the name of the folder can be anything, a period at the front of the name puts it at the top of the list of all folders. I do understand this is a "cheat" to get to 0 quickly, but tips 3-5 help knock it down over time - when you make time to come back to it. This is the elephant, one bit at a time.
An easy way to do this, is simply to click on an email in your inbox, and on your keyboard, press "CTRL-A" to highlight all emails. Then simply use the mouse to drag them into the folder you made.
2) Use your inbox as a “working table”
Once all of your emails are out of your inbox, you can leave new emails in your inbox until you’re “finished” with them and filter accordingly based on the below tips. Some of which can be combined. By only keeping emails that you need to take action on in the inbox, this helps work as a to-do list. This can also be accomplished by marking emails as unread as your inbox count rises or flagging them (email client dependent).
3) Create rules and filters for anything and everything
One of the first rules to create requires first making a folder (as many others do) called "Newsletters." After the folder has been created, create a rule (or filter) that moves any incoming email with the word "Unsubscribe" in the body of the email to that folder. If you find that this is too general, you can have multiple rules or a modified version that can also include other examples of text in an email body: "This email was sent to," "Manage preferences," or “Your Subscription.” While this is just one example, there are a few that feed off of this same principle. You can also whitelist certain email subscriptions that
Depending on what types of emails you receive on a normal basis, you can create a rule for a specific sender (think Weather or News updates), a specific coworker with a certain subject line (if someone sends a weekly email about pay, etc), or a certain project title regardless of the sender. You can be pretty specific and creative here. Filters for the Newsletters can be created by the sender, too - if you don't want a blanket filter. And here's the great part, once you create a filter, it's set. You never have to create the same one again. If you do receive emails from newsletters you no longer wish, you can simply unsubscribe through the email, then setup a rule to even automatically delete incoming emails with a given email address.
In Outlook, Settings > View All Outlook Settings > Mail > Rules
4) Create folders (or categories) for everything
Similar to rules and filters, all email services offer the ability to sort mail into folders or categories. I'm not here to change any workflow you may have setup (if you already use one or the other), but these can be used to stay organized and easily find an email you're looking for. If you use categories, I still suggest moving all emails out of your working inbox into at least one other folder. If you use folders, consider nesting folders inside of other folders and drill down as specifically as you'd like. Arguably, you wouldn't want a folder for just one email as that kind of defeats the purpose, but there's no limit to how many folders you can have.
5) Use search!
The search box is probably one of the most robust tools in your email client.
This feature, tied in with rules and filters from the third tip, can also be used on the ".OldInbox" folder created earlier to quickly sort those emails. Examples include searching for all emails from a certain sender, by a certain topic, etc. Once you have search results populated, the CTRL-A keyboard shortcut can let you move them into the appropriate folder. Alternatively, you could just as easily delete them should you wish.
Search works by looking for specific senders, email subjects, body text, time, or if the email includes an attachment. You can also mix and match search terms and search filters to drill down to very specific emails. This only works on emails currently in your mailbox (regardless of the folder), so if you delete something, it won’t be found. You can also search your sent email, too.
Bonus Tips for Microsoft Office 365 (Outlook) Users
Turn On or Off "Conversation Rule"
This can be useful as email chains grow to help keep all emails regarding the same topic stay together. You may love it, you may hate it, but I suggest at least trying it if you never have. A great feature of this option is it keeps "reply all" responses on the same chain and keeps your inbox count down drastically as more and more people respond to the same email. It can, however, be a little tricky on mobile and allow some emails to get lost in the shuffle. Your mileage may vary. For more information, see Microsoft Support.
Modify incoming mail
The desktop client (not the webmail version) of Microsoft Outlook (and some other email clients) allows other rules to be put into effect, allowing a very tailored experience. For example, a rule can be set to highlight incoming emails if you’re the only recipient in the "To" box. This means that any email with you as the CC recipient or one of many recipients will not stand out compared to those addressed only to you. You can also make the email subject bold, show up in a different color font, a different size font, etc. This can also be done for specific contacts, subjects, etc. These rules allow a quick glance in your inbox to see what types of emails await action and allow you to spend your time more efficiently. For more information, see Microsoft Support.
