<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>I never thought I'd be saying it, but Microsoft's Outlook is the best email app you can download right now.</p>
<p>I've tried a lot of email apps for my job, but what I love most about Outlook is that it manages to bring an uncompromising email experience into the modern age. There's hardly anything you <em>can't </em>do with Outlook, and yet this powerhouse of an email app still features a striking interface that's bristling with helpful features.</p>
<p><span>Most importantly, Outlook works seamlessly with Gmail, which is what most of the world uses. It also works with Exchange, iCloud, Yahoo Mail, Outlook.com, and Office 365, so most people can make the transition pretty painlessly.</span></p>
<p>All the most modern features are there: You can now swipe to archive, delete, or re-schedule an email to return to your inbox at a later time, and the app's built-in calendar makes sending your availability to people a cinch, and you don't have to hop between apps.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p>Outlook can also help you get rid of the clutter with its Focused tab, which triages your inbox so all your important emails go to one place. The rest of them go into the Other tab, which is still accessible from the main screen. I have the feature turned off since I inherently mistrust my phone making those decisions for me (I'm always afraid of missing an important email), but my editor Jay Yarow has used the feature and hasn't seen any important emails slip through the cracks.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p>Want to only see your unread emails? Outlook's Quick Filter button makes it easy to filter between flagged and unread emails, and you can also choose to only see emails with files attached. </p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">There's even a dedicated Files tab that shows you all your attachments and files on your device and emailed to you, and a similar People tab that shows you who you've been emailing recently so you can jump right into composing a new email without searching through your contacts.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>I've been using Outlook for a week now, which is usually when I begin to realize the limitations of other email apps like Google Inbox or Mailbox that are seeking to reinvent how we use email. Those email apps may indeed be the future, and Mailbox holds a special place in my heart for its sheer beauty and handiness for whittling away at your inbox - but for most users, it's too much too soon. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>Email is one of those areas where radical change to the experience can cause headaches, stress, or missed meetings, and Outlook wins out against its competitors because it's currently the perfect combination of new features and familiarity.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>Apple's own Mail app is still the best integrated email app for iPhone users, but I found myself missing the extra feature and depth to the email experience that Outlook brings to the table. Gmail is still stuck using the same bogged down actions to deal with individual emails, Hop and Inbox are too alien for many users, and Mailbox makes it tough to deal with a clogged-up inbox in one swoop - it's perfect if you check your email obsessively though.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><br /></span></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>Finding a runner-up is tough, but I think Mailbox deserves the title due to its elegant design, emphasis on keeping an empty inbox, and how nicely it integrates with the Mac version (I love being able to send an email from my phone to Mailbox for Mac when I'm out and about and know an email requires a more in-depth response).</span></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>But Outlook still edges it out as my daily driver, and it's comforting to know I can accomplish anything I would on my desktop email client from my phone. Outlook even makes that process faster with some of its smarter features like the Calendar, Files, and People tabs.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Of course, it's important to remember that Outlook is essentially just a re-branded version of email app Acompli, so my praise should really be aimed at the Acompli team that was talented enough to make a product that attracted Microsoft's eye. Microsoft reportedly paid $200 million for Acompli back in December, but if that means a return to email superiority, I'd say it was a smart investment.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">You can download Microsoft Outlook <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/app/id951937596">over at the App Store</a>, or see what using the app looks like in action in the video below.</span></p>
<p></p>

Microsoft Outlook is the best email app out right now

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Slack is changing the workplace as we know it. It eliminates a ton of email and allows people to easily work together remotely through chat rooms and DM's with unique functionality.</p><p><span>Many call it </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/slack-growth-after-one-year-2015-2">the fastest growing business app ever</a><span>. Since its official launch in February 2014, Slack has seen unbelievable growth, racking up 750,000 daily active users, a 50X jump.</span></p><p>The company recently rolled out its big 2.0 update and there are a ton of under the hood and feature-driven updates for mobile that are going to make it a lot easier to use.</p><p>A few of the highlights:</p><ul><li>Messages will load faster with offline support. This is helpful, because Slack always has to connect when you open it and that can take more time than you'd like occasionally.</li><li>Links open within the app rather than kicking out to an external browser.</li><li>New team directory and channel member search. Not everything you need is always right in front of your face on mobile Slack, so having this feature more accessible is helpful.</li><li>Search for channels and DMs by tapping the "+" buttons in the left-side menu. Should make it much easier to quickly find where you're going, which is helpful in a small screen environment.</li><li>Slash (/) commands now autocomplete which is definitely a feature missed from the desktop app. There's a lot of slash-commanding in Slack if you really want to dig into it.</li><li>Tons and tons of speed improvements and bug fixes.</li></ul><p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/slack-team-communication/id618783545?mt=8">Here's the full list from the iOS app store:</a></p><h4><em>What's New in Version 2.00</em></h4><p class=" "><em>- Short version: While on the surface it may look the same, the app has undergone a thorough rebuild from the ground up, making the experience better in myriad ways. Using it is just nicer.</em><br><br><em>- Long version with added coruscation and explanatory detail…</em><br><em>- Offline support! Messages will now load faster on launch than you ever dreamed possible and remain available when you're offline. </em><br><em>- A clutch of totally awesome pumped-up performance boosts, including noticeably reduced memory usage and killer speeds throughout the app. Crushed it.</em><br><em>- No more jumping around: You can now open links using an in-app web browser. (Settings &gt; Web Browser &gt; In-App Browser) (Better iPad support coming soon). </em><br><em>- You can now long press on URLs to summon a share sheet, then open the link in an app of your choice (Evernote, Wunderlist or Instapaper, for example), or "Add to Reading List" and save for later. Deferred gratification has never felt better.</em><br><em>- Swishier team switcher page with bonus team icons and a better unread message indicator.</em><br><em>- Sometimes bigger IS better. As proof of this, image previews in channels, groups and DMs are now more pixel-packed.</em><br><em>- Super-responsive swiping when opening the left and right-hand menus. </em><br><em>- Left-handers! Super-responsive swiping when opening the right and left-hand menus.</em><br><em>- A new team directory and channel member search has been added.</em><br><em>- Messages now behave more reliably, even on a spotty network connection. If a message fails to send, you can now try, try, try again (and, with any luck, succeed). </em><br><em>- You can now search for channels and DMs by tapping the "+" buttons in the left-side menu (you can still use the wondrous Quick Switcher by swiping right again, of course).</em><br><em>- Slash commands now autocomplete. And have help text. Or something. Anyway it's p cool. /shrug</em><br><em>- If you have an email account set up in the native Mail app, you can now report issues directly by opening the right side menu &gt; Settings &gt; Submit Feedback. Support for other mail apps coming soon.</em><br><em>- And many other small changes to the back end, meaning the game is irrevocably changed, and the iOS app will never be the same again. Basically, what Star Wars did for sci-fi, we've done to our app. But without Jar Jar Binks. </em><br><br><em>- Fixed: typing would occasionally become slow and unresponsive, which was frustrating if typing was the main thing you wanted to do, and, let's face it, it usually was. The keyboard is now securely swift.</em><br><em>- Fixed: if you launched the app to a channel with unread messages we wouldn't mark the channel as read even where we should've, because you'd read'em.</em><br><em>- Fixed: the app would crash when opening "Recent Mentions" from the right side menu if you had a recent mention in a file comment.</em><br><em>- Fixed: a few other frequent crashes for iOS 7 users should now be less frequent (or, preferably, completely absent). </em><br><em>- Fixed: We fixed the thing where we'd mention we'd added support for exciting upcoming features in release notes but wouldn't say what those were. That was impolite, and doesn't happen any more. (Except to note that in this build we totally have, and still won't).</em></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/slack-messaging-app-productivity-changing-world-almost-didnt-exist-2015-6">The crazy story behind Slack, the app taking over offices everywhere</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="JhdWpndToUXSL-KL9_QmQmqdLNBGXTQs" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Slack - the messenger app that's changing the workplace - just got even better

