Superhuman Best Practices Guide ​v3.

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Click a topic to start learning!

Inbox Zero 1
What is Inbox Zero? 1
Why Inbox Zero? 1

Split Inbox 1
Default Split Inboxes 1
Custom Split Inboxes 2

How to achieve Inbox Zero with email triage 3

What is email triage? 3
The benefits of triaging 3
How to triage on desktop or iPad with keyboard 3
How to triage on iPhone or iPad without keyboard 4
From the inbox 4
From an open conversation 4

Powerful Time Saving Features 6

Muscle memory 6
Mass archive 6
Keyboard Shortcuts 7
Interacting with messages in a long conversation 7
Search 8
Labels 8
Working offline 9
Snippets 9
Unsubscribe 11
Mute 11
Signatures 12

Help and Settings 13

Reaching the Superhuman team 13
Adding another account 13
Adjusting settings 13

Deeper Reading 14
Commonly used Split Inboxes 14
Commonly used Snippets 18
Inbox Zero

What is Inbox Zero?

Inbox Zero is an approach to managing email that keeps your inbox empty, or nearly empty, at
all times. With Superhuman, you'll achieve Inbox Zero by regularly and efficiently triaging your
inbox, leaving only the messages you'll work on today. Your inbox becomes your daily task list
— once you finish all your tasks, you achieve Inbox Zero!

Why Inbox Zero?

With a clean inbox, you can see all your emails at once. When you only see newest and highest
priority messages, nothing slips through the cracks.

Split Inbox
If you receive a high volume of emails, use Split Inboxes to focus on what matters.

Batch process similar emails and achieve Inbox Zero where it's most important. ​Even if your
inbox is overflowing, you'll respond faster to the people who need you!

Split Inbox makes it possible to:

● Focus on specific types of emails.
● Achieve Inbox Zero where it matters.
● Eliminate context switching and stay in flow longer.

Default Split Inboxes

To get you started, we've included four of the most commonly used Split Inboxes:

Important • Other ​- Focus on what's most important. The Important Split contains
person-to-person messages and Google Drive invitations. The Other Split contains
automated messages and emails sent to mailing lists.

Team​ - Be responsive to your team. The Team Split contains emails from your domain.
You'll also see Team emails in your primary inbox.

To activate the ​Important • Other​ or ​Team​ Splits, hit ​Cmd+K → "Split Inbox Settings"​, then
check the corresponding box.

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 VIP ​- Prioritize emails from your most important contacts. Hover over an email from a
VIP and hit ​Cmd+K → "Add to VIP"​. You'll also see VIP emails in your primary inbox.

News ​- Read your newsletters when it's most convenient and stay up-to-date in your
industry. Hover over a newsletter and hit ​Cmd+K → "Add to News"​.

Custom Split Inboxes

You also have the ability to create custom Split Inboxes!

To create a custom Split Inbox:

1. Hit ​Cmd+K → "Search"​.
2. Type a query using search operators like ​to​,​ from​,​ cc​,​ bcc​,​ subject​,​ label​,​ ​or ​filename​.
a. To be more specific, link search queries with "and" and "or".
3. Hit ​Enter ​to run the search.
4. Hit ​Cmd+K → "Split Inbox"​.
5. Name the Split.

To move from one split to another, hit ​Tab t​ o go right, and ​Shift+Tab​ to go left.

For more information, examples, and instructions, see the ​Deeper Reading ​section at the end of
this guide!

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How to achieve Inbox Zero with email triage

What is email triage?

Email triage is the practice of quickly deciding what needs to be done for each conversation.
This helps you prioritize your inbox and quickly respond to the most important messages.

Superhuman customers blaze through the inbox twice as fast by leveraging effective triage
practices!

The benefits of triaging

● Speed​: Triaging makes it possible to action each email in a split second. Superhuman is
the fastest email experience ever made, which means every action happens instantly.
After each action, you advance to the next conversation, and the inbox is cleared faster
than ever before.
● Focus​: Triaging helps you stay focused. When you only see one email at a time, you're
not distracted by other conversations and you can enter a state of flow.
● Cleanliness​: Triaging keeps your inbox clean. After triaging your inbox, the only emails
left will be dealt with today.
● Efficiency​: Triaging increases efficiency. Other workflows make you open the same
emails again and again. When you triage effectively, you'll never touch a conversation
more than twice.