What other email tips or tricks do you use?
ICYMI: The CrowdStrike Update
There’s a running joke in the IT world where everyone says one of two things to their IT team:
“Everything is working, what are we paying you for?”
“Nothing is working, what are we paying you for?”
The reality is somewhere in the middle. Where things work because of what IT does behind the scenes, and typically when something isn’t working, it’s a very nuanced reason why.
In the case of CrowdStrike - an IT security company you’ve probably never heard of before Friday (further proof they’ve overall done a great job over the years) - they caught the bad end of an update. Essentially, the software that runs on the backend of servers that control much of your Windows enterprise computers has a glitch. Once receiving the update, computers were greeted with a version of a blue screen that would not allow a user to log in. It appears the issue has since been fixed, but we’ll be seeing remnants of the issue for weeks to come.
This is just further proof of how much more connected the world is becoming, and further begs the question of The Update Paradox. How much should we update (for stability) vs what features (or security patches) do we want or need? That will be a never-ending question until the end of time, I’m sure.
I realize this issue caused a lot of pain worldwide, and possibly even caused lives to be lost (no exaggeration or kidding here). I also realize the problem stemmed from what appears to be human error. It may still be too soon to tell if CrowdStrike didn’t do their due diligence in testing, or if their testing didn’t find an issue to the scale it now showed to be. I can absolutely see a scenario where the testing possibly showed flaws, but not enough to overcome the other security patches the update would fix. Meaning that, at some level, these patches and updates have their own version of the trolley problem.
That said, it’s hard to find direct fault with updates in this case. Smaller companies are able to ‘move fast and break things’ without getting into much trouble, but larger companies don’t have that luxury. We all remember the iOS update that wouldn’t let us make phone calls, right? Or the specific string of characters sent in a text message that would crash your phone?
ICYMI: Amazon and Microsoft’s AI Tools
If you missed Amazon’s Prime Day last week and are wondering what you can do to save time and money, consider chatting with the Rufus AI Assistant. With every company seemingly trying to integrate AI for their users, Amazon is hoping this will help their shoppers - and yes, also help them spend more money. If it can help sift through the reviews and find out which ones are fake or better answer the questions I’ve had - it will already be a good thing.
Similar to ChatGPT and Copilot, Microsoft has its own version of DALL-E - Microsoft Designer. However, it does a bit more than only creating AI generated images. It can also help (at least brainstorm): greeting cards and invitations, icons, avatars and emojis, clipart, and even coloring book pages, among many more cool digital graphic tools. Download Microsoft Designer on Apple’s App Store or the Google Play Store.
POTW: Medisafe Pill & Med Reminder
Without doing too much research, I think it’s safe to say millions of people take medication daily. Many of them are taking life-saving medication, too. The more medicine someone takes, the more difficult it becomes to remember when and how much to take. Especially if the medications are taken at different times of the day, must be taken with or after food, or at random intervals times and days. Of course there’s an app for that! A few weeks ago, I had to take one of those Z-packs with very random timetables. This app helped keep me on schedule and was very easy to set up and use. If you struggle with the timing of your medication, consider checking it out!
Download the Medisafe Pill & Med Reminder on Apple’s App Store or the Google Play Store.
Featured Product
If you suffer from sore muscles or just love deep(or shallow?)-tissue massages, consider the Therabody Theragun Mini Massager. This little thing is very strong, works extremely well, and has an app showing what headpieces to use and how to use them effectively. The kicker here is the app only works via Bluetooth with this massager. You can’t use it standalone…. While it is a bit pricey, it will outlast the cheaper versions for years to come and the battery life is much longer.