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Initially published on Medium — February 16, 2016

For years, I struggled with efficiently and effectively tackling my e-mail inbox. As I entered the “real” world, I knew that I couldn’t have hundreds of e-mails sitting unread for weeks at a time.

I tried out a ton of different options, none of which worked on both mobile AND desktop. I needed to craft a solution that accounted for both. After spending hours reading about all of the different ways power-users tackle their inbox, I decided on this set-up.

I’ve been using this set-up for almost a year now, and although my inbox isn’t at zero every night — it gets pretty close. I’ll cover the mobile workflow at the end of this post, as well.

This is what your Gmail will look like by the end of the article:

https://cdn.substack.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe463f884-6008-4cef-8fd7-606b60d5f5fb_800x228.png

Example Gmail workflow:

1. Received an e-mail from Jonathon — it goes directly into my main inbox

https://cdn.substack.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff0a9d15d-1bcb-47db-98a5-29256a4fba66_800x178.png

2. Open the e-mail from the main inbox.

https://cdn.substack.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F10f96816-94d0-4717-b02c-4fe283ce2137_800x162.png

3. At this point, I have a couple of different options.

Option A) I can reply immediately, and archive the e-mail.

Option B) Move the e-mail to my Action Needed folder — so I remember to reply later.

In this case, I opted to do the second option.

4. Using keyboard shortcuts, I just simply pressed: “V” to open the prompt for “Move to”

https://cdn.substack.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa96ebd55-0e9e-481b-8713-7a6026597e6f_800x290.png

5. After moving to: “Action Needed” — the e-mail is out of my main inbox and now sits in my: “Action Needed” inbox

https://cdn.substack.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7f0311fe-a336-4b1b-87d0-28c3b318a630_800x194.png