Streamline Your Email Workflow with Shortwave

Introduction to Shortwave:

In a world where our school’s email inboxes are flooded with countless emails, finding an efficient way to manage our digital correspondence has become a necessity. Enter Shortwave, a powerful email management tool that promises to revolutionise your Gmail experience. Developed based on a previous Gmail experiment — the beloved Inbox by Google — Shortwave introduces a host of features designed to simplify and organise your email workflow.

Exclusively for Gmail Accounts

Shortwave is exclusively built for Gmail users, leveraging the robust infrastructure and features provided by Google’s popular email service. By seamlessly integrating with Gmail, Shortwave enhances your email experience without the need to switch to a different email provider. If you have another email service, this service is not available to you. But some of the ideas on processing might have some application to your school’s needs.

Harnessing the Power of Bundles

At the core of Shortwave lies its innovative bundling feature. This intelligent system automatically groups related emails together based on their content, sender, or specific criteria. Automatic bundling is similar to Gmail’s automatic categories, such as Social, Promotions, and Updates.

Alternatively, users can create and customise bundles manually, tailoring them to their individual preferences and needs. You can create your own bundles by dragging and dropping emails, or by setting up rules based on the sender. Dragging and dropping an email into a bundle prompts you to create a rule to always take the same action in the future.

Unleashing the Potential of Bundles

Shortwave empowers users with a variety of actions that can be performed on email bundles, allowing for efficient management and optimisation of their inbox. Let’s explore some of the key features that enhance productivity:

1. Snooze: With the snooze feature, you can temporarily set aside emails that don’t require immediate attention. Shortwave intelligently resurfaces them at a later time or when you’re ready to address them, or when they are actionable. This ensures important messages are not lost or forgotten in the shuffle.
2. Pin: Important emails often get buried in a flood of new messages. By pinning emails or bundles, you can keep critical information readily accessible at the top of your inbox, making it easier to prioritise and respond to time-sensitive matters.
3. Done: Shortwave enables you to swiftly declutter your inbox by easily archiving entire email bundles that are no longer relevant. This feature helps you maintain a streamlined and organised email environment, reducing the time spent sifting through unnecessary messages.
4. Delete: If there’s a bundle that you want to completely eliminate, you can delete it.
5. Note: You can rename a bundle with a ‘note’, which is really an alternative title for the bundle. For example, you can bundle a group of emails related to setting up a new class and process them together under the note ‘New class’.

These actions can be applied to the whole bundle or to specific emails within the bundle.

Email Process Made Simple

Shortwave streamlines email management, and I use it to process my emails by breaking it down into three distinct stages: triage, organise, and process.

1. Triage: Shortwave’s intelligent bundling system ensures that emails are automatically organised into relevant groups, saving you the effort of manually sorting through every message. This initial triage stage allows you to quickly scan through your inbox and identify which bundles require immediate attention. Within the bundles I usually quickly scan through the mails. I open mails to have a peek at the contents if needed. I will then ‘pin’ emails requiring more than just a quick scan. Once a bundle is processed, and the emails requiring further action pinned, I can then archive the whole bundle by marking it ‘done’.
2. Organise: After triaging, I have all my emails requiring attention ‘pinned’ into the top section. I then create new bundles based on what needs to be done. I typically have
   1. A section of urgent mails at the top, unbundled. To deal with first.
   2. An ‘action’ bundle that I have to do something with.
   3. A ‘read’ bundle that is not urgent, and that I can read through when I have time.
3. Process: Armed with neatly organised bundles, I can now devote my attention to processing emails efficiently.

This enables me to process my emails in a little over half the time they previously took and achieve Inbox Zero.

Harnessing the Power of AI

One further point. Shortwave’s integration of artificial intelligence elevates the email experience yet again. Shortwave offers the ability to use AI to summarise an email, translate it, draft a reply, or identify the action items contained in the email.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Shortwave provides a game-changing solution to the email overload problem for many busy language schools. By leveraging the power of bundling and incorporating advanced AI features, Shortwave transforms the way we handle emails, allowing for improved organisation, streamlined workflows, and increased productivity. Say goodbye to the chaos of an overflowing inbox and embrace the efficiency of Shortwave for a more focused and productive email management experience.