Stupid Simple Mac Tips #71: SaneLater, Alligator

Time for another tip involving SaneBox, the wonderful web-based service that integrates with email to organize your messages, orchestrate your time, and make your Inbox zero aspirations a little more achievable.

We already explored how @SaneBlackHole permanently banishes unwanted emailers. Now it’s time to prioritize what’s left.

The @SaneLater function has us covered.

When legitimate contacts send valued material that isn’t time-critical (think: newsletters, blog entries, updates), @SaneLater automatically moves it out of your Inbox and holds it at-the-ready until you’ve tackled the pressing work waiting in your Inbox.

Suppose SaneBox is the traffic cop managing your mail. In that case, your Inbox is “green-lighted,”@SaneBlackHole is a hard red, and @SaneLater is the yellow signal: not stopping anything, merely slowing it to a safe speed.

Messages sit in a folder --easy-to-find when you have the time, without cluttering your Inbox or tempting you down a rabbit hole when other tasks should take priority.

Like all dynamic SaneBox tools, @SaneLater is fully trainable: just drag-and-drop messages you’d like re-routed, and it will learn your preferences in a hurry.

To clarify this, let’s say an email hits your Inbox from someone you don’t seem as typically urgent, move it to the @SaneLater folder, and all future emails will go straight to @SaneLater.

And the opposite works the same way. Got an email filtered to the @SaneLater folder that should be in your Inbox? Drag and drop and done.

By automatically keeping less-vital messages from your Inbox, @SaneLater minimizes workday distractions...and by organizing such communiqués in one location, it assures they get proper attention when you have the time. Win/win!

I won’t even be offended if that’s where my tips go.

See you there!