By the end of this piece you will have three rules running in your mailbox: one for a sender you never want to lose, one for newsletters, and one for receipts. New mail of those kinds will be labelled or filed as it arrives. You need a Gmail or Outlook account and a computer. No extra app and no AI is involved.

Do this in 10 minutes

Start with the sender rule only. All menu and button names in this piece are as of October 2026, taken from the linked help pages.

Gmail (on a computer), following Google’s steps for labels and filters:

  1. On the left, next to “Labels”, click “Create new label”, name it, and click “Create”.
  2. Click the down arrow in the search box at the top.
  3. Type the sender’s address in the “From:” field.
  4. Click “Create filter” at the bottom of the search window.
  5. Scroll to “Apply the label:”, choose your label, and click “Create filter”.

Outlook (new Outlook for Windows), following Microsoft’s rules page:

  1. Right-click a message from the sender in your message list.
  2. Hover over “Rules” and select “Create rule”.
  3. Choose the folder that sender’s mail should go to.
  4. Select “OK”.

The same page gives almost the same steps for Outlook.com, where the menu item is “Rule” and then “Create rule”.

Rule one: a sender you want to find quickly

Pick one sender whose mail you look for often.

In Gmail the mail gets a label. Gmail’s labels page says only you can access your labels, and the people you email do not get them. In Outlook, the quick rule moves incoming mail from that sender into the folder you chose, so remember to look there.

Rule two: newsletters

The aim: newsletters out of the inbox, read when you choose.

Gmail. Build a filter for one newsletter’s address the same way as rule one, with a label such as “Reading”. This time also tick “Skip the Inbox (Archive it)”, a checkbox named in Google’s Calendar filter example, which moves matching mail out of the inbox while leaving it available to view later.

To cover several newsletters with one filter, put more than one address in the “From:” field. Google’s filter examples for work accounts say that if you list more than one address you must put OR between them, like this:

news@example.com OR digest@example.org

Outlook. Create a folder-moving rule from one newsletter message, as in rule one. If you use Outlook.com or Outlook on the web, Microsoft documents a second tool, Sweep, which deletes mail and does not file it. Select a message from the sender, select “Sweep” on the menu bar, choose how to handle that sender’s mail, and select “Sweep” again. One option keeps only the latest email. Microsoft notes that Sweep rules run once per day, while inbox rules run as soon as mail arrives.

Rule three: receipts

Receipts are worth keeping and rarely worth reading on arrival. A subject-line rule can file them.

Gmail. The search operators page lists subject: for a word or phrase in the subject line, parentheses for grouping several search terms, quotation marks for an exact word or phrase, and OR for mail that matches one or more of your criteria. It also says operators can be combined. A search for receipts could look like this:

subject:(receipt OR invoice OR "order confirmation")

Type it in the Gmail search box at the top and read the results. The operators page says that after a search you can use the results to set up a filter. Google documents that route for a typed search in its steps for filtering Calendar notifications: with the query in the search box, click “Show search options” on the right side of the box, click “Create filter” at the bottom of the window, choose what the filter should do, such as applying a label, and click “Create filter” again. Google’s example there is a Calendar search, not a receipts one, so test the filter as described under “Check the result”.

Outlook. Microsoft’s rules page gives a different starting point for each version:

  • New Outlook for Windows: begin the quick rule from rule one, but select “More options” in place of “OK”.
  • Outlook on the web (work or school accounts) and Outlook.com: select Settings, then Mail, then Rules, then “Add new rule”.

The page says every rule needs a name, a condition and an action. Microsoft’s rule feature table lists “Subject includes” and “Move to” as available in both classic and new Outlook. In new Outlook, use those two with a word such as “receipt” and a Receipts folder. The table does not cover Outlook on the web or Outlook.com; there, choose from the condition and action lists the rule form shows you. In new Outlook and Outlook.com, press “Save” to create the rule.

Check the result

In Gmail, the filter form has a “Search” button. Google suggests clicking it to see which emails show up before you create the filter.

In new Outlook, each rule under Settings > Mail > Rules has a “Run rule now” icon next to it that runs the rule on existing messages.

Then look in the label or folder once over the next week. A subject-line rule is a blunt tool: it matches words, not what you meant.

Common snags

To quiet the phone as well as the inbox, see what phone Focus modes and Do Not Disturb do.

Do this next

On paper, write the name of one sender, one newsletter and one shop whose receipts you keep: your three rules.