<p><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"></div><p class="source">Owen Thomas, Business Insider</p><p class="caption"><keyword id="6363100" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Yahoo">Yahoo</keyword> CEO <keyword id="319703" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Marissa-Mayer">Marissa Mayer</keyword> at the 2013 Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference</p></div>At the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is proving an engaging speaker.</p>
<p>Turning to the audience, she asked, "How many of you have read an <keyword id="29411" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="email">email</keyword> on your phone and marked it unread so you could read it on your PC later?"</p>
<p>A lot of hands went up. Mayer raised hers, too.</p>
<p>That's an obvious example of a problem with mobile email that needs to get fixed.</p>
<p>And Mayer has consistently said mail is one of the core products Yahoo is going to focus on.</p>
<p>Yahoo made a big leap in email <a href="http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2004/10/01/8186689/index.htm">eight years ago when it bought Oddpost</a>, an innovative Web-mail startup.</p>
<p>Maybe it could do the same by buying, say, Orchestra, the maker of Mailbox, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mailbox-app-for-iphone-2013-1">an email app that has nearly half a million people on its waitlist</a> clamoring to download it?</p>
<p>Mailbox isn't a cure-all for email, but it does solve that saving-an-email-for-later problem Mayer talked about.</p>

Marissa Mayer Hints At One Way Yahoo Could Fix Email

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/comedynose/4739614082/sizes/o/in/photostream/">Flickr/comedy_nose</a></span></p></div><p></p></div>A couple years ago, I learned <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/26-year-old-who-sold-a-70-million-company-explains-how-you-can-use-your-inbox-better-2012-5">the best way to keep my email account near inbox zero</a>.</p>
<p>The secret is to not look at my iPhone or open Gmail unless I can do something right then and there with every unread email.</p>
<p>What this means in practice is that I'll be standing in an elevator and I'll look at my mail app and do one of three things with every unread email I have at that moment.</p>
<p>I'll either…</p>
<ul>
<li><span style="line-height: 1.5em; color: #222222;">Fire off a super quick, one or two sentence response right then and there. (5% of emails)</span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 1.5em; color: #222222;">Write a full, thoughtful response because the email is from an extremely important sender. (1% of emails)</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 1.5em;">Archive the email, still unread. (74% of emails)</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 1.5em;">Or, if the email requires a more thoughtful response, mark it read and then flag it. (20% of emails)</span></li>
</ul>
<p>Usually it takes me at least a day or two - and sometimes a week or more - to get to all my flagged emails and give them the responses they deserve.</p>
<p>My point is to say that most of the of the time, reaching me by email is a slow way to get a response from me.</p>
<p>Even if you are someone that I think is somewhat important, sending a message that I have deemed important to respond to, I will not get to you for at least two days.</p>
<p>That's surprisingly long period of time, considering that email is technically an instant communication. It turns out delivery speed is no longer the rate limiter on how fast a certain type of communication gets a response.</p>
<p>Sometimes I worry that because email is instant, I'm angering people when I don't respond instantly.</p>
<p>What would be handy is for there to be a new, broad understanding of how we should all reach other when we need responses within a certain amount of time.</p>
<p>We need new rules on when you should text, when you should call, when you should email.</p>
<p>The good news is that <a href="http://www.cyrusstoller.com/about.html">a consultant named Cyrus Stoller</a> has come up with some.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cyrusstoller.com/2014/01/08/stop-sending-emails-for-real-time-requests/">On his blog</a>, Stoller says that because everyone has smartphones now, we all need to start using multiple channels to reach other instead of just email or phone.</p>
<p><strong>He says that if you want a response from him in…</strong></p>
<p><strong>…30 minutes, you should call him. "</strong>This gives you an opportunity to make sure I understand exactly what you need done and you know exactly when I received your request. If you don't feel comfortable interrupting what I'm doing to make a request to me directly then it probably isn't that urgent and can wait a little while."</p>
<p><strong>…two hours, you should text him.</strong> "This gives me time to gracefully wind down what I'm doing and call you back."</p>
<p><strong>…sometime today, you should IM him.</strong> "Instant message works well for slightly more asynchronous communication. You're interested in getting a short response promptly, but it doesn't need to be right away. This is less disruptive than calling or texting. This works well when you need to find out a concrete piece of information before you can proceed."</p>
<p><strong>…a day or later, email him.</strong> "Most people I know feel like they have too many emails to deal with. Think twice about whether email is the right way to communicate your information. You should expect email threads to be truly asynchronous."</p>
<p>So. Those are the new rules. Everyone good?</p>
<p>Oisín Hurley, a reader of Stoller's blog and the founder of a startup called Converser.io, created a useful image the rest of us can use for reference to remember the new rules.</p>
<p>Here you go:</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://gettingintou.ch/?ref=origin">Oisín Hurley's</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p> </p>

