Comments on: Rule the Web (and Rule Your Email Inbox!)

By: aurielle

aurielle — Thu, 22 May 2008 01:25:18 +0000

hello,aurielle
today sleep rel you wake up! best good night

By: jasmine

jasmine — Thu, 22 May 2008 01:21:23 +0000

hello,jasmine
happy to go house my friends day

By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 18:40:46 +0000

That particular rule will fail also, J Lewis, when the spammer adds in random words in the body of the email.

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 20:38:19 +0000

Thanks for the info, Matthew Cornell! It’s common sense, if you think about it.

Ooh, I have to try the pdf filter – Thanks J Lewis!

By: Elizabeth Potts Weinstein

Elizabeth Potts Weinstein — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 18:21:23 +0000

I have like 500 emails sitting in my in box, and about 44 of them are not read. One problem I have is that I keep subscribing to ezines and rss feeds and forums, and need to get that under control.

But, I agree with the respond or delete plan. I need to just respond to the emails (even if it is one-liner), or delete them.

One problem with the Follow Up email folder (for responses requiring research, like for clients), is that I forget to open that folder, because I don’t have the visual reminder (like the stack of emails in my Inbox).

Of course, that just means I need to not be a big baby and create a routine where I check that folder.

Thanks!

By: J Lewis

J Lewis — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 14:40:24 +0000

Now, the subject is no longer containing “.pdf”, so our subject filter is failing. I setup a rule to delete all attachments, except when the body contains “a” “b” “c”, etc. Put in all the alphabet and it deletes all emails with attachments that have nothing in the body, which combined with the subject rule for “.pdf” has gotten all the pdf’s so far.

By: Matthew Cornell

Matthew Cornell — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 12:14:12 +0000

Thanks for the pointer and the great tips. Interestingly, tThe processing part sounds a lot like Stephanie Winston’s TRAF system – Toss, Refer, Act (either now or later), and File. More here, if you’re interested: How to process stuff – A comparison of TRAF, the “Four Ds”, and GTD’s workflow diagram – http://ideamatt.blogspot.com/2006/03/how-to-process-stuff-comparison-o f.html).

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 16:47:59 +0000

Ooh, that’s a good tip, mattypenny!

I agree that Gmail is awesome, Magnoliasouth, but the zero inbox approach just isn’t compatible with their model.

By: magnoliasouth

magnoliasouth — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:43:02 +0000

The best email that will quickly accomplish the tasks listed in all of your tips is Gmail, except for #6 where the need for that one will no longer exist. The anti-spam do-dad is amazing.

The subfolder obstacle is eliminated since you can’t create them anyway. You can label emails such as: todo, torespond, toresearch and so forth.

Yep, I love my Gmail and just cannot live without it.

By: mattypenny

mattypenny — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 09:41:10 +0000

One other tip I’ve found useful- if you’re using Outlook and are going to regularly file rather than delete, then set up a macro so that you can do so with one keystroke.

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 04:43:48 +0000

One of the advantages of a brick and mortar bookstore, Chris! If you’re a hardcore Internet user, then a lot of the stuff may seem basic – still, there are gems in that book.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 04:40:55 +0000

Mmmm, ok Alex… You didn’t sell the book to me yet. I think. I’ll need to check it [read it] at the book store. Maybe should I trust more a Neatorama approved item ?

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 19:59:38 +0000

Chris, the book is not an MS manual at all. *I* just happen to use Outlook. The tip to tackle your inbox is largely mine – Mark’s more detailed and better.

I do get valid JPG, PDFs, and other attachments from people not in my whitelist, so nuking everything with PDF is not feasible. So far, the problem is not so bad that I can’t live with it.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 19:29:14 +0000

To filter JPG, GIF, or PDF spam, add a filter such as “If attachment is PDF and sender is not in my contact list or previous recipient list, delete it.”

For banks and stuff, just write a blank e-mail to whatever address they send notices from and then it’ll be in your “previous recipient” list.

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 19:19:25 +0000

PDF Spam. Add “.pdf” to your Subject filter. Legit email will rarely have .pdf in the subject. Now, if someone does a rightclick/send email on a PDF it does default to a subject of emailing xxx.pdf. So ymmv. I use Ironmail to filter spam for my company and found that by adding some points for .pdf subject I could push most of the spam over the threshold without getting too many false positives. ymmv.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 18:51:31 +0000

i.e. use Outlook. Hope the rest of the book is more than a MS manual…

By: Collin

Collin — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:37:26 +0000

My copy of this book just arrived from Amazon yesterday, and I’m loving it. I’m not to the section on email yet though. I had a zero inbox once. It lasted until the weekend.