If you want an empty inbox, or close to it, this post could help.
You can have timed filters, which will make it easier to deal with recurring emails (such as daily calendar emails from Google Calendar) and semi-spam (such as Newegg’s deal email barrage) you want to see and then want gone, as well as emails you want to see and then want archived for later (such as notifications from blogs you follow).
Lifehacker provides the foundation post on a Google Apps Script you can use to automatically clean up Gmail with timed filters. You’ll need to go to that post, or the original post that Lifehacker’s advice is based upon, for the basics on how to utilize the scripts.
I found Lifehacker’s advice very useful for things I want to see but don’t want to keep (e.g., Google Calendar emails and semi-spam), but less useful for things I want to arrive in my inbox but then archive to look at later (such as email notifications from blogs I follow). Lifehacker’s post provides another script for archiving, but I didn’t like it as posted (it automatically archives all opened emails after two days) because sometimes I have an important pending email I want to keep in my inbox and don’t want to have to mark as unread for it to stay.
Thankfully, you can modify the auto-archive script to only archive particular emails after two days (or whatever amount of time you want). In case you don’t know how to edit script, I’m posting the script as I revised it for filtering blog notifications. This script archives, rather than deletes, these emails so that I can get back to them later if and when I have more time:
function archiveBlogs() {
// Archive blog notification emails after two days
var threads = GmailApp.search(‘label:Blogs older_than:2d’);
for (var i = 0; i < threads.length; i++) {
threads[i].moveToArchive();
}
}
If you use this code, the email notifications will arrive in your inbox where they’ll stay for 2 days (you can change the length of time), after which they’ll be moved out of your inbox. They will still be available under the “Blogs” label in case you want to go back to them later.
For this and the code from Lifehacker to work, you’ll first need to create Gmail labels (e.g., “Blogs”) and set up filters that will label emails appropriately. If you don’t have labels with the names in the script before you run it, you’ll get an error message.
Another Gmail Tool (which doesn’t require code):
Boomerang is another great, and easier to use, tool for maximizing Gmail. Boomerang let’s you schedule an email to be sent later (so that people think you sent it at 7am instead of 3am). You can also have Boomerang temporarily remove an email from your inbox and schedule its return to your inbox at a more relevant time.
landon schnabel | sociologist 