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Inbox buckets — sort the noise from what needs your attention

Inbox buckets — sort the noise from what needs your attention

2 min read

Every inbox gets noisy. Showing previews gets slow. The solution isn't inbox zero — it's separating things that need a response from things that are just FYI, and FYI from things you never needed to see in the first place. That's what buckets do.

The three system buckets

When an email arrives, Closr's classifier reads it and files it into one of three buckets automatically:

  • •**Action** — something needs your response or a follow-up step. A buyer asking to book a showing, a lawyer sending a condition-removal deadline, a client asking what's happening on their offer. Open Action first every morning.
  • •**Status** — informational updates on deals already in motion. Accepted offer confirmations, title searches, inspection reports, deal firm notices. Read it, but nothing needs to happen right now.
  • •**Noise** — newsletters, marketing emails, automated notifications, anything irrelevant to active business. Still stored, fully searchable, just out of the way.

The classifier isn't perfect early on. The move-and-rule pattern (covered below) is how you train it. After a week of corrections, you'll notice it making fewer mistakes.

How to use the system buckets

  1. 1Open the Inbox. The left sidebar shows Action, Status, and Noise with unread counts next to each.
  2. 2Click **Action** to see only emails that need a response. This is your triage view.
  3. 3Work through Action, open emails, reply where needed. Click **Status** to scan deal updates. Ignore Noise unless you're looking for something specific.

Adding your own bucket

System buckets cover most cases, but you may want a dedicated bucket for a specific topic — say, inbound from a builder you're working a pre-con project with, or referrals from a specific source.

  1. 1Click **+ Bucket** at the bottom of the sidebar.
  2. 2Give the bucket a name (e.g., "Woodhaven Leads").
  3. 3In the modal, set keywords or domains that should land here. Emails from matching senders or containing matching words will file into this bucket going forward.
  4. 4Click Create. The bucket appears in the sidebar and the classifier starts routing to it.

Moving emails between buckets

When the classifier puts an email in the wrong bucket, move it. The move itself teaches the classifier what to do with similar emails next time.

  1. 1Find an email that's in the wrong bucket. Click **Move** on the row.
  2. 2Pick the correct bucket from the list.
  3. 3When prompted, choose whether to save this as a rule. If you say yes, all future emails from the same sender — or from the same domain — will land in the bucket you picked. Hey.com users will recognize this pattern.

Save domain-level rules for recurring senders (e.g., a brokerage, a title company). Save address-level rules for individuals. Don't over-rule — let the classifier handle the long tail.