You can always move an item that is mis-filed (mis-tabbed?) to the place you’d prefer to see it and tell GMail, yes, please put all future emails from this sender here.

Since you have your existing routine and the Tabbed Inbox wasn’t working for you, you’re right to turn it off. You might appreciate the suggestions for filtering email without the tabs that I made in How I Manage email and Stay at Inbox Zero. They might be a better fit for your existing skills.

The Google sorting hat has just about destroyed my life, by sorting many things *out* of the Primary category, into Forums, and Social sites. I found and used the option to return to an unsorted INBOX in order to find the things like password resets and notices that one of my websites had terminated for lack of payment (rescued, thanks to GoDaddy). I have a lot of routines to work through a numerous inbox. What I DON’T NEED is someone else deciding where things go. For example, “MYPENNMEDICINE, with test results and doctor’s appts wound up in Forums, the last place I would look. The task of damage control is easier with everything in one Inbox.

I’m glad this helps, Jeanne!

Marc,
Really, it depends on your industry. I filter terms like “SMBs” that won’t come up for you. But anyone can watch for terms like press, media, release, news, story, interview, review, and embargo. Yes, sometimes actual important email will get caught, but not too often.

The vast bulk of the remaining couple hundred filters are the entire domain that person sends from as a keyword, like “@poorlytargetedpr.com”. (Yes, one bad person can ruin the reputation of your entire firm with me.) I also have a lot of individual people’s names, email addresses, or company names who are repeat senders of poorly-targeted email.

How did I get to a couple hundred of them? By adding offenders one at a time over five years.

I loved the PressJunk folder!!

What keywords or phrases have you found most helpful to help you get that stuff into the PressJunk folder?