These Are The New Rules For When To Email, When To Text, And When To Call

<p><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"></div><p class="source">Reuters/Ueslei Marcelino</p></div>With new <keyword id="6354606" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="iPhone">iPhone</keyword> app Triage, we may finally have a decent solution to <keyword id="29411" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="email">email</keyword> overload.</p>
<p><span>The point of Triage is to keep things as easy as possible.</span></p>
<p>Users can quickly flip through messages and either archive, reply with a quick message on the spot, or keep message unread to get to later.</p>
<p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/triage-email-first-aid/id626094320?mt=8">Triage is available for iPhone for $1.99.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2013/04/18/triage">Apple blogger John Gruber</a> said that after using Triage for a while, "I'm more caught up on my email than I have been in years."<span></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">There are so many products and services meant to lighten the email load, but many just make it more of a chore. We thought </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mailbox-app-for-iphone-2013-1">ultra-hyped app Mailbox</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> would be the solution to our email issues but it wasn't. Triage is a welcome </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">alternative.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>Triage works with Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and iCloud with support for more email services on the way.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>Want to see what it looks like and how it works?</span></span></p>

New iPhone Email App Makes It Simple To Clear Your Inbox 

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>US worker productivity has been declared dead by some economists.</p><p>Northwestern University economist Robert Gordon recently <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0131KW67U/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&amp;btkr=1&amp;tag=bisafetynet-20">argued</a> that the productivity surge seen by American workers in the middle of the 20th century won't be repeated thanks in part because we won't see such dramatic technological gains in the future.</p><p>Meanwhile, Larry Summers <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-productivity-growth-2016-3">expressed</a> something similar with "secular stagnation," although his argument focused more on what interest rate is need to pump up demand.</p><p>However, Deutsche Bank's Stuart Kirk floated another much simpler idea: Americans aren't as productive because we're getting bogged down with too many emails.</p><p><span>"Coincidentally, US economic output would also be one-third higher today but for a mysterious productivity slowdown starting [in] 1971. Economists might note that was when [the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-man-who-invented-email-has-died-2016-3">inventor of modern email</a> Raymond] Tomlinson first hit send," he wrote in a note to clients.</span></p><p>Email has become an essential part of work life especially in in the services sector.</p><p>In fact, in <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-work-emails-idUSKCN0QV1I620150826">an online survey of 400 US white-collar adult workers conducted in August 2015</a><span>, workers estimated that they spend 6.3 hours a day checking emails, with 3.2 hours devoted to work emails and 3.1 hours to personal messages.</span></p><p><span><span>The same survey also found that nearly 80% of respondents said they look at emails before getting to the office, and 30% said they checked their emails in bed in the morning. About 50% said they check email on vacation.</span></span></p><p><span><span><span>Moreover, Kirk cited YouGov data that the average American is weighed down with 500 unread emails.</span></span></span> </p><p>By comparison, you have successful folks like Warren Buffett and Ben Bernanke who steered clear of junk mail. As Kirk wrote in his note:</p><p style="padding-left: 60px;">"As Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke used edward.quince@frb.gov, a pseudonym to avoid 'extraneous emails.' Meanwhile Warren Buffett reportedly shuns email altogether and infuriatingly suffers no apparent drop in performance. Perhaps that offers a clue to email's true cost. Given that it devours one-quarter of the average office worker's time, renouncing email may logically boost Mr Buffett's productivity by one-third."</p><p>So, the basic argument here is that neither Buffett nor Bernanke waste a huge amount of time per day going through unnecessary emails, and therefore, both can use that time for efficiently and productively.</p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>FRED</span></p><p class="caption">Real output per hour of all persons, 1947-2015.</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p><span>On the flip side of the argument, 92% of working adults said that the internet has not hurt their productivity at work, <span>according to a </span><a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/12/30/email-and-the-internet-are-the-dominant-technological-tools-in-american-workplaces/">survey by Pew Research</a><span> from last year.</span></span></p><p><span>46% saying of them said the internet made them more productive, and the other 46% saying it has not impacted their productivity at all. (Although, perhaps it is difficult to objectively judge one's own productivity.)</span></p><p>In any case, giving up email Buffett-style is probably unrealistic for many American workers for whom email is an essential part of the job.</p><p>But it still interesting to consider how email could have affected worker productivity.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-use-q-tips-to-clean-your-ears-2016-3">Here's why you should never put Q-Tips in your ears</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="Nrb3Q4MTE6lwnAMmIXjHfqYBHd7L6bF8" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Email might be making American workers less productive

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"><p class="source">REUTERS/Stringer</p><p class="caption">The <keyword id="6379474" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="CDC">CDC</keyword> is no longer monitoring <keyword id="43544" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Flu">flu</keyword> outbreaks. </p></div><p></p></div>The U.S. Government's Centers For <keyword id="6361612" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="disease">Disease</keyword> Control had to furlough 68% of its staff due to the government shutdown.</p>
<p>These staff include those who monitor global and national outbreaks of disease and conduct research.</p>
<p>CDC director Thomas R Frieden talked to <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/10/cdc-shutdown-director/" target="_blank">Wired Science Superbug blogger Maryn McKenna</a> about the impact the shutdown has had. Here are just a few of the unbelievable things he said: </p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">"We're used to juggling things at CDC, but this is like <strong>juggling chain saws</strong>."</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">"... </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">our monitoring systems throughout the agency are working at really skeletal levels and that means we <strong>have more blind spots</strong>, we may be slower to respond, and we may be less effective at prevention."</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">"</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">If I had to use one phrase to describe what's happening: <strong>This is a self-inflicted wound</strong>."</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">"</span><strong style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> </strong><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">I did a back-of-the-envelope calculation. For every day of government shutdown, about <strong>one million e-mails at CDC go unread</strong> - millions of pieces of information. "</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">"</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">All of us have a mass of emotions about the shutdown: frustration; anxiety, about what are we missing; guilt, about why are we <strong>not doing the things we have committed to</strong>. And there's anger, that we aren't being allowed to serve the people we want to serve.</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">"</span></li>
</ul>
<p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/10/cdc-shutdown-director/" target="_blank"><span style="line-height: 22.5px;">Read the entire Q&amp;A at Wired Science &gt;</span></a></p>

