email

  • April 30, 2024

    Deleting My Mail App From my Phone

    I was listening to the latest episode of Cortex, where Grey is helping Myke through the question of how to handle email on his phone. There was a 60 second segment that sent me on a roller coaster ride of emotions. It went something like this:

    Myke: “I’m thinking of turning off email notifications on my phone.”

    Me: Oh my god — why would you even have them on at all?!

    Myke: “…but I’m worried that’s just going to make me check the email app more.”

    Me: Oh. That’s exactly what I do.

    In-fact, since deleting social media apps off my phone, Spark — my email app of choice — felt like what I opened the most (though the data below tells a different story).

    While quick checks can seem innocuous, email is probably the communication that can derail my time the most. Slack isn’t on my phone, and I generally keep all of my work-related communications to email.

    So if I absent-mindedly check my email with my kids and I get an email that bothers me (or something I’m excited to tend to), it will continue to eat up my mental energy until I deal with it.

    I hate that. So, I’ve decided to delete Spark from my phone. It’s been a few days, and so far so good.

    There are a few caveats.

    First, I’m keeping the Mail app on my phone for any 2-factor authentication (2FA) or login codes I might need. However, I truly hate using the Mail app, so I expect I won’t be tempted to check mail there.

    Plus, you can turn off app suggestions!

    How to turn off Siri Suggestions for an app
    How to turn off Siri Suggestions for an app

    I also considered keeping the Gmail app, since Google insists on 2FA by clicking a button in the app, but I’m almost certain this is any of Google’s apps, so I’ve deleted that too.

    I’m very keen to see what this does to my Pickups and Screen Time.

    Now, when you delete an app, it removed the Screen Time data on the device where you deleted it. But luckily that info is synced with iCloud. So I offer some initial stats from last week — with the note that I deleted the app on Saturday at some point:

    I’ll keep you posted to see if Screen Time and Pickups go down!

    What’s an app you think YOU should delete from your phone? Let me know in the comments!

  • January 18, 2022

    How I Keep my Email at Inbox Zero

    One of the tenants of the No Spend Month my wife and I are doing is decluttering. We’re going through all of our stuff and donating what we don’t need. We’ve already gotten rid of bags of clothes, hundreds of DVDs, lots of books, and toys.

    See, those who knew me growing up might be shocked by this, but I hate clutter. If I have a lot of stuff around me I can’t focus. The same thing goes for my digital space. Too many notifications, badges, and messages gives be agita; so I try to keep my devices clean. I have no badges turn on except missed calls and overdue tasks. Very few apps have notifications. I have a focus mode where only my wife can send notifications to my phone.

    And I keep my email at near inbox zero at all times. Here’s how.

  • December 3, 2021

    How to Manage Your Email for a Sane Holiday Season

    Do you feel like you got way too many emails over the Black Friday / Cyber Monday weekend? I know lots of people who do. I also know lots of business owners who held back sending their own sequence of emails because they hate getting emails. And while that’s a different conversation1, you can draw a similar conclusion: when people get a lot of email, they feel it’s overwhelming.

    It doesn’t have to be. Way back in 2010, I wrote about how you can easily manage subscriptions with GMail. Well, it’s been 10 years, and there are a lot more ways to control your inbox. Let’s take a look at some.

  • November 16, 2020

    SaneBox Keeps my Inbox Clear and my Heart Rate Down (Friday Toolkit Preview)

    Quick Note: This is a new newsletter series I started on Friday called “Friday Toolkit.” Each month I will go in-depth with one of my recommendations – how I use it and why I think it’s useful. I’ve decided to make the first one public. If you like it, you can sign up for my newsletter using the form in the sidebar, or below.

    I’ve been thinking of doing something like this for a while, but haven’t pulled the trigger. I want to thank SaneBox for partnering with me to push me over the edge. This first edition of The Friday Toolkit is brought to you by them; I chose SaneBox as the partner because I’ve been using them all year and am a huge fan. I’m excited to share a little bit more about them.

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  • February 12, 2020

    Get Your Inbox Under Control (Automatically) with SaneBox

    Full Disclosure: SaneBox is a sponsor of my podcast, but boy do I love this tool.

    Have you ever seen someone’s phone and noticed an email notification badge with a 4 digit number (OR ARE YOU THAT PERSON)? It makes my skin crawl! My inbox serves as a todo list for me, so a lot of email in my inbox gives me agita (a word we Italians use for “stress” or “anxiety”). Even with the way I manage email, I feel like I saw too much. I was distracted by it too much. I wasted too much time. Until I started using SaneBox.

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  • January 29, 2020

    How to Create a FREE Landing Page with ConvertKit

    ConvertKit has recently opened up a free plan for people to build landing pages and forms so they can start building their email lists. And while usually you need to refer a friend or pay to see those subscribers and send emails, in this video, you’ll get a special link that will unlock 100 subscribers and broadcasts for free. You will also learn how to build a nice looking landing page to compel people to join your mailing list.

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  • December 21, 2014

    Sunday Fun: Old Screen Names

    I’m listening to Episode 27 of How to Hold a Pencil with Dan Mall, and aside from some really, really amazing advice on pricing (around the 15 minute mark), the start the show by talking about Dan’s first email address / screen name. I thought it would be fun to share (and encourage others to do the same.

    My Early Email addresses are slightly boring:

    • joeyc1020@hotmail.com
    • joeyc1020@yahoo.com

    But here are my early AIM screen names:

    • doughboy1020
    • TrunksMaster2000
    • Drummer1020

    Leave yours in the comments or in your own blog post. I will link them here!

  • November 21, 2010

    Links Round Up for 11/21/10

  • November 14, 2010

    Links Round Up for 11/14/10

    Recommended listening for the week: Christina Perri. Her current single is ‘Jar of Hearts’

  • October 11, 2010

    My Thoughts on Sparrow

    Sparrow is a Mac only desktop email client specifically for GMail. They way they describe it on their website  is this way:

    Sparrow is a minimalist mail application for Mac. It was designed to keep things simple and efficient. No fancy stuff here… just your mail and nothing else.

    I decided to take it for a spin; I’m not a huge fan of Apple Mail (or most desktop clients), but Sparrow seemed different since it’s specifically for GMail.

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