Lots of people use filters for their e-mail as a way to cut through the garbage and hone in on the important stuff. I use a few filters, but not many. I like to see my e-mail and decide pretty quickly what to deal with and what to file away. Otherwise, I’ll end up ignoring most of what’s sent to me.
Filters and scripts can greatly minimize the manual processing you do and help cut out unnecessary interruptions. The trouble comes when you’re filtering so much stuff (especially via “sender” and “subject” filters) that you end up scattering useful and timely updates into a lots of different places out of view. It’s as if you came home each night and put all the mail in a desk drawer. You come to rely on this automated filing of your messages, and think you’re doing yourself a favor.
Instead, focus on creating filters and scripts for any noisy, frequent, and non-urgent items which can be dealt with all at a pass and later. Such items may include:
The goal of e-mail filters is to let you spend less time filing things away and more time taking action, not to hide information you may really need. Minimize the interruptions, but don’t minimize the interaction.
A good rule of thumb is to realize that a filter is ultimately best at shunting away the really un-important stuff while allowing you to manage the information coming in from the important stuff.
Finally, keep in mind that e-mail filtering is a process, and not a one-time event. Learn, tweak, watch, and improve to keep your priceless attention trained where it can do the most good.
