The Gmail Genius Issue #11 – Only 12% of emails require immediate attention

These six clever Gmail add-ons will make you infinitely more productive

While I would have loved to see GMass or Wordzen on here (hey, I made them to improve your email productivity, after all), there are solid recommendations on this list from Fast Company.

Gmail quick tip: How to search in your inbox Primary category only

Clear instructions for how to search the folder where your most important emails end up. Thanks David Gewirtz of ZDNet for putting this together.

How many of our emails should we know about the moment someone decides to email us?

In analyzing whether all emails should be seen a equal (at least as far as notifications go), behavioral economics researcher Dan Ariely determines that only 12 percent of emails need to be seen within 5 minutes of being sent.


Inbox Exposed: Nate Bagley, Founder of First 7 Years  

Email is a non-negotiable part of everyday life. For some, it’s an unruly time suck, but enlightened email users have systems to ensure they’re not a slave to the inbox. We’re asking smart thinkers to give us a peek inside their inboxes, share tips, ideas, gripes, and everything in between.

Nate Bagley spends a whole lot of time thinking about love: how to find it, how to improve it, and how to make it last. He has documented his learnings on The Loveumentary podcast and shares actionable tips and research for improving relationships through the First 7 Years. We talked to him about the connection between love and email. An excerpt appears below:

Email, just like any other tool, can be used for good or evil. It can bring value to your life, allow you to connect with awesome people, and help you get things done… or it can be a distraction from things that are important … How you use the tool is up to you.

Some people let email overtake their lives, their phones, and their relationships. The happiest people know when to turn it off. They know when things can wait. They know that sometimes connecting with their wife or kids is more important than a vibrating phone… especially while on a date, at the dinner table, or after office hours.

Remember, the way to measure your values and your priorities is by looking at how you ACTUALLY spend your time, not by how you WANT to spend your time. If your nose is constantly buried in your screen… well, you can do the math.

Read the full interview here.