Everyone has their own methods of handling email. I have come up with some solutions that have helped me to work more productively.

My computer is a Mac and I use Apple Mail for email, Things for my task manager and iCal for my calendar. All three apps are synced to my iPhone so I always have them available to me.

Unread Mail Smart Folder Settings

In Mail, I created a smart folder that shows only unread emails from all of my accounts. I generally use only this folder when going through mail. I go through the Unread Mail folder knowing that I have to make a decision about each email that I open because after it is read, it will no longer be in the Unread Mail folder that I will look in. There are things I will do with this mail.

1. Task that I need to do and will take less than two minutes, I will do it.
2. Tasks that I need to do and will take more than two minutes, I send it to Things (this is a topic for another post).
3. Appointment that I may need to remember, I send it to iCal
4. Junk or mail of no interest, I delete immediately.
5. Subscription in which I am no longer interested, I unsubscribe.
6. Interesting mail that’s not worthy of keeping for reference, I read and delete.
7. Interesting mail that is worth keeping for reference, I read and close. (It will remain in the folder that it was assigned to when it came in and will be easily found with a quick search any time.

I have a folder called Archive where emails that I want to keep are stored. I use rules to automatically file emails from clients, friends, financial institutions, etc. into this folder. These emails still show up in my Unread Mail smart folder.

I have one more smart folder that shows email over one year old that is not in my Archive folder. Quickly looking through this folder occasionally, I see all of the emails that I closed without doing anything to a year ago. I delete most of these emails but some are still of interest, so I add them to my Archive Folder.

I would like to hear other methods you may have to handle email. Put them in the comments.