Top all-time · #1505
Andreas Klinger
Personal blog · klinger.iostartupsbusiness
Andreas Klinger's personal blog at klinger.io covers startups and business. Since 2012, 47 different Hacker News readers have linked it 72 times, most often “Don’t drown in email: How to use Gmail more efficiently”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-01-12, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (23) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Andreas Klinger's posts, mainly his no-plugin Gmail workflow for inbox zero and GTD-style task handling using labels and multiple inboxes, plus remote-team management and Lean Startup writing.
- Recommended for · 3 comments
- Called a great resource for managing remote teams, a Gmail GTD approach that might be useful, and a Lean Startup post described amazingly well.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 23 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
I am a product/eng-guy good in two things: Making people believe I am good in anything at all and making stuff worth a tweet. On this website I share notes & thoughts.
Most-linked posts?
- Don’t drown in email: How to use Gmail more efficiently10 people · 10 mentions · first linked 2013-12-31
- How to use Gmail more efficiently (2013)4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-04-24
- Managing Remote Teams3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2018-12-12
- On Joining Hypergrowth Startups3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-06-22
- Don’t drown in email How to use Gmail more efficiently. (2013)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-05-23
- Why Lean Startup sucks for startups. 3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2013-12-12
- Everyone is doing 1on1s wrong. I think2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-06-16
- How to use Gmail more efficiently2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-11-16
- Q-Codes; Or Stop repeating yourself2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-07-04
What Hacker News says?
inbox-0 or not, it is still very helpful to use the multiple inbox feature in gmail [0], I've separated mine into "inbox", "follow up", "upcoming events", "to read". this way the screen is utilized better and i can actually see agenda.. also archive them after moving so that inbox only has items that still need attention.. Most people probably don't realize the cognitive effort they waste on re-parsing the same mess…
Comment linking /post/71640845938/dont-drown-in-email-how-to-use-gmail-more
on “Google Inbox”Submitted Managing People as a story · 293 points
HN discussionAgree, but I like having everything in one place. I don't get a lot of email, so that may change, but I have a filter and separate inbox[1] set up for stuff I read, including RSS. [1] http://klinger.io/post/71640845938/dont-drown-in-email-how-t...
Comment linking /post/71640845938/dont-drown-in-email-how-to-use-gmail-more
on “Email Is Still the Best Thing on the Internet”Submitted Managing Remote Teams as a story · 291 points
HN discussionThis Gmail workflow that I use religiously does the tagging but lacks PlainEmail's distraction-free interface to take the actions. I'm currently using keyboard shorts to accomplish this: L (to label), then P (for priority)/W (for waiting) or just Star (for reference). http://klinger.io/post/71640845938/dont-drown-in-email-how-t...
Comment linking /post/71640845938/dont-drown-in-email-how-to-use-gmail-more
on “Show HN: Plain Email – An app for one-touch email processing”Submitted Dear Europe, please wake up as a story · 279 points
HN discussionIf there are people out there who are well invested into Gmail, then here's an alternative ( https://klinger.io/post/71640845938/dont-drown-in-email-how-... ) that does not require a separate client application. The initial concept is focused on desktop usage, but with a small modification it can be adapted to mobile-based working as well.
Comment linking /post/71640845938/dont-drown-in-email-how-to-use-gmail-more
on “Show HN: Kanmail – An email client that functions like a kanban board”Submitted Peter Thiel’s startup class notes in PDF as a story · 160 points
HN discussionDoes anyone use this Gmail GTD setup with `Multiple inboxes`? http://klinger.io/post/71640845938/dont-drown-in-email-how-t...
Comment linking /post/71640845938/dont-drown-in-email-how-to-use-gmail-more
on “Simplify Gmail: Bringing the Simplicity of Google Inbox to Gmail”Submitted Don’t drown in email: How to use Gmail more efficiently as a story · 159 points
HN discussionThe guide below got me from 2,000 unreads to inbox zero in less than 30 minutes. The key is to archive pretty much everything older than a month or two since it likely wasn’t getting done anyways. You can still search archives if you do remember something later. Like the other poster said - take it easy. I have thousands of bookmarks too, and I know one of these days I’ll write a script to get it all exported, but u…
Comment linking /posts/dont-drown-in-email-how-to-use-gmail-more-efficiently
on “Ask HN: How can I stop my inbox/wishlist/bookmarks/tabs/todos from growing?”Submitted The things first time founders do… as a story · 142 points
HN discussion(Not parent author) I believe what makes HEY compelling to some email users is that it is opinionated about what email workflow should be like and fits the bill for many. While a similar way of using email can be achieved in other mail clients [0] the simplicity of having such features by default it's by itself a good reason. Some features that are non-trivial to emulate in other email clients are: - Grouping emails…
Comment linking /post/71640845938/dont-drown-in-email-how-to-use-gmail-more
on “I Tried to Live Without the Tech Giants. It Was Impossible”Submitted The Founder's Lie About Comfort Zones as a story · 122 points
HN discussionI use Gmail, set up in a similar way to this: http://klinger.io/post/71640845938/dont-drown-in-email-how-t... You can use a second calendar in place of GTD's 'tickler' file. Just hide the calendar, and set the default reminder to 'email'. That way, you receive an email when you need to action a tickler, and can then assign that email to 'next action' or whatever.
