Despite the many options available on iOS to replace the stock mail client, Apple’s Mail for iOS is the most powerful solution for people seeking a focused view of a lot of email. One caveat–a lack of push notifications–limits its utility for some users.
I’ve been managing the email deluge using a setup that I first described here, and which I’ve adapted to MailMate. I effectively narrow my daily email view down to email:
- sent directly to me, and
- received today.
This keeps me focused on what’s happening now; I review older email when I have time, and try not to let anything build up past 72 hours (it’s either archived, responded to, or sent off to OmniFocus).
Today: Mail on iOS has several useful alternative inboxes (effectively smart folders) that are hidden by default. The subject of this article is the “Today” folder, which will limit what is displayed to user to emails received the current date. This immediately winnows down the list of email to today’s email.
Reveal Mail’s Hidden Inboxes
Mail’s Today Mailbox
To:Me: You can additionally filter the Today mailbox by tapping on the filter button in the lower last hand corner of the Today inbox. Seeing only email addressed directly to you, which was sent today, can help you, for example, by obscuring distribution lists, which might be important but more appropriate for a review later on, or messages you’ve been CC’d on but aren’t the primary recipient.
Unread: You can filter out messages you’ve already read but haven’t archived, responded to, or otherwise processed as well.
Mail’s Flexible Mailbox Options
Final Notes
You can dynamically change what is shown in the Today mailbox as you go about your day; seeing only email sent to you might be necessary if there is a high volume of organizational announcements at the begging or the end of the day. If you’ve had some time to triage your inbox, however, you might want to see everything.
There are certainly still limitations to using Mail on iOS. If your organization uses Gmail, you can’t get notifications through Mail, and setting up Gmail as an Exchange account doesn’t work anymore unless it’s a paid account. Hooks into other applications, such as you might enjoy by using Airmail, are not present in Mail.