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How to triage on desktop or iPad with keyboard
Start at the top of your inbox. Open the first conversation and make a decision!

If the email requires :

● No further action → hit ​E ​to Mark Done.
○ Marking an email done is the same as “archiving” in Gmail.
○ If you don't want to receive messages like this in the future → hit ​Cmd+U​ to
unsubscribe.
● Action that will take less than 2 minutes →
○ Reply All (​Enter​), Reply (​R​), or Forward (​F​).
○ Write your message, then send it (​Cmd+Enter​).
○ Hit ​E ​to Mark Done.
■ Pro tip: Send and Mark Done at the same time with ​Cmd+Shift+Enter
● Action today that will take more than 2 minutes → hit ​J ​to leave it in your inbox and
advance to the next conversation.
● Action in the future → hit ​H ​to set a reminder.

Repeat until you reach the bottom of your inbox. That's it!

How to triage on iPhone or iPad without keyboard

From the inbox

Start by configuring Remind Me as your primary swipe right action:

1. Swipe up from the bottom of your inbox view to reveal a menu.

2. Tap the gear in the upper right.
3. Tap "​Swipe to Right​".
4. Tap the green plus to the left of "​Remind Me (Snooze)​".
5. Tap "​Done​" in the upper right to return to the settings menu.
6. Tap "​Done​" in the upper right
7. Swipe down to close the menu.

By default, Swipe to Left is set to Mark Done, which is perfect for an Inbox Zero workflow!

Then start triaging! If the email requires:

● No reply → swipe to the left to mark it done.

● Action today → leave it in your inbox.
● Action in the future → swipe to the right to set a Reminder.

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From an open conversation

Start at the top of your inbox. Tap the first conversation and make a decision!

If the email requires :

● No further action → tap the check mark to Mark Done.
○ Marking an email done is the same as “archiving” in Gmail.
○ If you don't want to receive messages like this in the future → pull down then tap
"Unsubscribe"​.
● Action that will take less than 2 minutes →
○ "​Reply All​", Reply (​Arrow Left​), or Forward (​Arrow Right​).
○ Write your message, then tap "​Send​".
○ Mark done with the check mark.
● Action today that will take more than 2 minutes → swipe the triage bar all the way from
right to left and advance to the next conversation.
● Action in the future → tap the clock to set a reminder.

To configure additional Conversation View Triage Actions, swipe the triage bar all the way to the
right to reveal the following options:

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Powerful Time Saving Features

Muscle memory
Sometimes, the hardest part of learning something new is retraining your muscle memory. To
make it easy for yourself, keep Superhuman in a place that's convenient and accessible.

In Chrome, close Gmail and pin your Superhuman tab instead. If you prefer the native app,
keep Superhuman in your dock and enable it to open at login.

On mobile, move the Superhuman app to wherever your previous email client was. Make sure
that when your thumb is on auto-pilot, you're reaching for Superhuman.

Mass archive
If you're new to archiving or have fallen behind, give yourself a fresh start by clearing out the
backlog of emails that no longer need your attention.

To request a mass archive, email ​hello@superhuman.com​ and tell us which emails you'd like to
move out of your inbox.

Most customers decide to archive every conversation older than one, three, or five days. If it's
helpful, we can also leave behind any messages that are starred, unread, labeled, or contain a
specific file type.

As the archive runs, continue triaging your inbox and watch your inbox count drop to zero!

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Keyboard Shortcuts
Processing emails with keyboard shortcuts puts all ten of your fingers to work. Triage your inbox
faster and reply with greater speed!

On desktop, use ​Cmd+K​ to teach yourself the shortcuts as you're diving deeper into
Superhuman. Hit ​?​ to see a list of shortcuts.

If you have an iPad with a keyboard, hold ​Cmd​ to see the full list of iPad-friendly shortcuts.

Interacting with messages in a long conversation

Desktop
Hit ​P​ to navigate to the previous message in a conversation or ​N​ to navigate to the next
message.

To open the message, hit ​O​. To expand all the messages in the conversation hit ​Shift+O​. Hit
Shift+O ​again to collapse all messages.

Mobile

Scroll to the message you'd like, then long-press to ​Reply/Reply all/Forward/Copy/Expand​ an

earlier message in a conversation.

