Rules for processing incoming emails... a good thing?

[srbentley]

For years I've set up rules to automatically segment incoming emails into folders to classify them, bring some to a higher priority, etc. But in the advent of wanting a zero inbox, and trying to limit how MANY different "inboxes" I have to look in, I'm feeling I should do away with automation like that, I have them all come into my top level Inbox so they have to be dealt with and not get buried. Does that ring true to anyone?

[mmorowitz]

It rings true to me. I do not find multi-inbox features very useful since inbox processing is such an important part of GTD. I have separate personal and work email inboxes and I leave it at that. I also have inboxes in RTM and Evernote when I simply capture an idea, note or task very quickly and haven't yet processed it into a complete project, task, or support material. I am at "inbox zero" almost constantly (once a day at worst).

This is not to say that inbox filtering cannot be useful in a GTD-driven environment, but I would be judicious with it and trust your processing habits to be a vital part of your system.

[toremor]

I have one folder to which I automatically send some of my emails. The folder is called "Mostly unimportant". I automatically send emails from a couple of mailing lists, and some auto-generated emails that very seldom is interesting to this box. Sometimes I scan through the folder, but most of the time I just delete them all.

The others emails end up in my inbox for normal GTD processing. I think the answer to your question is no. It is not a good thing to auto process incoming emails. The ones I filter out are those which I know for sure isn't important in any way.

[pxt]

I don't automatically process emails. I think it's good to let the brain do what it's good at, which includes pattern-recognition and decision-making. As long as organising is a quick drag and drop, then little time is spent. Even with newsletters etc, I give the email a quick 2 second scan to check there's no landmines lurking in there.

I never use the inbox of my GTD app as I use my email as my collector and want to get to the smallest number of collectors as possible. I already have a file folder called Collector and a browser bookmark folder called Collector. The idea is that collecting is always just a mouse click to perform. One day I'll learn some computer scripting language and get these funnelled into a single inbox.

[pxt]

I have one folder to which I automatically send some of my emails. The folder is called "Mostly unimportant". I automatically send emails from a couple of mailing lists, and some auto-generated emails that very seldom is interesting to this box. Sometimes I scan through the folder, but most of the time I just delete them all.

The others emails end up in my inbox for normal GTD processing. I think the answer to your question is no. It is not a good thing to auto process incoming emails. The ones I filter out are those which I know for sure isn't important in any way.

Surely the title "Mostly Unimportant" is enough to send a shiver down the spine of any GTDer.

[srbentley]

Thank you all for confirming my suspicion. Having those subfolders lurking there and having one more collection point to go into was definitely defeating the idea of having one email inbox. By the end of this day I'll remove ALL filters so I see the true email volume I need to deal with.

[Oogiem]

I'm feeling I should do away with automation like that, I have them all come into my top level Inbox so they have to be dealt with and not get buried. Does that ring true to anyone?

Not to me at all. While the majority of my e-mails come into a single main inbox from all 10 separate e-mail accounts I could not handle my list mail, advertising, order info and spam if they all came into my main inbox.

I participate in several e-mail lists. Those e-mails go directly to a separate mailbox per list so I can easily decide when to read them. It also keeps threaded conversations together. Those lists are more recreational so I don't necessarily want their mail cluttering up my inbox and requiring processing daily. It's more efficient to batch the e-mails into one place and then deal with a bunch of them at once when I choose to do it.

I also have a lot of automatic filters to put all the various advertising e-mail I get from places we buy from often into a single ads folder. I empty it out once a week or so, but it gives me a single place to go if I need or want to look for any on-line coupons. Since I don't know when I get the e-mail whether I'll use it before it expires I need a place to put it where I can find it easily and I sure don't want to leave that stuff cluttering up the inbox and it's not in the main reference system. Why spend the extra time sorting it by hand when I can let the machine do it and then only go look at them when I am purchasing something?

Similarly I have all my netflix e-mails and all shipping confirmations go to a single Order Info folder. When items come in I move those e-mails to the Order Rcvd folder. Again it saves me time finding that specific class of stuff.

I have a spam catcher that is fairly good but sadly due to the topics I often am corresponding about I get a significant amount of real mail caught as spam and spam mail flagged as real. So I regularly check the spam folder to catch those items.

I can't imagine dealing with the volumes of mail I get regularly without some pre-sorting the computer does for me.

[kelstarrising]

For years I've set up rules to automatically segment incoming emails into folders to classify them, bring some to a higher priority, etc. But in the advent of wanting a zero inbox, and trying to limit how MANY different "inboxes" I have to look in, I'm feeling I should do away with automation like that, I have them all come into my top level Inbox so they have to be dealt with and not get buried. Does that ring true to anyone?

I use filtering sparingly. The only thing I am using this for right now is for notifications I get from our GTD LinkedIn group, which I moderate. I get an email any time someone posts to that space. It's not a high priority for me to check in on that space, other than to slaughter spam as I can. So all of those emails go into a folder called "-LinkedIn" which sorts between my "-Action Support" and "-Waiting For Support" email folders.

Many people get enamored with filtering, thinking it will handle processing for them. But it's really just resorting the inbox.

Use it sparingly and consciously is my advice.

[Suelin23]

I have a few. I limit these to items I would consider as 'read/review' type of stuff, or FYI only because I'm on a circulation list.
EG - IT issue notifications whenever there is a service outage, and it rarely affects me - those go in a separate folder.

I tend to check the 'unread items' folder in Outlook each day, and glance at all the subject lines, and process them if I have time, so if there is anything important in these automatically filed emails I'll see it that way.

[pxt]

The one case where I use email rules is for emails to myself.

An example is my personal journal, which I write as an email with a fixed format subject line prefix. A rule moves these into my Journal folder. One day I'll learn some scripting and have them moved automatically into an encrypted document.