Patent ID: 8280965

Claim:
A method for managing email, the method comprising the following steps: setting, by an email recipient, a set of predefined direction(s) comprising at least a first condition and a first response associated with the first condition; after the setting step, receiving an email communication, from a sender, in an inbox of the recipient's email account, with the email communication having email properties associated with it; and selectively performing the first response only if the email properties of the email received at the receiving step meet the first condition; wherein the first condition is one of the following conditions: (i) the recipient's email address is in a predetermined addressee field of the email communication, and (ii) the recipient is a sole receiver of the email communication; wherein the first response is one of the following: (i) pick up the email from A recipient's server mailbox and back to the sender with the option of not posting the email into the recipient's server mailbox; (ii) allow the sender a chance to send a text message to the recipient, and (iii) allow the sender to send a voice mail to the recipient.