Inboxes

inboxes.md

Multiple Inboxes in Gmail (or how @LindsayYoung saved me from email hell)

Here at 18F, we use GitHub. A lot of GitHub. Although I was comfortable with GitHub before I arrived here, I was not prepared for the volume of GitHub notifications that would be in my email's inbox. Every pull request, every new repository, every commented upon issue led to inbox bloat.

Confronted with this, I thought my options were bad ones, as follows:

1. Deal with it and just try and keep up. (yeah, right.)
2. Unsubscribe to the repos that were uninteresting. (This also seemed unsatisfactory, as I'm supposed to stay current on some of these things).
3. Try and set up filters and remember to check the folders (yeah, right.)

When I told Lindsay Young (@LindsayYoung) about this dilemma, she said: "Oh, here's a way I do it." And because it's so good, I wanted to share it with the world.

First step: Get "Multiple Inboxes"

Go to settings in Google. The settings button looks like this:

In the Settings menu, look for the "Labs" tab. Under Available Labs, find "Multiple Inboxes."

Click enable, scroll all the way down and "save changes."

Second step: Set up filters

Go back to settings and click on the "Filters" tab. In the Filters tab, click on "Create a new filter". In the "From" field, type in "[email protected]". Click on "Create filter with this search". Click on the following settings (image below):

• "Skip the Inbox (Archive It)"
• Apply the label" [NOTE: Set up up a new filter label, I called it github. This is very important]
• Also apply filter to X matching conversations."

Then click "Create Filter".

Third Step: Set up "Multiple Inboxes"

In settings, click on the "Multiple Inboxes" tab. There, you'll want to configure the panes. In Pane 1, add the search query corresponding to your label (in my case, "github").

Put the panels on the Right Side of the Inbox, and Save Changes.

Fourth Step: Revel in email bliss

That's it. Once you've configured Multiple Inboxes, your inbox will become a lot more manageable in a github-heavy environment. Thank you, @LindsayYoung, for making it awesome.

Very kind of you. I started with this system when I needed to keep track of press clips- It helped me get through a lot of email without missing the important stuff. Hope it helps!

Pro tip: I added another filter so if any email uses @lindsay or @LindsayYoung, it is labeled 'YOU' and goes to my [main] inbox. I made the color of that label red. That way, I don't miss any GitHub issues I am mentioned in.