thunderbird filtera

How many eMails do you receive each day? A dozen? More?

Chances are you are receiving too many. Hopefully you're receiving little spam, but certainly you have a lot of mail hitting your inbox that doesn't need your immediate attention. Maybe you even receive private stuff at work that you should rather not attend to at all until you're home.

So what to do about it? Ignore it while it's staring at you from your inbox? Waste some time by sorting it manually?

If you're using Thunderbird I can show you a smart solution: set up message filters and have Thunderbird auto-sort messages into different folders of your choice.

In Thunderbird go to >"Tools" >"Message Filters".

thunderbird eMail filter

From the >"Filters for:" menu choose the account you wish to set up a filter for. Then click the "New..." button on the right side and the "Filter Rules" window for a new message filter will open.

Thunderbird message filter

You can set as many rules as you like, for example mails from your mom's eMail address that contain your sister's name in the message body and are CC'd to your dad should be sorted into the urgent family business folder. For each new rule click the + button behind the last rule.

You can also sort several different mails that you receive on a daily basis into one folder. For example set up a rule that catches all mail from MakeUseOf (Sender contains MakeUseOf.com), then set up a different rule within the same Filter for each of the other newsletters or eMail updates you would like to sort into the same folder.

sort incoming mail

Of course you cannot just sort mails into folders. You can have the message filters perform several other actions as seen in the menu pictured above. For example, automatically "Mark As Read", "Tag Message" or (the coolest) reply with a template. If required you can have the message filter carry out multiple actions on the same eMail.

With a bit of discipline you can have the flood of eMails that are arriving in your inbox each and every day nicely sorted within minutes and you'll never again miss an important message that reaches your inbox totally unfiltered.

MakeUseOf have published several posts about Mozilla Thunderbird before, including 2 part series on Thunderbird addons:

    • PART 2:

10 Great Thunderbird Addons You Must Have

    • PART 1:

10 must-have Thunderbird Addons

How do you manage incoming mail? We would love to hear your tips and tricks!

Picture credits: ilco