&gt; I make sure I mark the most recent email as read. Then, I look back until I find the next email marked as read.<p>I don&#x27;t have to do any of this or have a special system. I just read my email. If an email is unread, it&#x27;s unread. If it&#x27;s in the inbox, it hasn&#x27;t been dealt with yet.<p>That&#x27;s where the &quot;need&quot; comes from: it&#x27;s the simplest way of achieving exactly the same result you achieve with your system.