The CDC Is Ignoring 1 Million Emails A Day During The Government Shutdown

<p>A nearly universal criticism of <keyword id="656949" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Windows-8">Windows 8</keyword> is that the built-in <keyword id="6354741" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Apps">apps</keyword> for email, calendar, and contacts were poorly designed and difficult to use. </p>
<p>Tomorrow, <keyword id="10387" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Microsoft">Microsoft</keyword> will release an overhaul to those three apps with new designs and features. </p>
<p>Here's a breakdown of what will change:</p>
<h2>Mail </h2>
<p>The native email app now lets you better manage multiple email accounts and filter your inbox so you only see unread messages. You can also create and edit folders, an essential feature that was missing from the last version of the email app.</p>
<p>It looks like this:</p>
<p><div class="image-container" style="width:610px"><div class="image"></div><p class="source">Microsoft</p></div></p>
<h2>Calendar</h2>
<p>The calendar app has a new look with color-coded events that help you keep your personal and work calendars separate. It looks a lot cleaner than the last version. Unfortunately, it won't sync with your Google Calendar anymore as Google has removed support for it. </p>
<p>Here's a look at the new calendar app:</p>
<p><div class="image-container" style="width:610px"><div class="image"></div><p class="source">Microsoft</p></div></p>
<h2>People</h2>
<p>The Windows 8 contacts management app called People already integrates with your social networks like Facebook and Twitter, but the new version makes navigation easier. There's a toolbar at the top of the app that lets you filter different feeds. You can also write wall posts on Facebook using People. (Facebook hasn't made an app for Windows 8 yet.)</p>
<p>Here's a look at the new navigation bar in the People app:</p>
<p><table class="image-container" width="200"><tr><td><div class="image"></div><p class="source">Microsoft</p></td></tr></table></p>
<p>You'll be able to get the new apps as software updates in the Windows 8 app store starting tomorrow.</p>

Microsoft Will Overhaul A Bunch Of Its Key Windows 8 Apps Tomorrow

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Snap</span></p><p class="caption">Meet the new Snapchat.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>Snapchat's biggest redesign ever simplifies the app into three main windows and separates all communication with friends from being shown next to professionally produced content.</strong></li><li><strong>A new Discover feed shows algorithmically sorted content from <keyword id="6354777" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Media">media</keyword> partners and verified celebrities. Unlike Facebook, Snap employees will approve everything that appears in its content feed.</strong></li><li><strong>The redesign will be made available to a small percentage of users later this week before rolling out to everyone early next week.</strong></li></ul><p><br />After years of aversion, Snapchat is embracing the feed.</p><p>The biggest redesign in the app's six-year history, announced Wednesday, features a new kind of algorithmically sorted feed that borrows ideas from the likes of Facebook and Netflix.</p><p>Instead of showing posts from friends alongside content from professional publishers like Facebook, the new Snapchat separates all interactions with friends in a different section of the app to the left of the camera. That includes messaging threads and so-called "Stories" - photos and videos someone shares in chronological order that disappear in 24 hours.</p><p>In a move aimed at simplifying Snapchat's historically confusing design, the app is now divided into three main windows: all interactions with friends on the left, the camera in the center, and the Discover page on the right with an endless feed of content from media partners and public figures. Business Insider <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/snapchat-redesign-planned-for-december-4-2017-11">first reported</a> details of the planned redesign earlier this month.</p><p>While once the darling app of the tech world, Snapchat has failed to meet Wall Street's growth expectations since going public earlier this year. And as Facebook has successfully copied some of Snapchat's core features in Instagram, parent company Snap Inc. is looking to this redesign as a way to kick-start lackluster growth and make its app more appealing to a wider user base.</p><h2>Separating friends from publishers</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Snap</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>One of the main goals of Snapchat's redesign, which will be made available first to a small percentage of users later this week, was to lessen the confusion around the previous app's Stories page to the right of the camera. The page previously included Stories shared by friends alongside content from Discover, Snapchat's hub for media partners like The Daily Mail and BuzzFeed. Private messages threads with friends meanwhile existed to the left of the camera, two swipes away from the Stories they shared.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Snap</span></p><p class="caption">How the old Snapchat worked.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The new window to the left of the camera will now only show message threads and Stories from friends. Unread messages from friends will be shown at the top of the window in chronological order while other message threads and Stories will be shown algorithmically based on who Snapchat believes you care about most. Snapchat will use signals like how often you communicate with certain users or view their Stories to determine the ranking.</p><p>Profile information, including your yellow QR "Snapcode," is visible above conversations with friends instead of in a separate window above the camera. Snapchat has reintroduced auto-playing Stories after it killed the feature last year. Snap Map, the feature that shows your friends' locations on a map, is still accessible by pinching out the camera view but will also be shown more in search and next to peoples' profiles.</p><h2>A social media feed with no friends</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Snap</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>During Snap's last earnings call with investors, CEO Evan Spiegel said that the planned redesign would address some of the "shortcomings" of feed-based social networks like Facebook or Twitter. By keeping friend-based communication separate from content created by professionals in the feed, Snap is trying to avoid what it sees as a pitfall of continually requiring users to add more friends to see more content.</p><p>The new Snapchat Discover page will feature a personalized feed of content from the app's more than 70 media partners along with Stories around breaking news events and specific locations, which are sourced from public videos shared by users and edited by humans at Snap.</p><p>Each feed will be ranked based on the user's historical viewing habits and the media brands they've chosen to subscribe to. The decision to approve which individuals and media partners make it into the feed is similar to Netflix's approach and further separates Snapchat from more open platforms like Facebook and YouTube.</p><p>With the redesign, Snapchat will also feature Stories shared by what it calls popular accounts. If a Snapchat user is starting to gain traction and grow his or her following, Snapchat's editors will look at the account and decide to feature it in the Discover feed.</p><p>A Snap spokesperson declined to explain exactly which factors would contribute to an account being featured, but did acknowledge that the decision was aimed at fostering the kinds of native internet celebrities that thrive on platforms like YouTube. Snapchat has <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/snapchat-cozies-up-to-internet-celebrities-giving-verified-official-stories-2017-8">historically ignored</a> this class of power user to date.</p><p>Ways for individual creators to make money will be introduced in 2018. Popular accounts that Snap has vetted will also have detailed analytics for their public Stories for the first time.</p><h2>An opportunity to better target</h2><p>Besides the videos ads that already run between content on the Discover page now, the new feed will also include Snapchat's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/snapchat-adding-promoted-stories-on-discover-with-hbo-as-first-buyer-2017-11">recently-introduced Promoted Stories</a>. Advertisers will be able to buy slots in Discover from Snap's sales team that look similar to non-sponsored Story content from other publishers. Promoted Stories are shown to all Snapchat users now but could eventually be targeted to certain users and available through the company's self-service ad auction.</p><p>While a feed-based system is unproven with Snapchat's youthful user base, the redesign represents an opportunity for Snap to better target its ads at a time when investors question the business's ability to grow. CEO Evan Spiegel has historically been against the kind of highly targeted ads that have been Facebook and Google billions, but Snap has recently made an effort to make its ads more customizable and accessible.</p><p>The redesign will made available first to a small percentage of users later this week and then roll out more broadly early next week, according to a Snap spokesperson.</p><p class="tagline">Get the latest Snap stock price<a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/stock/SNAP-Quote"> here.</a></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/espn-sportscenter-snapchat-disney-2017-11">Is SportsCenter on Snapchat a good idea? Disney and ESPN think so</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

