Email

I'm definitely an introvert, gaining energy from spending time by myself.  I'm also not very outgoing.  Both of those facts lead to a high reliance on email, and a fastidious way of managing it.

Gmail
I use Gmail for my email.  While I've used the OS X Mail app in the past, it doesn't offer me anything that Gmail doesn't.  I do use the iOS Mail app to view my gmail account.

Labels: I rely heavily on labels.  Almost every email I receive gets labeled.  I have about 10-20 labels.  Some emails get multiple labels.

Priority Inbox: I don't use the priority inbox. I want to be in total control of my labels.

Stars: I rarely use the stars. Since everything is labeled, I leave important emails in my inbox, which serves as a psuedo "star."

Boomerang: I rely heavily on Boomerang, a utility that allows you to do 2 powerful things: return emails to your inbox at a specified time (kind of like what the Dropbox owned iOS app Mailbox does), and it allows you to schedule emails.  Here's why those features are important to me.

1. I can schedule the return of an email to my inbox at a specified time. I can have it return only if no one replies to the email. Both of these features allow me to follow-up on emails, without having to actively remember what I need to follow-up on.  Most time people will initially ignore and forget about emails. Boomerang allows me to follow-up within the exact time I want to.

2. It can schedule the sending of emails.  This may not seem very important, but there are times when you've composed an email, but don't want to send it quite yet. Rather than having to remember to send it at a later time, simply schedule it and it gets sent for you.

Combine the two main functions of Boomerang, and you can compose a follow-up email, to be sent ONLY IF your initial email doesn't get replied to.   Oh, you also get read receipts, so you can see if someone may be ignoring you, or if they simply haven't opened the email yet.

Random Extensions
I dabbled with the extension MailFred, but never got anywhere with it.

I dabbled with the contact add-in Rapportive, but didn't find it useful.

Revisiting Sent Emails
Whenever it pops into my mind, I go through my sent emails, and make decisions about whether to delete the thread, or to send a follow-up email.

Search
Because of Gmail's great search functions, you can easily find emails of a certain kind and make decisions about them.  For example, while I may want emails about my Amazon shipments while the shipments are en-route, I don't need those emails forever. I can do a simple search and clear out all old emails.

Since every email gets a label, I can keep my inbox clear, while easily finding relevant emails. Boomerang enables me to stay on top of things that need to get done.