Emails from unknown people are like strangers who show up at your office without an appointment. If you pay attention to them, you have to break your commitment to others.

Consider keeping your email notifications off. You will not forget about your inbox.

Sales pitches are personal emails without unsubscribe links. But if you don't respond, you can often get more email from them.

Set up text replacements. For example:

noint = Not interested but thanks; please remove.

nove...

• Use an email service with a great search tool so you can find archived messages with ease.
• Delete all those folders. If you use an email service with a great search function, you don't need many folders. Instead, create one big archive and use the ...

Actions you might take while processing:

• Unsubscribe or block.
• Reply where longer or more substantive replies are needed.
• Forward/delegate things that need more substantive thought and context.
• Task. Theses emails require action that can't get done in two o...