The inbox on the morning of the return from the holiday: 472 unread emails, the 3 of them are the urgent, the 27 are the “FYI,” and the 442 are the newsletters, the promotions, and the spam that you opened once in the 2019 and have not been able to unsubscribe from since. The email is the vacuum that fills the space left by the holiday, and the 472 emails that await the return are the punishment for the 2 weeks of the relaxation. Keeping track of the email while travelling is the art of the filtering, the auto-responder, the VIP inbox, the unsubscribe, and the “deal with it later or never”, and the essential goal: arrive home to the 20 emails that actually matter. Here are the top ways to keep track.

Top Ways to Track Email While Travelling

• 1. The auto-responder, the essential first step: The out-of-office auto-reply, the “I am on the holiday until the [date], and I will respond to your email on the [return date]. If the matter is the urgent, please contact [the colleague] at [the colleague’s email]”, is the essential filter: the auto-responder tells the sender not to expect the reply, and the sender either waits or contacts the colleague. The auto-responder reduces the inbox on the return by the 30% (the senders who needed the answer have found it elsewhere), and the auto-responder is the essential first step of the email management. The essential tip: the “plus addressing” (the Gmail, the Outlook, and the most email providers support the +suffix, the youremail+holiday@gmail.com, and the filter can be set to the auto-delete or the auto-archive the emails sent to the +holiday address). The essential strategy: set the auto-responder on the day before the departure, and the first reply, the “I have received your email and I will respond after the [date]”, buys the time. More travel tips →
• 2. The VIP inbox, the essential filter: The email clients (the Gmail, the Outlook, the Apple Mail) support the “VIP” or the “Focused” inbox: the inbox that shows only the emails from the designated senders (the boss, the key clients, the family), and the rest, the newsletters, the promotions, and the social-media notifications, is relegated to the separate tab or the separate inbox. The VIP inbox is the essential tool for the traveller: the 10-minute check of the VIP inbox at the breakfast (the coffee, the croissant, and the 3 urgent emails that are dealt with in the minutes), and the rest, the 200 unread, is ignored until the return. The essential setup: the VIP inbox is configured before the departure (the list of the VIP senders, the “Mark as VIP,” and the habit of the daily check, the 5 minutes, the same time, and the inbox that is the under the control).
• 3. The unsubscribe, the best 30 minutes of the pre-holiday preparation: The unsubscribe from the newsletters is the most effective way to reduce the inbox, and the pre-holiday 30 minutes of the unsubscribing, the marketing emails, the promotions, the notifications from the apps that you no longer use, will reduce the inbox by the 50%. The essential tools: the Unroll.me (the service that consolidates the subscriptions into the single daily digest, the free, the controversial on the privacy, and the most effective way to reduce the subscription email), the Gmail native “Unsubscribe” button (the button at the top of the promotional emails that unsubscribes in the 2 clicks), and the “Report Spam” (the nuclear option, the unsubscribe that turns into the block). The essential habit: the unsubscribe during the holiday (the 1 minute per morning, the 2–3 unsubscribes per day, and the inbox that is lighter every day)
• 4. The “Snooze” and the “Deal with it later”: The Snooze (the Gmail feature, the email that returns to the inbox on the designated date, the “Snooze until the return date”) is the essential tool for the email that requires the reply but not the holiday-time reply. The snoozed email arrives at the 9am on the first day back, and the inbox, the 20 snoozed emails rather than the 472, is the manageable.