Comment linking /post/71640845938/dont-drown-in-email-how-to-use-gmail-more
on “A Pragmatic Guide to Getting Things Done”Submitted How to use Gmail more efficiently (2013) as a story · 100 points
HN discussionUse of Tags/Labels on mobile/web is something that's keeping me on Gmail, or I'd be willing to look elsewhere. An example of how GTD is possible through tags and labels: http://klinger.io/post/71640845938/dont-drown-in-email-how-t...
Comment linking /post/71640845938/dont-drown-in-email-how-to-use-gmail-more
on “Ask HN: Low-maintenance alternatives to Gmail?”Submitted Sh*t… Twitter is exciting… again as a story · 87 points
HN discussionHas anyone managed to replicate the linked Gmail guide[1] on Thunderbird? I currently am able to reply+archive[2] some emails, but the todo emails hang around in my inbox till I complete the task and then archive them. Ideally, I would like to not see the ToDo emails till I am ready to look at them. [1] https://klinger.io/post/71640845938/dont-drown-in-email-how-... [2] Ctrl+R, compose reply, Ctrl+Enter to send, A t…
Comment linking /post/71640845938/dont-drown-in-email-how-to-use-gmail-more
on “Several grumpy opinions about remote work at Tailscale”Submitted My Addressbook? Keep it. Telephone numbers are a disgrace to our generation. as a story · 76 points
HN discussionGood outline. Another great resource is Andreas Klinger's Crash Course https://klinger.io/post/180989912140/managing-remote-teams-a...
Comment linking /post/180989912140/managing-remote-teams-a-crash-course
on “A Guide to Managing Remote Teams”Submitted Be a startup Metric King as a story · 57 points
HN discussionPlugging my crazy no-plugins/no-external-tools gmail GTD approach: http://klinger.io/post/71640845938/dont-drown-in-email-how-t... Might be useful to some that dont want to use external tools or provide access to their email inbox to 3rd parties
Comment linking /post/71640845938/dont-drown-in-email-how-to-use-gmail-more
on “Drag – Change the way you work inside Gmail”Submitted Startup Mentoring Sessions - How to get the most out of it as a story · 33 points
HN discussionPeople like to diss email as a "todo list that other people can add items to", but really, this holds for just about all communication channels. So for me, what worked is to only use one channel (in my case, my work gmail) as a valid TODO-inbox. Everything else doesn't count. This means that if someone WhatsApps me something that requires a TODO, I ask them to email me a reminder. In my particular social situation,…
Comment linking /posts/dont-drown-in-email-how-to-use-gmail-more-efficiently
on “Ask HN: Tips for Reducing the Number of Inboxes”Submitted Creating a pan-European legal entity, the right way as a story · 32 points
HN discussionDoing emails like this: http://www.klinger.io/post/71640845938/dont-drown-in-email-h... (disclaimer: i am the author of this post)
Comment linking /post/71640845938/dont-drown-in-email-how-to-use-gmail-more
on “Ask HN: Share your best personal productivity tips and tricks”Submitted The unannounced updates to Facebooks social plugins as a story · 24 points
HN discussionI'm excited by superhuman ( https://superhuman.com ). Alas I haven't got an invite. Also, dunno if they're going to support my style of email use out of the box (I'm strict adherent to the Andreas Klinger style: http://klinger.io/post/71640845938/dont-drown-in-email-how-t... ).
Comment linking /post/71640845938/dont-drown-in-email-how-to-use-gmail-more
on “Ask HN: Alternatives to Gmail that are new, cool, etc?”Submitted Why the Future needs a Brandname. as a story · 22 points
HN discussion
