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 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.