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As a travel blogger/photographer/writer/digital nomad/wearer-of-many-hats, I spend a lot of time online. Like, a lot. And too much of that time is spent in my inbox.
Checking it, re-checking it, following up on old emails, scheduling future follow-ups to emails. And follow-ups to those follow-ups. It’s demanding, tedious, and, more often than not, a poor use of my time.
Since I started using Boomerang for Gmail, it’s been a lifesaver. To oversimplify what it does, it allows me to schedule a current email to come back to my inbox (like a “boomerang”! Get it? …) at some predetermined time in the future. The thinking is that I don’t need to deal with it right this second, but I will need to in, say, two weeks. It works pretty well, but it’s more like a “bolt-on” solution, rather than one that’s baked into Gmail.
Enter MailButler. It’s like a full-featured personal assistant for Apple Mail.
The Skinny
So what is it? In Feingeist Software’s own words, MailButler promises:
… efficient and productive work with Apple Mail. With its various functions, it simplifies, optimizes and streamlines working with emails in your daily life. Use it for business or private purposes – MailButler will become an indispensable, reliable servant once you start using it.
The Travel Blogger’s Take
The concept of email has felt dated for years now. Many people use their inbox has more than just a means of basic, asynchronous communication. MailButler offers an excellent feature set that anyone who spends substantial time working online can appreciate.
For example, I often use my inbox as a general task list. MailButler allows you to convert your emails into actionable to-do list items which is a far better way to “work your way through” your inbox. Given that most people interact with emails and to-do items in completely different ways, it only makes sense that they should use two different interfaces.
A snooze feature replaces Boomerang (the nifty browser add-on I mentioned above) so your emails disappear from your inbox. They can then be rescheduled to return at a later, more pertinent date and time. To take this a step further, you can also schedule replies to be sent at a future date/time. This is especially useful if you’ll be on vacation and would like to send emails while you’re gone.
The built-in tracking and analyzing functionality is arguably more important than almost any other future in MailButler. This does exactly what it sounds like — it keeps tabs on whether and when your recipients have already opened your email. If you’re at all familiar with email marketing, this is invaluable information as it can alert you to when you need to resend an email or follow-up with your last.
One additional nice-to-have is the ability to convert any email in your inbox into notes. This includes all formatting, attachments, tags, and reminders. There’s also native support for exporting to OneNote and Evernote.
Pricing + Availability
The Essential plan allows you to get started for free, but “Professional Actions” (translation: the core of MailButler) is limited to just 30 per month. To really open up the software’s functionality, you’ll need to upgrade to the Professional plan for just €7.95 per month.
The flagship Business plan (€29.95) offers a wealth of additional, supercharged features like link tracking, custom signature templates, team management, and task delegation.
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Source: Vagabondish
