I have talked a lot about email lately and since I was out of town this weekend checking email sporadically I came to a realization about a new email rule that I want. A little background first, I try my very hardest not to work unless it is 8a-5p M-F (not including vacation and holidays). This means that if I get an email after hours or over a weekend it waits until the next time I am working, some emails go unanswered from Friday at 5:01p until Monday at 8a, it is just the way that I work. I don’t like people demanding that I be available to them 24/7, when I only get paid for 40 hours a week.

So then you can imagine the email rule that I want:

• Check to see if the email is in my work account.
• If yes, check to see if it was sent between 8a-5p M-F.
• If yes, mark as unread and leave in the inbox.
• If no, do not display email until the next working time period.

Now of course I can’t create this with the tools that I currently have, there are work arounds (turning off email checking for that account during those times is one) but the workarounds all suck. Why can’t I just build natural language rules like this, how great would that be?

[This part of an ongoing series on dealing with email, to see more posts look here.]