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Search
With Superhuman search, it's easy to find the right conversation every time! Superhuman
search even shows tips to help define your query.

Labels
Most people spend more time moving messages into labels than finding messages within their
labels. With Superhuman's powerful search, you can move faster by archiving, not labeling,
every message.

Labels can still be helpful to organize emails that come from different senders or at irregular
intervals, like expenses or tax documents.

To label a message and leave it in your inbox, hit ​L​ then type the label name.

To label a message and archive it, hit ​V ​then type the label name.

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Working offline
When you don't have an internet connection, Superhuman still works! Triage your inbox, reply to
emails, and work just as you normally would. When you return online, your offline work
synchronizes across your devices.

Note:​ It's important to us that you have the messages you're most likely to need, but we don't
store everything on your computer. We'll cache any messages you've opened, searched for, or
received in the last 30 days. We'll also store up to 1,250 emails from each Split Inbox. We ​don't
automatically cache attachments, so make sure you've got your files downloaded before
disconnecting from Wi-Fi!

Snippets
Snippets make it possible to do more by typing less. ​Snippets can be phrases, paragraphs, or
whole emails. You can include attachments. You can even add people to CC!

Create Snippets on the desktop, then use them on your computer, iPad, and iPhone. No matter
where you are, write blazingly fast emails!

To create a Snippet:
1. Hit ​Cmd+K → "Create Snippet"​ to start a blank snippet.
2. Add a description that is easy to remember — this is the title of your Snippet.
3. Draft your Snippet, then add attachments, links, pictures, a subject line, or recipients.

You can also create a Snippet by opening an existing email or draft and hitting ​Cmd+K →
"Create Snippet from Message/Draft"​. This is perfect if you have templated emails you've
sent in the past.

Desktop

1. Hit ​Cmd+K → "Use Snippet"​.

2. Type the first few letters of the snippet's description.
3. Hit ​Enter​.

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Mobile

Start a new conversation with a Snippet:

1. Tap the blue pencil in the upper right corner of the inbox.
2. Pull down on the compose window.
3. Tap "​Use Snippet​".

Reply to a conversation with a Snippet:

● From the conversation view, tap "​Reply All"​, then tap the two brackets.

● From the full screen view, pull down and tap "​Use Snippet​".

To see commonly used Snippets, head to the ​Deeper Reading​ section of this document!

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Unsubscribe
Hit ​Cmd+U​​ to unsubscribe, and permanently get rid of emails that clutter your inbox.

With Superhuman, you can unsubscribe and — at the same time — remove all related
messages:

To unsubscribe on mobile, open the conversation, pull down, and tap "​Unsubscribe​".

Mute
Sometimes you're in a conversation that isn't relevant to you. Mute those conversations and
future replies will skip your inbox unless you're added to the ​To:​ field.

On desktop, hit ​Shift+M ​to mute a conversation. Hit ​G then ​M​ to view your muted
conversations.

On mobile, pull down on the open conversation and tap "​Mute​". Swipe up from the inbox then
tap "​Muted"​ to view your muted conversations.

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Signatures
Superhuman pulls your default signature from Gmail.

On desktop, hit ​Cmd+K ​→ ​"Signatures"​.

To make changes to your signature, click ​Gmail settings​.

For style points, let people know you use Superhuman by including "Sent via Superhuman"
below your email signature.

Not ready to show off quite yet? No problem!

On desktop, uncheck the box and it'll be removed immediately.

On mobile, pull up from the bottom of the inbox view, tap the gear in the upper right, then tap
"​Customize Signature​".

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Help and Settings

Reaching the Superhuman team

We're here to help!

On desktop, hit ​Cmd+K → "Feedback"​ to email the Superhuman team.

On mobile, tap the chat icon in the upper left corner of the inbox.

Adding another account

On desktop, hit ​Cmd+K → "Add Account"​.

To switch accounts, hit ​Cmd+K → "Accounts" ​and learn the shortcuts to toggle inboxes.

In the native app, open tabs for an overview of all accounts:

1. Hit ​Cmd+T​ to open a new tab.

2. Hit ​Cmd+K → "Accounts" ​and choose an account for each tab.
3. Repeat Steps 1-2 as needed.
4. Hit ​Cmd+1​, ​Cmd+2​, etc to move between accounts.

