SaneBox is definitely starting to get my attention. The company, which is focused on solving the very real problem of email overload, has just rolled out a minor, but clever, new feature: reminders that sync to calendars. With the so-called “SaneRemindMe 2.0” offering, you can quickly defer emails until you’re ready to deal with them. It’s essentially a “snooze” button for your email. Starting now, those reminders don’t just bump up emails in your inbox at the appropriate times, they can also sync to your calendar.
Here’s how the feature works, if you’re unfamiliar. When you get an email that you want to defer to a later date, you send it to an email address specifying that date or time. The email address can be very specific, like October15@sanebox.com or more general, like 30minutes@sanebox.com or 1week@sanebox.com, for example. If you later reply to the email in question, no reminder is ever sent. But if you don’t reply (as is typically the case), SaneBox forwards the email back to the top of your inbox at the time specified.
The feature can also be used on emails you send out – just cc: or bcc: the @sanebox.com email address to remind yourself to follow up later with the recipient if they don’t reply.
That part (above) isn’t new – it was previously available in the initial SaneBox offering. What is new is that the feature will now also sync up the reminders with your preferred calendar service, like Google Calendar or iCal, for example.
Hmm, reminders that are integrated into email, work via forwarding, and automatically sync with other products in your office productivity suite? And why is it that we’ve had to wait for a third-party to develop this technology, again? Well, thanks, SaneBox.
If you’re interested in trying it out, SaneBox works with almost any email service, including Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Apple, Outlook and others.
Fine, I’m signing up.