We’ve Identified 6 Email User Types—Which One Describes You?

Are you as organized as you think you are? See how Fastmail users apply our features and automations to meet their needs.

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There is no “right way” to manage the information that lands in your inbox. We all have our own style that we’ve developed over time to meet our varying needs. No matter what your workflow looks like, Fastmail has features that let you be yourself.

The Frequent Filer

You love folders (and possibly labels too). In your inbox, everything has a place. You prefer investing a little time upfront to make sure your emails are filed into their proper homes, so you can refer back to previous conversations easily without having to search through a cluttered inbox.

Features that can help you:

• Use Keyboard Shortcuts to navigate around, such as ‘g’ to quickly find a new folder and ‘m’ to move mail into a folder.
• Sign up to receive emails from services you are trying out with email aliases, instead of your primary username, to help you stay organized, save time, and give your inbox the ability to grow and evolve with you.
• Create Filters and Rules to process mail quickly by sending particular messages to folders, forwarding them to another account, or marking them as read.

The Inboxer

All of your emails co-exist in one big inbox. Maybe you archive old mail yearly—if you remember. You manage your to-do list by marking things as unread (or using the ‘pin’ function).The unread mail is what requires action, and the read mail is what you’ve dealt with. The inboxer style came into fashion when storage costs dropped and mailbox quotas grew.

Features that can help you:

• Search is your friend. You can save searches if you need to find particular types of mail regularly.
• Turn on auto-save new contacts, and use the contact list to help you find the mail you are looking for from contacts you know.
• Instead of marking things as unread, use the snooze function to help manage the volume of your inbox and minimize distractions while you work.

The Triager

You are happiest at inbox zero. Periodically, you dedicate time to sorting your emails throughout the day rather than responding to every email the moment it arrives. Your inbox is just for mail you haven’t seen yet. You make use of (possibly color-coded) labels to mark things, such as read later, needs an answer, or urgent.

Features that can help you:

• Use rules to auto-file incoming mail into its proper place.
• Increase your productivity by creating a set of VIP Contacts so that you can focus on the emails that matter the most to you each day.

The Spring-Cleaner

Maybe you use folders. Perhaps you use labels. But mostly, you use your Inbox. However, when your inbox gets overwhelmingly full, you dedicate some time to cleaning out the top section of your inbox.

Features that can help you:

• Snooze mail out of any folder, so you only have to look through emails that you are ready for.
• Use the email retention archive, so you can keep your inbox empty, knowing that all your mail is safely recorded.

The Labeller

You love adding extra information to emails you receive to help you find them later. You might also be a Frequent Filer or a Triager using labels to organize your emails, or maybe everything still lives in your Inbox, but it also has a label or two, or five, or ten.

Features that can help you:

• Make messages stand out by using label colors for faster at-a-glance recognition of the state of your inbox.
• Use rules to automatically add labels to incoming emails based on keywords or the email’s sender.

The Minimalist

You are the Marie Kondo of email, meaning you are intentional about what mail you store. You only keep emails you know you’ll need later and delete everything else. You like to keep your storage under control to make it easier to find things. You might also be a Frequent Filer, a Labeller, or a Triager.

Features that can help you:

• If frequently find yourself accidentally deleting messages or contacts, your last action can be undone by using our Undo feature or ‘z’ keyboard shortcut.
• Easily recover deleted emails up to two weeks later with our restore from backup feature.

What’s your Style?

We’d love to hear about your email management style. Which one are you? Tweet at us at @Fastmail to tell us know. If you’re new to Fastmail, try it free for 30-days to test out these features yourself. Happy emailing!