This is the biggest redesign in Snapchat's history

<p id="page-title"><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"><p class="source">Peter Muhly/AFP/File</p></div><p></p></div>What's the most difficult thing every successful person has to deal with?</p>
<p>Rejection.</p>
<p>Recent <a href="Alice%20Munro">Nobel Prize winner Alice Munro made headlines</a> when an archive of her rejection letters were found through the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.</p>
<p>One letter, written by Knopf editor Judith Jones in 1968 in response to Munro's book "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Happy-Shades-Other-Stories/dp/067978151X">Dance of the Happy Shades</a>," says there is "nothing particularly new and exciting" about the short stories and calls Munro "not that young."</p>
<p>Today, Munro is the first Canadian and 13th woman to win the Nobel Prize in literature.</p>
<p>She isn't the only successful person to receive heart-wrenching rejection letters. C.S. Lewis received 800 rejections before he sold his first piece of writing, and <a href="http://www.today.com/books/fight-what-you-believe-how-best-selling-authors-battled-rejection-6C10971491">Mary Higgins Clark spent six years</a> trying to get her first novel published, which she sold for $100. Forty years after that first novel, Clark accepted a $64 million book deal with Simon Schuster in the 1990s.</p>
<p><span>Below are six rejection letters that now-famous people once received:</span></p>
<p><strong>This 1968 <keyword id="1923194" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Rejection-Letter">rejection letter</keyword> for "Dance of the Happy Shades" calls Munro's work "easily overlooked" and "forgotten."</strong></p>
<p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><a href="http://blogs.utexas.edu/culturalcompass/2013/10/23/knopf-archive-alice-munro/">Harry Ransom Center / The University of Texas at Austin</a></p></div><p></p></div></div></strong></p>
<p><strong>Before he became famous for masterpieces such as "Beetlejuice" and "The Nightmare before Christmas," Tim Burton was rejected by Disney.</strong></p>
<p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><a href="http://thesnowballeffekt.blogspot.com/2012/01/sweet-sting-of-rejection.html">Snowball Effekt</a></p></div><p></p></div><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>Famed fantasy writer Ursula K. Le Guin posted a rejection letter that calls her book "unreadable" on her web site to remind others to "hang in there."</strong></p>
<p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><a href="http://www.ursulakleguin.com/Reject.html">Ursula K. Le Guin</a></p></div><p></p></div></div><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>Author Gertrude Stein was probably fuming when she got this letter from publisher Arthur C. Fifield mocking her manuscript of "Three Lives."</strong></p>
<p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"><p class="source">Random House</p></div><p></p></div></span></p>
<p><strong>After mailing The Atlantic three samples of his work, Kurt Vonnegut received this rejection letter from editor Edward Weeks in 1949. It now hangs in the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library in Indianapolis.</strong></p>
<p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source">Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library in Indianapolis</p></div><p></p></div></div></strong></p>
<p><strong>In 1956, MoMA declined to accept Andy Warhol's drawing titled "Shoe," which he gave the museum as a gift. MoMA now owns 168 pieces by the artist.</strong></p>
<p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><a href="https://twitter.com/MuseumModernArt">MOMA / Twitter</a></p></div><p></p></div></div></strong></p>

