How NudgeMail Takes Priority Inbox To A New Level By Sending You More Email

We all get email. Sometimes we get too much email. And we’ve all tried to find some way to put together some sort of system or process to get around to the ones that are important. And while we can’t quite reach the proverbial “inbox zero” as quickly as we’d like or as often as we want, all hope is not lost. Several months ago, one of the most popular email systems, Gmail, announced the introduction of Priority Inbox. While probably productive, Priority Inbox only is applicable to Gmail and requires some time to implement since it’s based on user behavior to determine what is truly important.

Is there at least a semi-universal system or service out there that could help alleviate the pain and anguish that we have when it comes to email overload? Just how can we prioritize our communications to make sure that we’ll not just think we’ll get back to someone, but in fact actually do that? Why yes…there does appear to be a solution – and it’s called NudgeMail.

Created by Stage Two founder Jeremy Toeman (@jtoeman), NudgeMail is designed for easy use and will work for anyone signed up for the service regardless of the email provider you’re using. So it doesn’t matter whether you use Entourage, Outlook, Hotmail, Yahoo! or even Gmail. While still in private beta, it’s growing at a pretty good rate with hundreds of thousands of users already. The best thing is that you don’t even need to create another username and password that you’ll keep forgetting. Just sign up and then set your reminders how you want.

How does NudgeMail work?

In less than two simple steps, you’ll be able to get NudgeMail working for you. Say you have a co-worker sending you an email requesting some important information, but currently you’re booked with something more pressing. If you were using NudgeMail, all you would have to do is send an email to nudge@nudgemail.com. Yes, that’s it…just forward that email to NudgeMail and in the subject line, enter in the day, date or time that you’d want the email to be sent back to you. And you don’t even need to adhere to a specific syntax – you can enter in things like “tomorrow”, “4 hours” or even a specific date. Then enter in the body copy that you want and send it away. That’s it!

But it doesn’t have to be limited to existing emails either. You can leverage NudgeMail as a means of being a task reminder also. So take an upcoming trip that you’re going on and then you can email NudgeMail your flight information with a reminder set for the day of departure. That way you won’t have to scramble through your inbox just to find a confirmation number or flight information. It’ll be top of mind and your inbox when you conveniently want it.

Perhaps a bit more convenient, it also seems that NudgeMail has some additional email aliases that are more targeted that could be helpful. For example, there’s noon@nudgemail.com which will send you notifications at noon and then there’s daily@nudgemail.com or weekly@nudgemail.com. The point is that there are multiple ways to set your reminders without you needing to constantly send yourself an email. In other words, you can schedule these emails so that they’re pesky follow-ups for you to pay heed to. Pretty effective, no?

It’s just more annoying email, right?

Wrong. It’s not SPAM. In fact, it’s legitimate emails that will hopefully make you more productive. Why? It’s because you’re getting reminders for emails that you WANT, not that will flood your inbox. By reminding you about things that you need to get done, you’re eliminating those tasks from your inbox, giving you less stress and making your day more rewarding. Never again will you need to worry about figuring out what you need to do or if you forgot something. You can just check your inbox.

The fine print

NudgeMail has stated on their website that their service is secure and all emails are encrypted so you won’t have to worry about your important emails being hacked, read or stolen. One important thing to remember here is that NudgeMail is a personal reminder system, not something you can use to remind your co-workers, friends or family about things. Will NudgeMail make productivity increase in the business world? It very well could, but one must wonder what its impact is on a person’s inbox will be. What I’ve stated here makes it very appealing to use, but when competing against other similar services like Evernote, NudgeMail seems to have its task-capability advantage taken away from it.

So, will NudgeMail be the savior to us all and bring forth the dawn of “inbox zero”? It very well could…just make sure you send yourself a reminder when the time comes.

Image Credit: bizior / sxc.hu