Macworld had a series of interesting articles on emptying your inbox and being more productive.

Step 1: Turn down the volume on your e-mail

Step 2: The fast way to file your e-mail

• three new mailboxes, Filed, Action, Later
  • Filed is for everything you’ve finished with but want to keep for reference
  • Action is for messages that require you to do something w/ them, such as replying or forwarding, before you can or delete them
  • Later is for low-priority messages you want to look at only when you have free time
• if you can you reply within a couple of minute do it immediately and then file it, otherwise move it to Action
• if the message requires a task then create a to-do and file the message

Step 3: Clean out old e-mail messages

One day I might actually try this.  These articles cited productivity experts Merlin Mann of 43 Folders and David Allen of Getting Things Done.

Macworld also has an article specific to Gmail, Get organized in Gmail.  I didn’t know about the “?” keyboard shortcut which brings up a help menu and the “#” keyboard which moves the conversation to trash.

Related posts:

1. Setting up Gmail with Apple Mail
2. Gmail Account Hacking Tool
3. MacWorld’s Sites We Love
4. Sharing iPhoto library between users
5. Comcast Extreme Support

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