Idea: Inbox Traffic Cop
Update2: I love this.
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Update: My working inbox has one email in it this morning. What a joy! Also, I really need to rework the metaphores below.
I’m be checking the “Traffic Cop” inbox a few times today working toward once a day when I know I’ve got a good handle on my filters. But, things are looking good. I’m free to really process just the top-drawer stuff. No more DING!s & distractions.
Oh oh! And, it’s a lot easier to process a simplified inbox over mobile.
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The inbox. It is its own special version of hell. *I promise to rewrite this more clearly. Also, maybe this is a type benefiicial honeypotting.
You know how you try to only give certain people your mobile number? You play traffic cop to your mobile.
Let’s extend this to your inbox.
The way we use filters now does not work. Junk, wether spam or attention/time burglering shite, makes its way into your inbox.
But, we all work in our inbox. This is a universal truth to how we use this tool. Any solution that requires human beings to change is not a solution so let’s roll with what we know… people live in their inboxes.
What I propose:
We’re simply going to use another inbox. We’re going to have two inboxes.
The first will be the inbox/email address we currently have. This is going to be our traffic cop.
The second is going to be the Express Way, and where we are going to move our ongoing attention to as we live in the inbox. This is really, our new inbox.
One key point about this is that for an email to make its way from our Traffic Cop to new living breathing inbox you have to conciously move traffic from the first to the second. “Stuff” won’t find it’s way there without you purposefully willing it to do so through the use of filters.
Another key point is that you aren’t going to miss anything! The Traffic Cop inbox is still going to collect, and keep all your email! It’ll be a traffic jam, but it is now so no big loss as you’ll have a nice big highway to drive on now instead of a cluttered, fender bumping, heat-wave in LA, taxi driver screaming, inbox.
How it works in real life:
1) give up on your current inbox as a working solution. Anything can get in there & you can’t live like that anymore.
2) Create a second email acct somewhere. GMail? Do not give anyone this address. Ever. And make it non guessable. yijkjhYUJJhnuenlkjhnj23433@gmail.com One, you can’t give anyone this address because only your computer will ever remember it. Two, it should be harder for spammers to guess. Guessing costs spammers money.
Insure that your reply-to setting is the first inbox’s email address NOT your second. Otherwise, everyone you reply to will have your new email address… NOT GOOD & defeats the purpose if you need to cut them off later.
3) You are now going to determine who gets into your constant attention - your inbox. But your new inbox.
You must learn to use the filters on your first and current email acct or client. However it works for your set up. There are too many to write about here, but again the idea is to act as Traffic Cop. Does email from your boss go to your new working inbox? Probably, so filter email which comes from him (does he have two email addresses?) to your new second acct yijkjhYUJJhnuenlkjhnj23433@gmail.com.
Once complete you now have one person who can reach your new working inbox.
Feel free to test that your filter is working by having your boss send a test email to your Traffic Cop, your first email address. Did it go to your new working inbox?
Wash, Lather, Repeat with other actually important addresses. Be selective! Remember your first inbox is still catching and collecting everything. Your new working inbox is for stuff worthy of your constant attention!
4) Now, the everyday process:
a) work in your new inbox just like you were with the first. No need to check email every 5 mins in the Traffic Cop one.
b) the first works as traffic cop (and collection box) sending your working inbox important stuff and collecting everything else. Let it do its job.
c) work in your new inbox all day, check your traffic cop inbox once daily (in the morning?) to see if there is any email that might need to be added to your filters to start sending it to your working inbox. At the same time check if there’s any filters you can remove? Some project might have become obsolete or less important.
5) Enjoy being able to cope again!
Notes:
*The traffic cop filter is like whitelisting. I know. Most people don’t have access, or can’t use it.
*I know you can live in a new filtered folder instead of a whole new inbox/address. It won’t work for most people who are “new email twitchy”.
*No, I won’t help you figure out how to use your particular email/client/address filters. Focus on just getting certain parameters to work, like specific email addresses (boss@company.com) of specific senders (Michael Scott).
*I do occasionaly just delete everything in my inbox, but I don’t necessarily recommend it (I do actually).