prioritize messages - Inbox Zero philosophy

1

Hi. 
I’m working in Inbox Zero philosophy (http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/inbox-zero) and I would love to see this implemented in em.Client. 

As I see it: I want to keep all messages in Inbox, but categorized in 3 (or more) “priorites”:
* critical (must be done ASAP)
* postponed (not so critical, but to be done soon)
* “someday” 

By default, all new messages should be marked as “priority0” (critical) and then, manually, f.e. with hotkeys I will move them to one of 3 priority. Every priority level is displayed in group, so I can expand/contract every group and focus on only one (critical). 

Now I’m using flags (flagged: urgent; unflagged: non-urgent), but this has 2 major drawbacks for me:

  1. Rules for incoming messages lack flagging message (and I want all new messages to be automatically flagged as urgent).
  2. I have only 2 “priorites” and I need at least 3. 
2

Hello again Robert,

In this case, I would recommend using the categories instead of flags. 

  1. You can apply rules on incoming messages to mark them with specific colour.
  2. You have as many categories as you wish.
  3. In Menu > Tools > Categories you can assign shortcuts to them
  4. With Ctrl+Shift+F you open the Search engine and you can simply sort out the categories

I hope you find this helpful.

Regards,
Russel

3

Yeah, I’ve tried that, but the problem with categories is that you can assign more than one. And I tend to move particular message back-and-forth inside “priorities”. 

So, if I assign (via hotkey) certain category (eg. “priority1”) to message, and then change my mind to “priority2”, I will stuck with message that has 2 categories together.
And then whole idea of groupping messages by priority/category goes awry…

4

For this you can right-click on the message > Category > None to un-mark any categories. It is only a bit slower but to make it faster, I would recommend righ-clicking on the general toolbar > Customize > Add categories. This would save you some time while changing the categories.

Regards,
Russel

5

I know all of that, but this is still 2-3 steps necessary and that’s the opposite of productivity and ergonomics. 

6

So, it even works for me (for some time) if you can add a filter/rule to mark all delivered mails with flag. Then I can sort my inbox to URGENT / NOT URGENT. 

Please let me know, 'cause I don’t know still if I should buy Pro versions or not…

7

Hello Robert,

Unfortunately, we don’t have the possibility to mark incoming messages with flag in our rules. This exists only for categories. As this is an interesting idea, I will add it into our Feature request list so it can be considered while developing new updates.

Regards,
Russel 

8

Hi guys. Are you thinking about this feature of groupping/prioritizing?
Also, “snooze” feature would be a nice addition to Inbox Zero philosophy.

9

Hello Raven,

During the development, we consider the feature requests according to the interest of our users. For the “Snooze” feature, you can add your vote here: https://forum.emclient.com/emclient/topics/snooze-for-email-messages

Regards,
Russel

10

How has this worked for you?  I have been looking at the zero inbox philosophy and while I like it I have some concerns.  My problem is I have multiple email address (10 of them!), so the “All Inboxes” is a life saver for me sometimes when I am searching.

Any reasons why moving my emails to a “read” or “done” folder could be a problem?  If I move them to a subfolder they won’t show up in “All inboxes” anymore correct?

Right now I flag anything that I need to follow up on, then have a smart folder for flagged messages.