Some folks dislike the stock email app on the iPhone. I am, however, fond of it; it’s fast, easy to use, and works well enough for how I manage my emails (deleting most, archiving the rest).

But I keep my Mail app buried on my second Home screen. Because: (a) I need all the help I can get to not to check my email from my phone whenever I have a down moment; and (b) even when I do check email from my phone it’s not a very productive activity.

There’s a new iPhone email app, Triage, in town. I discovered the app thanks to Federico Viticci’s review on Monday, followed by John Gruber’s endorsement on Thursday. That was enough for me to give the app a shot, and after 48 hours with it, I’m impressed.

In his review, Viticci wrote:

Triage’s focus is on letting you decide which messages will require more attention later, and which ones can discarded now. Triage is based on a simple, efficient, and rewarding process that works by leveraging the iPhone’s most obvious gesture and one-handed operability. Unlike other new email apps, Triage doesn’t let you scan your inbox to turn messages into to-dos: it uses a one-message-at-a-time approach to see what’s up, what needs attention, and what can be kept for later.

Triage isn’t the answer to the habit I’ve formed of checking email at every grocery store line, car wash trip, and commercial break. But I do think it will help to turn casual iPhone email checking into something more productive than the scanning and ignoring I usually do.

Triage