Of all of the people that one communicates with, there seems to be a specialized group of specific individuals that you either want to or need to get their messages as soon as possible, namely the exact second that it arrives. Whether it is because you are waiting for time-sensitive information for a project, needing to follow the whereabouts of a travelling child, or simply wanting to hear from that particular person who makes your day brighter just because they communicated with you, it is important for personal and professional reasons to bring them into your inner circle.

This is a group of very important people, VIP, and its set of members is not static: an important project gets completed, the child is safely home, or the person who used to be supportive starts bombarding you with forwarded jokes or political propaganda.  No matter how you explain the “private” nature of your email address, just sharing it with one other person makes it public. So, you cannot rely on having one private email that you give out on a need-to-know basis.

Use email filtering to define and adjust your dynamic inner circle, so that your important mail rises to the top of your list of messages. Create an “! Inner Circle” folder in your inbox and adjust the filter as your VIP group changes.

Push Notification

There are ways to easily add and remove people to your VIP group and additionally, push messages sent from them with a notification alert to you on the device that you use. I highly recommend using it to manage your personal and professional communication.

iOS has a built-in VIP inbox as part of their system; you can easily tap Add to VIP. Later, you can Remove from VIP.

For operating systems that do not have the system built-in, search out VIP apps that will enable you to do the same thing.

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