6 Famous People Who Have Received Brutal Rejection Letters

<p><div class="image-container" style="width:610px"><div class="image"></div><p class="source">Kevin Smith/Business Insider</p></div></p>
<p>I do not have a good relationship with email.</p>
<p>On a typical weekday I get several dozen PR pitches, most of which only receive a cursory glance before being thrown in the trash.</p>
<p>I treat everything else as a to-do list: notes from my editors, upcoming event invites, and story ideas; they all sit in my inbox as a reminder, "Hey, you have to do this really important thing. Eventually."</p>
<p>I get so many emails that it makes reaching the elusive goal of inbox zero nearly impossible. As soon as I delete an email for a completed task, another one...or six pop up.</p>
<p>So I was really excited when people started talking about Mailbox, an <keyword id="6354606" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="iPhone">iPhone</keyword> app that syncs with your Gmail account and encourages you to get down to inbox zero as quickly as possible. I've been using the app for a week, and with one big exception when the company's servers had a hiccup and caused the service to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mailbox-app-is-down-2013-2">go down for most of the day</a>, Mailbox has been an absolute blessing.</p>
<p>Here's how it works:</p>
<p>By default, the app's notification badge tells you how many messages are still sitting in your inbox. Not unread messages, but total messages. If you're as obsessive with your inbox as I am, that encourages you to check the app and deal with it right away. If you're not ready to deal with an email, you can swipe it out of your inbox and tell it to return later when you are.</p>
<p>It looks like this:</p>
<p><div class="image-container" style="width:300px"><div class="image"></div><p class="source">Screenshot</p></div></p>
<p>You also have the option to swipe the message to the right and delete or archive it. Even if I have a dozen or more emails waiting for me when I wake up in the morning, I can blast through my inbox in a few seconds. I've never used an email app that's so efficient.</p>
<p>Of course, Mailbox isn't for everyone, and there are still a few quirks I'd like to see fixed. Mailbox only syncs with Gmail, so if you use Yahoo, Outlook, or Exchange, you're out of luck. (Although I'm sure Mailbox plans to add more of those services once it gets through the initial launch).</p>
<p>If you are a Gmail user, but you rely on filters and folders, you're out of luck too. Mailbox only pulls in messages stored in your inbox and the "All Mail" section of Gmail. And finally, Mailbox won't let you search your archived messages, <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">meaning you'll have to check your computer or the </span><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gmail-email-from-google/id422689480?mt=8">regular Gmail app</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> if you need to find something.</span></p>
<p>And finally, it's only available for iPhone, but the company has said it's working on desktop and Android versions. (Keep in mind Mailbox is still a tiny startup, so it could be awhile before it lands on other platforms).</p>
<p>Drawbacks aside, Mailbox largely fixes a problem most of us have with email: quickly getting rid of the junk we don't want, and saving the stuff we do for later. You'll want to <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mailbox/id576502633?mt=8">give it a try</a>.</p>

The Closest Anyone Has Come To Fixing Email

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>The first thing you notice when using Mailbox for Mac is its striking simplicity.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The stark white layout uses color sparingly to emphasize important features rather than for decoration, and the result is a cutting-edge email app that strips away the clutter and lets you focus on what's important: chipping away at that inbox.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Mailbox for Mac is the natural evolution of the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mailbox-launches-for-iphone-2013-2">wildly popular Mailbox iPhone app</a>. Besides featuring a similar design aesthetic, the desktop version meshes perfectly with its handhold counterpart, even offering some handy interconnectivity for those using both.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Minimalistic email apps are nothing new, however, so Mailbox for Mac has introduced a handful of intuitive features to convince you defect.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Most of these features help minimize the time spent dealing with your inbox, and they're all carried out by swiping your mouse left or right over an email's preview pane.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">A short swipe to the right archives your messages, but if you drag out the motion just a bit further the message turns from green to red, and you can easily send it Trash. The same principle works with leftward swipes: a short swipe left and you'll "Snooze" the message, saving it for later, and a longer swipe left lets you send it to a specific List or folder.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Here's how it looks in practice.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div><br /></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">If swiping isn't for you, Mailbox has included the same action buttons in a small toolbar.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Snooze is by far the best feature of Mailbox. Instead of starring or leaving an important email unread so you'll remember it later, snoozing it lets you deal with an email without truly taking action.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right" style="width:276px"><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div>For example, you can choose to snooze an important non-work email for later in the evening, and Mailbox will momentarily hide it, only to place it at the top of your inbox later that night. There are options to snooze messages until the weekend, next week, later today, next month, or anything in between.</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><br /></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">If you use the Mailbox app for iPhone, you can snooze an email that requires a detailed response and send it to your desktop so it's waiting at the top of your inbox when you return to your work computer. If you need to address an email on the go, the reverse works too, so you can send it from desktop to mobile and it'll be waiting for you the next time you open the app on your iPhone.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Mailbox also learns from your actions, and its Auto-swipe feature picks up on your habits. Say you find yourself in a never-ending email chain. If Mailbox notices that you always send a certain promotional email to Trash, Auto-swipe might pop up and suggest sending all future messages from that company directly to Trash. It's a great way to cut down on annoying emails, and it all means less time spent in your inbox.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Mailbox's simplistic layout also applies to sending emails.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Composing an email brings up a white paper-like window while Mailbox dims the background.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image"><a title_source="Screenshot" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53f66797eab8ea980e84938b-960/qjzrfnc9-j8zxlwtjgozmc0hytzicbkvbukg1okd9rc.png"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>Screenshot</span></p></div><p></p></div></div><br /></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">If you need to multitask, you can simply move the window around or off to the side.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">It's also important to note that Mailbox for Mac is also extremely fast. Messages pushed from mobile to desktop appear almost instantaneously. Mailbox technically only loads your email previews, giving it an edge over Gmail and other email clients that store cached versions of all your past messages.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">So should you make the switch to Mailbox?</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">It all depends on the type of email experience you're comfortable with. If you already use the Mailbox iPhone app, it's a no-brainer, as the interconnectivity alone makes it worth it.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">But if you prefer to click and see all the tiny details of an email client at one glance, Mailbox's streamlined layout might not be for you. Sure, it's simpler, but that can mean more poking around for less-used featured or settings. Also, </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Mailbox currently only supports Gmail and iCloud accounts, so Yahoo, Outlook, and Exchange users are out of luck. But the Mailbox team is thinking about adding support for Yahoo and Exchange in the future.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">There's no doubt, however, that Mailbox does fit in better with the overall look and feel of Apple's ecosystem <span>-</span> it even gives the native Mail app a run for its money. But for those who have spent years learning and solidifying the ins and outs of Gmail into muscle memory, you might be better off sticking to the familiar. </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">It really boils down to how willing you are to change your habits.</span></p>
<p>Mailbox for Mac is still in its beta, so if you're looking to give it a try you'll need to <a href="http://www.mailboxapp.com/">head on over to the official website and request a beta version</a>.</p>

