Tech Thursday: Disposable Gmail Addresses
Use the + trick to create a throwaway version of your Gmail address.
I don’t think I’ll ever master Inbox Zero. Although, to be fair, the real goals of Inbox Zero - meaning you spend as close to zero time as possible thinking about your inbox, not that you have zero emails in your inbox - aren’t so far out-of-reach:
Keep your email program closed for most of the day.
Follow the principle of delete, delegate, respond, defer or do when processing mail.
Always respond immediately to messages which can be answered in two minutes or less.
I’m still not sure that I want to spend much time working on my Inbox Zero mindset, frankly. Inbox Infinity is a little more my speed, at least for my personal emails.
If anyone has successfully applied Inbox Zero principles, I would love to hear it!
Jeremy Caplan’s Wondertools newsletter today shared several ways to protect your privacy, and the one I am stealing to share here is creating a filter-able version of your Gmail address (full instructions in this guide).
The hack is simple. Let’s say you want to sign up for a Substack newsletter, maybe multiple ones. Take your email address, and add +Substack to the end of it.
tipsforteachingprofessors@gmail.com
becomes
tipsforteachingprofessors+substack@gmail.com
In the sign-up box for the newsletter to which you wish to subscribe, put your +substack email address. You’ll still receive any emails sent to that address right to your normal inbox, because Gmail ignores anything after the “+” sign, just as it ignores periods in email addresses. Go ahead, try it! I tested the “+” trick, and it works.
When you receive an email, you can still see if it was sent to your normal address or to one of your +something addresses. From there, it’s simple to set up a filter to archive, delete, or file any emails to that address.
If you want more technology tips, Wondertools is a great resource. While I focus each Thursday on higher education-specific tools, Wondertools is more general workflow and productivity-focused.