I wrote an email service that actually works for me and my ADHD.
Hi, I’m Hunter Perrin. I created an email service called Port87.
I have ADHD, and keeping my email organized has always been a struggle. Three years ago, I started using a new organization strategy for my email where I’d add plus tags and use filters to move them into labels, “hperrin+whatever@gmail”. This worked for a few months until I got lazy and stopped creating the filters. Then my inbox slowly became just as messy as before.
So I spent the last two years writing my own email service that does it automatically. You can’t even use your address without a label. Everything is organized based on the address you give out, so I have an address for everything.
Anyway, I wanted to share this with you guys. It’s my experience of using my own email service. Obviously, I’m biased, but I still think it’s a valid take on the struggles of email organization with ADHD. If nothing else, maybe the plus tag system can help you out with your current email provider. :)
IMO Gmail is just terrible. Back in 2004 it was cool, but it's UX has stagnated for a long time, and almost anything is better. We switched from Outlook to Gmail at work and it's been awful for me. I loved the way Outlook handled meetings and reminders. It was also much easier to identify important mail. Everything looks like junk in Gmail, no matter how I tweak the layout and filters.
Personally I use ProtonMail, and I just started using Zoho too, both are faster, cleaner, and overall a much better experience.
Gmail has also started putting ads that look like unread emails. We used to call software that tried to trick you into clicking ads “malware”.
Continue to call it malware, that's perfectly appropriate
I tried Proton, but there are so few features (search doesn't work like a 'normal' email provider) and it's very limited in general. I went for Fastmail instead which has storage, a great calendar (I work with multiple timezones and it's a lifesaver), and 'masked' email addresses so you can sign up for things and delete it later if you want.
Gmail supports IMAP, so just use any client you like?
That's an option for some, it's disabled by our enterprise policy. Anyway, that means setting up a third-party app on multiple systems - not a great solution unless you're in the mood for hosting a web client somewhere.