I started making a comment on Morgan's Inbox -1 blog post, but ended up with something lengthy enough to make a post on it's own.  So here it is.  Go read his article first, as this is really just an addendum.

I use Gmail's keyboard shortcuts, K and [.  K goes to the next email, [ goes to the next email and archives the one you were looking at.  So, I start with the first unread email in my inbox, skim it and hit K or [, depending on whether I need to take action.  That gets me to an inbox of only things that need action.  As, I just skimmed them, I'll take action on urgent items first.  And then, if I have time, address the others.  On the my daily ferry ride into the city, I'll clean up the non-urgent tasks.  You'll have to enable keyboard shortcuts from the settings.

Gmail also has great auto-categorization.  It's got the option to sort your emails into tabs: Primary, Social, Promotions, etc.  But, I don't like using those.  I don't get those tabs on my phone, so everything there is lumped together.  But, I do use the auto-category that is applied to get the tabs to work.  I've set up a filter to have any "bulk" email skip my inbox.  I then use Gmail's "Multiple Inbox" feature to display all unread bulk emails.  This keeps all my bulk email out of my inbox, but gives me a place to read them later, not to mention a great place to "mark all as read".

(category:social OR category:promotions OR category:updates OR category:purchases OR category:travel OR category:finance) AND !filename:invite.ics

Note: The last rule keeps invitations out of my bulk folder.

is:unread AND !in:inbox

I've been back-of-mind thinking about some subtle cultural issues in the tech industry.  We've heard at length about the obvious ones, the gender and age gaps, etc., but I've been trying to pinpoint particular unsavory traits that arise among developers.  I hadn't quite put my finger on anything.  But then, I was listening to JS Jabber (podcast; check it out), and one of their "picks of the day" referred me to Hacker School's manual.  In it, they have a section outlining a code of conduct which hit home.

They talk about Fear, and how it hinders their students from succeeding.  In particular, the fear of looking stupid, which keeps students from asking "Why?", or saying, "I don't understand."  This fear is perpatuated by traits that have developed within tech culture, and HS's code of conduct calls them out.  I don't want to simply copy pasta their write up into this post, so take a minute and go read through their Social Rules.

https://www.hackerschool.com/manual#sec-environment

They strike at the root of behavior I'd like to see go away.  I'm going to be particularly focused on ridding myself of these behaviors, as I know I'm a culprit.  Seeing a list makes these actions easier to keep in mind and address.