Gmail’s long had a segmented/tabbed inbox and Apple added their own (to iOS) recently. I’ve long used manual mail rules to label and sort inbound messages into different folders.

My mail provider (Proton) supports both folders and labels, with mail rules limited by the constraints of their encrypted email implementation. I used rules heavily, limits aside, to add labels for context, mark low priority as read and file it into folders and — in some cases — do both.

The problem with this though and the problem with segmented inboxes is that it multiples the number of inboxes you have to check. You end up either actively checking these, which creates more of a cognitive and organizational load or ignoring them which means that — without fail — you’ll miss things.

If you let iOS or Gmail make these choices, you’re forfeiting agency to their algorithm and/or heuristics (“AI”). You can train it, or override it, but that’s more maintenance.

So, I’ve deleted all of those rules. The contents of all of those folders are in my archive. I can search by sender, subject or turn on local search in Proton’s desktop app.

I see everything that hits my inbox. I’ll glance at notifications, archive them or make note of anything actionable in the appropriate app and — wait for it — archive it. I unsubscribe to everything I do not absolutely need. If there’s a message specific to a date (e.g. event tickets) I’ll snooze it until the appropriate date. I can count the stores I allow promotional emails from on one hand. If I can’t unsubscribe I’ll block the sender or report it as spam.

No more mail rules. One mailbox. Aggressive weeding of inbound mail. I can determine what’s important at a glance — I don’t need my provider or app to guess.