Last week in the first of our two part series “Managing your Email Effectively” we offered a list of simple tips and tricks designed to help manage and perhaps the number of emails you receive any day. However, we are well aware that even by following all of the suggestions we gave that the emails in your inbox will not magically disappear. This second section is focused on tools and apps that can help manage and organize your inbox, hopefully saving you time and reducing stress.
Alto: Is a filter that analyzes and presents messages visually. One way Alto works is by allowing users to “stack” emails, photos and attachments. It is compatible with Gmail, Yahoo, AolMail and iCloud. Alto is currently in private beta; however it is possible to request an invitation to use the service.
Price: Unknown
MailBox: Allows the user to easily “swipe” messages to the trash or archives. It also enables users to “snooze” emails so that they return to your inbox at a later time when you can focus on them. MailBox is an app that is available for iPhones and iPads and only works with Gmail.
Price: Free
PostBox: Organizes your email by keywords or “tagging”. It can also gather pieces from conversations in multiple folders and present them in a unified view as well as enabling you to summarize in your emails with a “who-said-what-when-digest”. PostBox is compatible with any POP or IMAP email account including Yahoo, Hotmail, iCloud, AOL and Comcast.
Price: 30 day free trial, $9.95
Mailstrom: Sorts the emails in your inbox so that you can easily review, archive and delete messages in bulk. Messages can be grouped by sender, subject, social or shopping. MailStrom works with any IMAP email services including Gmail, Apple, AOL, Yahoo and Google Apps Email.
Price: Unlimited Free Trial
Triage: In this app new emails appear as a “stack of cards”. The user then “triages” the emails by moving them to the archives or inbox, deleting them, marking as read or reading in full and replying. This app only shows new and unread messages and works with Gmail, Yahoo, Mail, iCloud Mail and most IMAP providers. It is currently only an iPhone app.
Price: $1.99
Boomerang: This application allows users to schedule send times for their outgoing emails as well as resend their received messages “marked unread” back to their inbox at a specified time. It also has the ability to send notifications if no replies are received to sent emails within a specific time period. Boomerang is a Firefox/Chrome plugin for Gmail and works on iPads, iPhones, Android devices, BlackBerries and Windows 7 Phones.
Price: Basic – Free, Personal - $4.99 per month, Professional - $14.99 per month
AwayFind: This app bills itself as providing “Attention Management” not “Inbox Management”. It sends alerts when you receive emails on specific topics or from specific people. These alerts can take the form of SMS or Voice alerts, iPhone or Android alerts, Twitter DMs and instant messages through AIM or Yahoo. AwayFind works with Gmail and Outlook or as a Google App.
Price: 30 day free trial, Free Plan, Personal - $4.99 per month, Pro - $14.99 per month, Max - $49.99 per month
Sanebox: This tool filters and summarizes unimportant emails while moving them out of your inbox to another folder. It also has the ability to send you reminders when there have been no replies to your sent emails and offers a function that allows you to defer emails for specific time periods. Sanebox works with Gmail, Google Apps, Yahoo, AOL, Apple Mail, Outlook, iPhone, Android, etc...
Price: 14 day free trial, Snack – from $2.04 per month, Lunch – from $5.79 per month, Dinner – from $19.54 per month
Do you use any tools to help manage and organize your email? Are they the same as the ones listed above or are we missing key apps from our list? What are some of your tricks and tips for managing email?
References:
Boris, C. (2013, July 9). 4 Easy Tools for Cleaning Up Your Email Inbox. Entrepreneur Magazine.
DesMarais, C. (2012, May 17). Email Doesn’t Have to Suck. Inc. Magazine.
Pullen, J. P. (2013, April 4). 3 Email Apps to Rework Your Workflow. Entrepreneur Magazine.
PHOTO CREDIT: Email-Marketing-Envelope, created by Yoel Ben-Avraham on January 14, 2013. Image made available under Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license. Last viewed on July 31, 2013.