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by Paul_D_Santana 4796 days ago
Here is the method that I use, which has been extremely effective for me.

This is a Gmail filter that will leave in your inbox ONLY emails that are from people you specify, AND emails that haven't already been labeled from some other filter rule:

  Matches: (label:inbox has:nouserlabels -from:(importantPerson1@gmail.com OR importantPerson2@gmail.com OR ... ))

  Do this: Skip Inbox, Apply label "_Non-VIP", Never mark it as important
Boom!

Now I never get emails to my inbox unless they are from my girlfriend, family members, friends, and other important people. This has the added benefit of also meaning that I never get email notifications on my phone unless they are from the important (and REAL) people I specified above. (And obviously I can add easily emails to the whitelist if necessary.)

The other benefit is that this WILL take into account any other filter rules you have in place. And also no need to worry about signing up for services with +emails.

Before you post that zomg this would never work for me, please don't. This works extremely well for me and it might work well for someone else so I wanted to share. If you have a way to make it even better, I would love to hear it!
1 comments
saraid216 4795 days ago
Out of curiosity, how do you handle whitelisted people changing their email address? My dad recently switched from Y!Mail to Gmail, for instance.
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Paul_D_Santana 4795 days ago
I simply change the filter.

The first time I see an email that gets filtered that I don't want filtered in the future, I simply add that email to the whitelist. It takes me 15 to 30 seconds, and now it is set forever.

A) Gmail filters aren't etched in stone. They are easy to edit. Much more so than Outlook anyway.

B) The impact of not seeing an email on my phone for an hour or two because I didn't get an Android email notification is near zero. The important people are already whitelisted, and for those emails that aren't, they're never 100% urgent and can wait an hour or two until I check my labels in one batch session.

This works extremely well for me but YMMV.

Does that answer your question?

I'll give you a +1 Upvote for apparently the only person who read my post haha, and that bit of insight into what might not be clear.

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saraid216 4795 days ago
The problem is that the new email address would get filtered out of the inbox and I wouldn't see it, if I understood the filter correctly. My dad would have had to let me know through some means other than email.
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Paul_D_Santana 4795 days ago
Ah, I think there may be some confusion as to how Gmail works. The purpose of labels in Gmail is that you can click them and see all the emails with that particular label. This is analogous to a folder in Windows XP or Windows 7 with files in it.

You may be confusing "filtering" with "deleting", where this is definitely NOT the case. The point of my above post is that inessential emails skip my inbox until I CHOOSE to click the label (when I have time), and then I see the inessential emails all at once.

I do this several times per day, so there is no risk of "missing" an email. In the case of getting an email from your dad at a new address, I would click the label at lunch or whenever convenient, and boom, there it is.

Just because an email is not in your "Inbox" doesn't mean it is gone forever.

Does that make sense?

-----

I did a bit of research and below I inserted some snippets from the official Gmail Help pages that would be good to read over to understand more about what I am getting at:

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https://support.google.com/mail/answer/32608

  Deleting unimportant mail is a great way to free up some of your storage, 
  but with Gmail's free storage, you can probably keep those messages, 
  too! If it's possible that you'll need a message or conversation in the 
  future, we recommend archiving.

  Archiving mail moves messages out of your inbox and into your "All Mail" 
  label for safekeeping-- you won't be bothered with extra messages 
  cluttering your inbox, but you'll still be able to find a message if you need 
  it six years from now!
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https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6576

  Archiving lets you tidy up your inbox by moving messages from your inbox 
  into your All Mail label, so you don't have to delete anything. It's like 
  moving something into a filing cabinet for safekeeping, rather than 
  putting it in the trash can.

  Any message you've archived can be found by clicking the "All Mail" label 
  on the left side of your Gmail page. You can also find a message you've 
  archived by clicking on any other labels you've applied to it, or by 
  searching for it.

  When someone responds to a message you've archived, the conversation 
  containing that message will reappear in your inbox.
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https://support.google.com/mail/answer/118708

  Labels help you organize your messages into categories -- work, family, 
  to do, read later, jokes, recipes, any category you want. Labels do all 
  the work that folders do, but with an added bonus: you can add more 
  than one to a message.

  Only you can see your labels, so whether you mark a message with "Best 
  friend" or "Read later," the sender will never know.
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