Email

MIT’s Email Memo from 1965

Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving messages using electronic devices. It was conceived in the late–20th century as the digital version of, or counterpart to, mail (hence e- + mail).

Email is a ubiquitous and very widely used communication medium; in current use, an email address is often treated as a basic and necessary part of many processes in business, commerce, government, education, entertainment, and other spheres of daily life in most countries.

Email will Last

Zawinski’s Law rightly expressed that, “Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can.”

Whichever tool you use and assume is better than email for communication will eventually come around to either being replaced or needing to be constantly upgraded, playing catch-up. An email sent decades ago can still be read by an email client today and will be in the next decade and more.

Text Messages and their equivalent methods are suitable for more synchronous communication. They have their places, and one is not a replacement for the other.

There are many “free” email providers, such as Microsoft’s Outlook, Google’s Gmail, Apple’s iCloud, and others. If you are involved in any form of formal and business communications, investing in a domain you can own and use for your emails would be wiser.

“Email is the the most important written form of communication and will remain so for the foreseeable future.”

Own the Email Domain

Owning your domain name and pointing the MX record to whatever hosting provider you want instead of self-hosting a server at home is the sweet spot for controlling your email while minimizing unforeseen headaches.

It also has an aura of professionalism and trust when emails come from a custom domain instead of the retail @gmail, @yahoo, or @outlook.

Most of these providers also have the infrastructure to power your custom domain email services. In addition to the usual Apple, Google, and Microsoft, a few other well-known and reliable providers are Migadu, Proton, and Fastmail.

Email is the dependable system that everyone relies on, and nobody owns.

Apple Mail
I love taking screenshots of my Mail program (mostly during year-end cleaning) digital chore. The above is Apple Mail at the end of 2019. Check out 2020, 2022, 2024, 2025.

A Well-Maintained Email Life

Here are a few ideas, tips, tricks, and steps to help you regain control of your emails and live a well-maintained email life. These are not perfect but should get you started and course-correct to fit your lifestyle. No, you do not have to be SuperHuman to enjoy a calm, and peaceful Email experience.