Distraction-free emailing with Mailmate on Mac

Email can eat up all your attention or can be a power tool to purposefully connect with your world. Setting a timebox is my tactic. I only read and answer mails in this slot. During the day I still want to send and find emails though, but I want to avoid seeing new emails that might derail me from my initial plan. Having a sensitive setup will help you with not getting disturbed by email during your day.

I use Mailmate, a powerfull customizable client. Here are my tipps for using it mindfully:

• Disable autosync for all your accounts so you decide when new email flows in
  • Right-click on sources
  • Synchronize schedule > Manual
• Go offline completely so certainly no new mails come in
  • Select all sources
  • Take offline
  • When you craft and send an email when being offline, it will just be sent when you go online again
• Select an empty folder before quitting the application
  • Mailmate will open with the last selected folder
  • I created a search folder that never returns a result with the criteria: From > contains > RANDOMLONGSTRING
  • I named this folder 🙂
• Disable all counters
  • Select all folder > Right-click > Count > None
  • Select all sources > Right-click > Count > None
• If you wait for a email – like a 2-factor auth code – that you need to receive outside of your mail time, set a specific search with “from” or “subject” and refresh the specific mailbox/source only