How to keep track of school emails
The school sends a lot of email, and the line you need is often in the middle: the date, the time, what to bring. These habits help, with or without an app.
1. Keep school email in one place
In Apple Mail, make a mailbox called School: tap Mailboxes, then Edit, then New Mailbox. In the Gmail app, tap Menu at the top left, then Create new under Labels, and name it School. Move each email from the school or the class teacher there when you read it.
2. Look for the date first
Skim for the day and the time, then for words like bring, wear, sign and pay. Those lines tell you what you need to do. The rest can wait.
3. Write the plan down when you read it
An email you mean to come back to sinks under the next ten. Write the date, the time and what to bring on the fridge or in your phone’s calendar, as soon as you read it.
4. Look out for the change
Schools often send a second email that moves a time or a place. When it arrives, update the plan you wrote down, so you don’t have two versions.
5. Check the week on Sunday
Take ten minutes on Sunday evening. Open your School mailbox or label, look at the week ahead, and check for forms to sign or money to pay.
Or forward it to Origami
Origami is an iPhone app for busy parents. Origami gives you your own email address. Open Settings in Origami and tap Copy. Then forward the school email to that address. Origami picks out the date, time, place and what to bring, and saves the plan in Origami. If something is unclear, it asks you.
When the school sends a change, forward that email too, and the plan you saved is updated. The original email stays with every plan. Origami uses AI and can get a detail wrong, so you can change or delete anything.
New subscribers get 7 days free, then $6.99 a month. Cancel anytime.
See a school email saved as a plan