[MlMt] Please help me with my broken email workflow

[Benny Kjær Nielsen]

On 12 Jul 2014, at 11:33, Jonas Kemper wrote:

> […]
> Whenever I work through my Inbox, I either delete messages or press 
> "Archive" for messages that I want to act upon but not right now. 
> Then, usually right afterwards, I work through the messages in Archive 
> and act upon them. Then I delete also those messages.

I would suggest archiving instead of deleting and then flag the messages 
you need to act on. Let's see how that solves your problems.

> Problems:
>
> - Both Archive and Delete are not the right choices here. First of 
> all, I almost never want to delete messages. I want to have all 
> messages searchable via the gmail webinterface - in case I need 
> something. It has just proven to be reliable with this.

This works since you are no longer deleting messages.

> - Second, I failed over and over again to integrate my iPhone in the 
> process. I would like to do some of the stuff (especially the 
> "deleting and archiving" part) while commuting. Whatever I tried (Mail 
> app, gmail app, ...) did not really map on what I was doing in 
> Mailmate.

You can flag and move to archive fairly easily in Mail on the iPhone.

> - Third, I don't get spam filters. I was never bothered too much by 
> spam - at least not compared to how much false positives have bothered 
> me. Therefore I set up a rule in the gmail webinterface (in:spam -> 
> never flag as spam). This used to work but appears to not work 
> anymore.

I don't really know anything about that.

> Then, also Mailmate seems to have some spam fighting logic in it?

No, MailMate can integrate with SpamSieve, but built-in MailMate only 
supports image blocking as a general security measure (to avoid being 
tracked). This is configurable in the Security preferences pane.

> I want to have control about that kind of stuff but I don't even 
> understand it ...

Let me know if you have specific questions.

To make the above work well in MailMate then you can define a smart 
mailbox showing flagged Inbox messages. This your “Act On” mailbox. 
You can also add a condition to the regular mailbox to not show flagged 
messages if you want that Inbox Zero feeling. (This part is not possible 
on iOS.)

> - One idea I had for a while was to just forward all accounts to a 
> single gmail adress. I could then implement my 
> "newsletter/groups/other" conditions as server-side filters. In 
> Mailmate (and probably on the phone) I would then use the "Archive" 
> button whenever I used to delete messages. I would lose my beloved 
> "act upon but not right now" functionality.

Filtering on the server is always a good idea, but I don't think you 
should forward to a single account. Are these filters not mostly 
account-specific anyways?

> Nice to have features:
>
> - Have everything prepared to switch the gmail accounts to a self 
> hosted or more trustworthy, no-bullshit mail server.

The approach described would work with any IMAP server.

> Please, email-pros, give me a few hints to get me back on track or 
> point me to manuals/whatever that tell me how email (and in particular 
> IMAP) is supposed to be used. I want a better email life.

Oops, I'm definitely not the right one to ask then. I've created an 
email client to help others handle their email, but I somehow ended up 
with more than 600 act-on emails in my Inbox  (most of them from the 
past 6 months) :-)

-- 
Benny
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