The Best Way To Manage Your Email Is Now On Mac

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Before last May, my inbox had thousands of messages in it. At this very moment, I have inbox 0 - no unread messages.</p>
<p>Achieving and maintaining inbox 0 for the past eight months is a source of pride. I'm not an organized person, as my parents or any former roommate can attest. So for me, it's a particularly awesome accomplishment.</p>
<p>I didn't achieve this great feat with a fancy mailbox-managing app. I don't even have the Gmail app on my phone. Here's how I miraculously managed my inbox 0.</p>
<p><strong>Pick A Day To S<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">tart Fresh </span></strong></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">I remember the first day I achieved Inbox 0. It was Monday May 12, a slow-news spring day, and I had time to kill between stories. I seized the opportunity and spent the entire day tackling my inbox, pausing only for breaking news. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">I had about 4,000 emails then; some had been sitting there for months waiting for me to take action. I began with the oldest emails, highlighting the entire page (Gmail shows 50 line items page), then unchecked only truly important, still relevant messages. All the remaining highlighted emails were deleted. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">I continued this process for 80-some pages. By the time I was done a had a more manageable number of messages, a few hundred, to deal with. I replied, starred, archived and deleted the remaining messages as necessary until at last, inbox 0 was achieved. It took hours.</span></p>
<p>You may find it easiest to simply mass delete every message in your inbox at once, without scanning every email like I did. It takes less time, and once you pull the trigger, there's no turning back. The relief you'll feel fom inbox 0 may outweigh the guilt you'll feel deleting thousands of messages without reading them. I couldn't do that.</p>
<p>Either way, maintaining inbox 0 requires you to actually get to inbox zero in the first place. So pick a day to finally deal with all the emails you've been putting off, and just get it done.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p><strong>Spot Types Of Emails That Pile Up And Purge Them</strong></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">If you're like me, you probably get a lot of junk emails. Some can be minimized by unsubscribing from lists, which I now do more than ever. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>Scheduling meetings also results in long email chains. I now archive or delete every chain once I've replied and am expecting a response. I figure I've done my part to pick a date, and the email will resurface again when the other party replies. In the meantime, the chain won't be clogging up my inbox.</span></span></p>
<p><strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Delete As If You Have No Heart</span></strong></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">My inbox was also full of story pitches from people I don't know, asking me to write about things that aren't a good fit for my beat or Business Insider. Those can be deleted in bulk, or dealt with in a sentence or two response.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">What about when you're on vacation or traveling and the emails pile up?</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">I tend to think being out of the office is a freebee for guiltless, mass deleting of messages that aren't from someone internal or high priority.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">If you put up an auto out-of-office reply, then everyone who emails you knows A.) they're reaching you at a not-ideal time, and B.) when you're returning.  If they really need you, your responder will tell them when you're back, and they can try again. A lot of my emails are timely news items anyhow, so they're out of date by the time I return.</span></p>
<p>My rule of thumb is to delete often, without guilt or remorse, particularly if you don't know the senders. You're protecting your sanity and making sure important messages don't get missed in the clutter.</p>
<p><strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The Archive And Star Features Are Your Friends</span></strong></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">For emails that still need attending to or need to be kept for future reference, there are the glorious star and archive features. While my inbox is 0, I have 119 starred messages that are out of sight but can easily be revisited any time. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Gmail gives you a ton of memory space to work with. Despite my massive amount of archiving, I've only used up 38% of my 30 GB. So archive away, you can always keyword search your inbox later to retrieve a message.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"></div><p></p></div><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Don't Let More Than 50 Emails Pile Up</span></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Inbox 0 is only maintainable if you keep your emails manageable. When the pileup gets overwhelming, it's easy to throw up your hands and just let it get worse.</span></p>
<p>I now never let my emails get more than 1 page (50 emails) long. Checking mail often on my phone helps. This ensures I see everything that comes in. And I still delete like crazy.</p>
<p>Achieving and maintaining inbox 0 requires a certain mindset. You need to be motivated enough to do something about the mess and concerned enough about missing important messages that you keep it organized.</p>
<p>And now I have a dozen new emails to deal with.</p>

