Starting the new year with a clean inbox can be a great way to boost productivity and get a fresh start. The "inbox zero" method, popularized by productivity expert Merlin Mann, involves regularly processing and organizing your email so that your inbox is always empty (or as close to empty as possible). This can help you stay focused and avoid the stress and distraction of an overflowing inbox.

However, when you have a lot going on, it may not always be possible to completely close up all the loose ends from the previous year. That's where the power of custom bookmarks in mu4e, the Emacs mail reader, comes in.

With mu4e, you can define custom bookmarks that allow you to quickly access specific groups of emails. This can be a great way to temporarily "hack" your way to an inbox zero state, even when you have a lot of older emails that you still need to process.

For example, the following elisp code creates a bookmark that displays all unread and flagged messages from the current year, without touching the older emails:

(add-to-list 'mu4e-bookmarks
             '((concat " (flag:unread OR flag:flagged) AND NOT flag:trashed AND date:"
                       (format-time-string "%Y")))
             "Unread messages, current year"      ?U)

With this bookmark, you can quickly view and address the most important emails from the current year, without getting overwhelmed by the older emails that you can tackle at a later date.

In summary, while it may not always be possible to achieve a complete inbox zero state, custom bookmarks in mu4e can help you stay productive and focused by allowing you to temporarily declutter your inbox and focus on the most important tasks at hand.

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