Introduction
Today, almost everyone knows how to send an email.
Even my 12-year-old nephews send me videos of penguins sliding on ice.
And yet, over the years, we noticed something surprising.
Many people use their inbox all day long without knowing a few basic principles that radically change the experience.
Writing, sending, forwarding an email: everyone can do it.
But using your inbox without turning it into a stress generator and a constant interruption machine is a different story.
And as we saw in how to handle 300 emails a day, the way you use your inbox has a direct impact on your focus and your mental load.
Make your inbox pleasant
You check your inbox every day.
You might as well make it a pleasant place.
Take five minutes to:
- choose a theme or background you like,
- switch to compact or spacious view depending on your preference,
- clean up visual clutter in the interface.
Like your computer desktop, a pleasant environment reduces mental friction and makes checking email less painful.
Turn on conversation view
Turn on conversation view in Gmail or Outlook.
It groups all exchanges with the same subject into a single thread.
Result:
- a 10-email conversation takes up one line in your inbox,
- you keep full context visible,
- your inbox becomes visually much clearer.
It's a space win, but above all a cognitive win.
Sending is archiving
Enable the "send and archive" option by default.
Every time you reply to an email, the conversation automatically disappears from your inbox.
Your inbox stays reserved for messages that still require action.
This principle is fundamental groundwork for inbox zero, which we'll cover later.
In the same logic, enable "reply all" by default.
In most cases, you reply to everyone, and it prevents awkward omissions.
Separate work and personal
If you have work and personal email, don't mix them.
Two separate inboxes is intentionally less convenient, and that's the point.
- At work, you avoid being distracted by personal email.
- At night or on weekends, you don't accidentally stumble onto an urgent coworker request.
Some people use two browsers, others use two different tools.
Method doesn't matter as long as the boundary is clear.
Create dedicated inboxes or addresses
Try to isolate:
- promotional email,
- automated notifications,
- newsletters.
Gmail offers tabs, but also a very practical feature: aliases.
You can add a + to your Gmail address to create variants that still land in the same inbox.
For example first.last+promo@gmail.com.
Then you can create automatic filters to sort, archive, or label these emails with no effort.
Let your computer work for you
Every email already contains a lot of usable information: sender, subject, keywords, recipients.
Use that to create filters.
A few simple examples:
- apply a visible label to emails from your boss or key clients,
- auto-reply to certain recurring requests,
- auto-archive purely informational emails.
The more you automate, the less you spend attention.
Fewer folders, more search
Avoid multiplying subfolders to manually file every email.
It's slow and unnecessary.
With modern search, it's often faster to retrieve an email using a keyword, a sender, or a date.
A good compromise is using a few simple labels for important emails and letting search do the rest.
Email as support, not as a parasite
Used well, email becomes a great work tool.
Used poorly, it becomes one of the biggest enemies of focus, just like instant messaging.
Start with these simple principles before looking for complex systems.
They are more than enough to make a huge difference.
Go further
If you want a short daily email to help you manage email better, protect attention, and work without constant interruptions, just leave your email below.
One email a day.
No more.
Just enough.