How A Completely Disorganized Person Managed To Maintain Inbox 0 For 8 Months

24. An International Amazon Mystery

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>AP Photo/Francois Mori</span></p></div><p></p></div>Office workers spend about <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2181680/Youve-got-mail-The-average-office-worker-spend-half-hours-writing-emails.html" target="_blank">two hours a day</a> on email.</p>
<p><span>Cal Newport, </span>author of <span>"</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Good-They-Cant-Ignore-You/dp/1455509124" target="_blank">So Good They Can't Ignore You</a>," <a href="http://calnewport.com/blog/2012/11/21/knowledge-workers-are-bad-at-working-and-heres-what-to-do-about-it/" target="_blank">argues</a> that this is terrible for your career. </p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">While sending emails might feel productive, he says, it doesn't help you grow your professional skill set. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">With that in mind, we gathered these time-saving hacks.  </span></p>
<h3>To stop typing the same thing all the time, use "canned responses" in Gmail. </h3>
<p>If you're always sending the same email - your address, your elevator pitch, your availabilities for the week - then craft a few canned<span style="background-color: #ffffff;"> responses in Gmail a</span>nd dish them out quickly.<span style="background-color: #ffff00;"><br /></span></p>
<p>To do so, open Gmail, click on settings, click on Labs, then "canned responses," and then click enable. Or watch this sweet walkthrough, care of blogger <a href="http://amylynnandrews.com/how-to-use-email-templates-to-save-time/" target="_blank">Amy Lynn Andrew</a>.  </p>
<p></p>
<h3>To avoid unnecessary emails, send a text, IM, or just walk on over. </h3>
<p>Productivity consultant Jason Womack <a href="http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220424#" target="_blank">says</a> to find a way to "escalate high-priority messages" with your colleagues.</p>
<p>If a matter is both urgent and important - and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/dwight-eisenhower-nailed-a-major-insight-about-productivity-2014-4">there is a difference</a> - use a different medium than email, like instant message, text, or just walking over to their desk. While emails get lost in a pile, a tap on the shoulder is hard to miss.</p>
<h3>Use "the Email Game" to hustle through your messages. </h3>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right" style="width:380px"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Screen Shot of the Email Game tutorial</span></p><p class="caption">The Email Game</p></div><p></p></div>If you want to have some fun and increase your pace as you churn through your inbox, play <a href="https://emailgame.baydin.com/index.html" target="_blank">the Email Game</a>, which turns sorting through emails into a type-as-fast-as-you-can web game. When you open up the Email Game, it syncs with your Gmail. It opens up one message at a time, which you deal with right away and then click onto the next one, all in a race against time. Productivity guru Tim Ferriss swears by it; <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5961603/im-tim-ferriss-and-this-is-how-i-work" target="_blank">he says</a> it doubles his inbox-cruising speed. <span style="background-color: #ffff00;"><br /></span></p>
<h3>To slow down the pace of incoming messages, get rigorous about un-subscribing.</h3>
<p>If most of your messages are spam or unread newsletters, get rid of them. How? <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5837692/destroy-unwanted-email-ads-by-filtering-the-word-unsubscribe" target="_blank">Set a filter for the word "unsubscribe"</a> - which should catch all those unwanted mass mailings - and archive all that stuff immediately. This way you're not actually unsubscribing to the emails, which might have searchable value down the line, you're just shoveling them into a folder.<span style="background-color: #ffff00;"><br /></span></p>
<h3>To sprint through your inbox like an Olympian runs a race, get to know how your email client works.</h3>
<p>Business Insider has done a lot of the work for you: watch <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/gmail-tips-manage-your-inbox-2014-1" target="_blank">this video</a> on mastering Gmail or <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-outlook-email-tips-2014-3" target="_blank">this rundown</a> on Outlook productivity hacks.  </p>
<h3>To compress your inbox for speed, stop using your email as a to-do list.</h3>
<p>Using your inbox as a to-do list <a href="http://www.businessknowhow.com/internet/emailtime.htm" target="_blank">is dangerous</a>. Any email you don't act on immediately will get pushed down to the bottom of your inbox by the end of the day. For a better to-do list, try <a href="https://www.any.do/" target="_blank">Any.do</a> or <a href="https://trello.com/" target="_blank">Trello</a>.</p>
<h3>To aid with sorting the good from the bad, enlist some algorithmic help.</h3>
<p>When Harvard Business Review editor Sarah Green set out on a quest <a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/04/8-ways-not-to-manage-your-email-and-5-tactics-that-work/" target="_blank">to conquer her inbox</a>, she realized she was relying too much on herself.<span style="background-color: #ffff00;"><br /></span></p>
<p><span>"I stopped expecting a human brain to solve a problem created by technology," she writes. "I used to feel bad - really bad - when important emails would get lost in the impenetrable wall of unimportant near-spam that took over my inbox every day." </span></p>
<p>She opted for <a href="https://www.sanebox.com/" target="_blank">SaneBox</a>, an algorithmic filtering app that learns what your most important messages are. Those are guided into your now-tidy inbox, while the filtered-out emails are filed away into a "SaneLater" folder. </p>
<h3>To prevent from getting overwhelmed, make a careful routine. </h3>
<p data-textannotation-id="f36fb344b7c45452f2a8a41ba9589862">Some of the greatest artists have had <a href="http://www.businessinsider.my/daily-routines-of-geniuses-2014-3/" target="_blank">rigorous daily routines</a>. LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner shows a similar commitment to sculpting his days - how else could he communicate in a 4,300 person company? As he shared on a LinkedIn post, the routine goes <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130805150037-22330283-7-ways-to-manage-email-so-it-doesn-t-manage-you" target="_blank">like this</a>:<span style="background-color: #ffff00;"><br /></span></p>

<p data-textannotation-id="f36fb344b7c45452f2a8a41ba9589862"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"></span><span class="text-annotation-footnote-wrapper" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="annotateButton js_text-annotate text-annotation-button icon notranslate">When days get particularly hectic, Weiner says he loses the routine and consequently loses control of the inbox. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-exactly-how-to-form-a-habit-that-sticks-2014-4" target="_blank">Thus the importance of forming a habit that sticks</a>.  </span></span></p>
<h3>To save clicks and keystrokes, use keyboard shortcuts.</h3>
<p>For example, on <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/gmails-top-nine-hidden-features-2013-11">Gmail</a>, via Business Insider: </p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">(Ctrl + Enter) to send message</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">(Ctrl + .) to move to the next window</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">(Ctrl + Shift + c) to add Cc recipients</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">(Ctrl + Shift + b) to add Bcc recipients</span></li>
</ul>
<p>On <a href="http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-use-outlook-com-e-mail-with-keyboard-shortcuts/" target="_blank">Outlook.com</a>, via CNET:</p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">(R) to</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> Reply</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">(Shift+R) to</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> Reply all</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">(Shift+F) to </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Forward</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">(F7) to</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> Check spelling</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></li>
</ul>
<h3>To make emailing on a smartphone faster, use Mailbox. </h3>
<p>When Mailbox founder Gentry Underwood <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/3005538/email-universal-plague-can-mailbox-make-it-manageable-again" target="_blank">was first drawing up the app</a>, he realized that most mobile email clients were clunky ports of desktop experiences. So <span>Mailbox</span> redesigned the inbox for mobile friendliness. Unwieldy email threads get condensed down into chat-sized bubbles. Messages get archived with a swipe of a finger. To see more, <span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">watch this: <span style="background-color: #ffff00;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p></p>
<p> </p>
<h3>To avoid unnecessary work, quit with the filing system. </h3>
<p>Gmail and other clients allow you to set up filing systems to allow users to better organize their inboxes. But it can just get in the way.</p>
<p>"Email folders are categorically the worst way to look for email messages," <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/save-time-by-never-filing-an-email-again/" target="_blank">says</a> <span>Alex Moore, CEO of the email management service Baydin, the company behind the Email Game.</span></p>
<p><span> A folder system is self-defeating, he says, because even if you make a bunch of great folders, you might not recall where you put a given message. A search is way faster.</span></p>
<h3>To save you time and get your messages read, write shorter subject lines. </h3>
<p style="text-align: left;">Marketing company Retention Science <a href="http://lifehacker.com/keep-email-subjects-between-6-10-words-to-make-sure-the-1535933187" target="_blank">did an analysis of email replies</a> and found that "<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">emails with subject lines containing six to 10 words were the most effective at getting the recipient to open them up." </span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">As we've reported before, there's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-write-an-excellent-email-subject-line-2014-3">a science to subject lines</a>. </span></p>

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