Before we dive into a streamlining of Apple Mail, let’s identify our goals. I’ll go first. In no particular order…
Speed — I want fetching to be fast. I want searching to be fast. I want organizing and re-organizing to be fast. I want deleting to be fast.
Pain-free Daily Use — Most of the time I’m only there to check for new mail or to send an email. This needs to be an easy in-and-out. No wait-time for loading, no fussing with spam, no visual interference.
Easy — I want everything about it to be doable by simple steps that are easy to remember.
Freedom from Spam — As little of it as possible. As little distraction and manual disposing as possible.
Data Safety — I want to know I haven’t lost any mail. I want to know my email is backed up. I want to know that various operations I do won’t accidentally delete mail, or mess up my organizing
Reliable Radar — An easy way to flag and find important emails. This includes items I may not read as they arrive, but want them easily available later, and it includes mails I want to flag for urgent attention
Browsable — Sometimes I want to use email like a photo album: for a walk down memory lane. Or as a way to refresh my memory on important details, like — the names of friends, the names of business contacts, the places I buy from, the subscriptions I have. A lot of this can be accomplished by folder structure and naming conventions. If we’re going to organize a database anyway, we might as kill two birds with one stone.