Buried in email? Looking for creative ways to organize and sort your emails?

Come along as we take a quick look at some of my favorite email apps and email organization tools. You may need this if you have over fifty emails sitting in your inbox.

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Microsoft Outlook

Looking for a combination email and calendar management solution? An active iOS user, I’m often on the lookout for apps that combine a variety of tools into one multi-purpose approach. Outlook blends a simple interface for email and calendars and provides support for Microsoft OneDrive. But you don’t need to be a Microsoft enthusiast to enjoy Outlook (free) on your Android or iOS device.

With a unified inbox and swipe to archive or delete feature, this makes Outlook one of your best choices. It is a solid choice for those who may not want to deviate from traditional email clients and desire a simple interface.

Readdle Spark

Spark‘s interface takes email management to the next level above tools like Google’s Inbox and Outlook, automatically sorting your inbox into various categories. “All new emails are smartly categorized into Personal, Notifications, and Newsletters,” reports its website. The app even includes a built-in calendar, and quick responses (e.g. “Thanks!”) for when on the go.

It also has Apple Watch integration, which means you will receive updates on your Watch. Give it a try. It is one of my favorite apps.

Astro

A relative newcomer to email, Astro features a Mac OS and iOS app. It enjoys an artificial intelligence (AI) that can help you manage your email (with Slack and Alexa support, scheduled emails, snooze emails). After using it for a week, I must confess that it works quite well. With it, I’ve managed to maintain inbox zero for my priority emails.

You can add very important people (VIPs) so that they end up in your priority inbox. All others, such as newsletters, are shuttled to the “Other” category. I find the Slack integration, which allows you to read your email in an Astrobot channel, to be a time-saver.

Reading my email in Slack, I’m able to archive, delete, or otherwise dispose of it from my Slack client, whether on my mobile or laptop. Astro also support multiple account types, such as Gmail, Microsoft Outlook/Office365, and others.

Here are a few reasons why you may need or want an external email client that you can run from a USB flash drive or on your PC:

• You have multiple email accounts with different providers and want to avoid having several browser tabs open at once
• You like to see ALL your email in ONE place
• You want features like encryption, calendar integration, RSS feeds and VoIP apps.

Email Clients

• Mozilla Thunderbird (Mac/Win/Linux): Free, great, put it on an encrypted USB Flashdrive, send encrypted email and more
• EMClient for Windows: Free up to two accounts, $49.95 for more than that.
• A few more

Did you know you can setup different Gmail accounts, one per profile? This is great if you Windows/Mac computer and you have a work/personal account you have to deal with.

When done, you will have one Chrome browser shortcut on your desktop that will open up a different gmail account. What a time-saver!

• Sort all your email in your inbox into Action, Follow-Up, and Someday.
• Anything else, including emails you deal with, go into Gmail’s built-in archive (a.k.a. All Email).
• Use Gmail’s search tools to quickly find emails in your archive or elsewhere. It’s worth looking at this chart of Gmail search operators. My favorites include:
  • to:
  • from:
  • has:attachment
  • is:unread
  • after:, before:, newer: with each colon followed by the date in question
  • subject: to find words in the subject line

Setup Tasks in Gmail

Although you could use Google Keep, Trello Gmail add-on, you can also use Gmail's built-in Tasks tool.

• Click on the MAIL under your organization logo
• Select "Tasks"
• Note that you now have a Task window in the bottom right-hand corner you can add to, modify. Note the Actions button gives you more custom options

Check out Gmail Hacks and Tricks to Boost Productivity article. Here is an excerpt:

• The average person spends 28% of the work week reading and responding to emails.
• This equates to 13 hours a week, and 650 hours a year.
• Consider how productive you could be if you had a few extra hours every week to focus on the projects that really matter.
• 59% of Americans say that they check their emails outside of office hours.

And, just in case, here's another great article.

Option #2: Two solutions

• CloudLock
• SysCloud

Both solutions offer a variety of features, essentially scanning your cloud storage provider (e.g. Google Suites for Education or Office 365) for sensitive data. What’s more, additional rules can be set up to restrict placement of sensitive data online to prevent or quickly catch rule violations.

You will want to explore these solutions through an official request for proposals (RFP) process aligned to your particular district’s processes and procedures.