Every developer should have a To, CC, and Other folder in Outlook.

You should have 3 main rules in order from most to least important:

1. Anything sent to me as a To goes to the To folder
2. Anything sent to me as a CC goes to the CC folder
3. Anything else gets sent to the Other folder.

You should never look at your original Inbox folder from this point on.

The To folder is where all of your import emails will be. The CC folder will be where informational things end up, but it should not contain emails that require your immediate attention. Check them once a day or every other day.

If your manager expects you to take immediate action on the item, tell him/her that it needs to be sent as a To. Anything in CC is just an FYI.

When you register to specific email lists, just add the rules above Other. For example, you might have a list that looks like this:

To me -> To
CC me -> CC
CookingDevs -> hobbies
SomeProductDevs -> someproduct
Sent to me -> Other

The Other folder ends up being a partial dumping ground and a catch-all guard against BCC which breaks your other email filters and against groups you may not even want to be in but you were added to anyways. I.e., if you’re subscribed to SomeProduct and someone BCCs that group, it’ll end up in Other here because it broke your rule above. Or some product team adds you to some random interest group you never wanted to be subscribed to.

Every few days I’ll prune my Other folder and make more rules on top of it, filtering out the things I’m interested in to their respective folders, junking them, or putting them in To if I really care.

That’s it. Enjoy your email productivity boost.

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