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Maximize Your Day: Treat Your Email Like Laundry (from Thunderbird.net)
https://blog.thunderbird.net/2024/06/chaotic-inbox-to-productivity-powerhouse/Imagine for a moment if we treated email the same way we treat our laundry. It might look something like this: At least ten times an hour, wed look in the dryer, sigh at the mix of wet and dry clothes, wonder where the shirt we needed was, and then close the dryer door again without emptying a thing. Laura Mae Martin, author of Uptime: A Practical Guide to Personal Productivity and Wellbeing, has a better approach. Treat your email like you would ideally treat your laundry.
How do we put this metaphor to work in our inboxes? Martin has some steps for getting the most out of this analogy, and the first is to set aside a specific time in your day to tackle your inbox. This is the email equivalent of emptying your dryer, not just looking in it, and sorting the clothes into baskets. Youre already setting future you up for a better day with this first step!
The Process
At this set time, youll have a first pass at everything in your inbox, or as much as you can, sorting your messages into one of four baskets Respond, To Read, Revisit, and Relax (aka, the archive where the email lives once youve acted on it from a basket, and the trash for deleted emails). Acting on those messages comes after the sorting is done. So instead of touching your email a dozen times with your attention, you only touch it twice: sorting it, and acting on it.
How do we put this metaphor to work in our inboxes? Martin has some steps for getting the most out of this analogy, and the first is to set aside a specific time in your day to tackle your inbox. This is the email equivalent of emptying your dryer, not just looking in it, and sorting the clothes into baskets. Youre already setting future you up for a better day with this first step!
The Process
At this set time, youll have a first pass at everything in your inbox, or as much as you can, sorting your messages into one of four baskets Respond, To Read, Revisit, and Relax (aka, the archive where the email lives once youve acted on it from a basket, and the trash for deleted emails). Acting on those messages comes after the sorting is done. So instead of touching your email a dozen times with your attention, you only touch it twice: sorting it, and acting on it.

Next steps: Lets discuss those first three baskets in a little more detail ...
Another productivity tip.
If it works for you, great.
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Maximize Your Day: Treat Your Email Like Laundry (from Thunderbird.net) (Original Post)
usonian
Jun 2024
OP
getagrip_already
(17,624 posts)1. laundry? how about Fruits?
They only last so long, then you have to either freeze them or throw them out.
walkingman
(8,843 posts)2. This is too much trouble for me but appreciate the link to the TB blog.
I've used TB for decades for mail and calendar. I like that I can put all of my email in one simple app and the spam filters work well.