On mobile, long-press the circular icon in the lower right corner of the inbox to add another
account.

To switch accounts, tap the icon. With more than two accounts, long press the icon to
immediately jump to a specific account.

Adjusting settings
On desktop, use ​Cmd+K ​to find the settings you want to adjust. For example, try ​Cmd+K →
"Split Inbox Settings"​, ​"Download Settings"​, or ​"Reminder Settings"​.

To see a full list of configurable features, click the gear icon in the lower right corner.

On mobile:

1. Pull up from the bottom of the inbox view.

2. Tap the gear in the upper right corner.

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Deeper Reading

Commonly used Split Inboxes

Starred Split

A Starred Split Inbox is helpful if your inbox receives a constant stream of emails throughout the
day. Schedule 2-3 triage sessions onto your calendar and decide while emails need your
attention today.

To setup a Starred Split Inbox:

1. Hit ​G then S​ to go to your Starred messages.
2. Hit ​Cmd+K → "Split Inbox"​, then ​Enter​.
3. Hit ​Enter​ to name the Split Inbox "Starred".

Hit ​Esc​ to return to your inbox and it's time to triage! If the email requires :
● No further action → hit ​E ​to Mark Done.
○ Marking an email done is the same as “archiving” in Gmail.
○ If you don't want to receive messages like this in the future → hit ​Cmd+U​ to
unsubscribe.
● Action that will take less than 2 minutes →
○ Reply All (​Enter​), Reply (​R​), or Forward (​F​).
○ Write your message, then send it (​Cmd+Enter​).
○ Mark done with ​E​.
■ Pro tip: Send and Mark Done at the same time with ​Cmd+Shift+Enter
● Action today that will take more than 2 minutes → hit ​S ​to start the message and move it
to your Starred Split
● Action in the future → hit ​H ​to set a reminder.

When it's time to answer messages, hit ​G then S ​to avoid the distraction of your noisy inbox.
Focus on the emails ​you've ​determined to be most important and regain control of your task list.

Note: ​All starred messages will appear in your Starred Split, even replies! If you'd prefer that
replies return to your main inbox, send your message with ​Cmd+Enter​, then hit ​S ​to remove the
star and ​E ​to archive.

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Tools (GitHub, JIRA, Asana, Trello)

To create a Split Inbox for GitHub:

1. Open a GitHub email.

2. Hit ​Cmd+K → "Split Inbox"​.
​ itHub Notifications​ or ​GitHub Mentions
3. Select G

To create a Split Inbox for Jira, Asana, or Trello:

1. Copy the email address that sends the system notifications.

2. Hit "​/​" to open Search.
3. Type ​from:​ ​[email address]​, then hit ​Enter​ to run the search.
4. HIt ​Cmd+K → "Split Inbox"​.
5. Name the Split.

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Google Drive

In Gmail, it is easy to miss Google Drive invitations and comments. Use Superhuman to create
a Google Drive Split and quickly focus on these emails at the right moment.

To create a Google Drive Split:

1. Open a Google Drive email.

2. Hit ​Cmd+K → "Split Inbox: Docs"​.

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Outbound newsletters and outreach emails

A Split Inbox can help group and batch process responses to a newsletter or outreach email.

The replies have different senders and are not on the same mailing list, but they all share the
same subject.

To create a Split Inbox based on subject:

1. Hit "​/​".
2. Type ​subject: "[Outbound Campaign Subject]"​, then hit ​Enter​ to run the search.
3. Hit ​Cmd+K → "Split Inbox"​.
4. Name the Split.

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Commonly used Snippets
Hand-offs for meeting scheduling

If you're regularly CC'ing an assistant, recruiting coordinator, or other teammate who helps with
scheduling, create a snippet to help yourself move even quicker.

Include a sentence or two with the context of the hand-off and the appropriate email address in
the CC field.

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Thanks, but no thanks

If you're regularly receiving invitations and offers that don't interest you, make it easy to say
"thanks, but no thanks" without drafting a custom reply each time.

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Scheduling links

If you use a scheduling tool like Calendly, write a couple sentences to say hello and include a
hyperlink to your schedule. Keeping your link easily accessible in a snippet means you never
have to stop writing to go and dig it out.

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