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    Contents
    • Set up & Focus
      • Home Screen
      • Spark Command Center
      • Mark emails as Done
      • Accept or block new senders
      • Set Aside vs Pin vs Snooze
      • Pins and Priority senders and threads
      • Group emails by sender
    • Spark Tutorials
      • How to download Spark
      • How to find Spark Settings
      • Upcoming features in Spark 3
      • Can I change my password in Spark?
      • Set Spark as a default email client on Mac
      • Email Storage and Backups
      • Set default browser for opening links
      • Is Spark Available for Windows?
      • Sync Spark across multiple devices
      • Change your email for sync
      • Connect to Your Email Account in Spark
      • Add More Email Accounts to Spark
      • Remove an email account from Spark
      • Choose the account name, title, and color
      • Enable Notification Badges
      • Customize Notifications
      • Compose an email
      • Use email Templates
      • Manage email signatures
      • Attach a file to an email
      • Schedule an email to send later
      • Set follow-up reminders
      • Set up an email alias
      • Select the font of your emails
      • Use rich text formatting in emails
      • Automatically Cc or Bcc emails
      • Display the Inbox of each account separately
      • Use Smart Search
      • Perform Actions on Multiple Emails
      • Create a Folder
      • Avatars in Spark
      • How Spam is handled in Spark
      • Threads
      • Undo the Last Action
      • How to print an email in Spark
      • Change the Font for reading emails Mac
      • How Can I Change the Language in Spark?
      • Gmail Labels
      • Snooze emails
      • Add folders to the sidebar
      • Dark Mode in Spark
      • New Expanded Sidebar
      • Zoom
    • Spark for Teams
      • How to Create and Manage a Team
      • Add and Remove Team Members
      • Shared Threads: Discuss Emails With Your Team
      • Shared Links: Move Your Emails Outside the Inbox
      • Team Roles
      • How to get Spark Teams Premium plan
    • Troubleshooting
      • Can't connect my account to Spark
      • Can't connect to a Gmail account
      • Cannot Connect to an iCloud Account
      • Can’t Connect to a QQ Account
      • Can’t Connect to an AOL Account
      • Cannot Add an Exchange or Office 365 Account
      • Cannot Set Up a Custom Email Address
      • Email Is Displayed Incorrectly
      • Wrong Contact Suggestions
      • "Can't reach the server" Message
      • The Badge Displays the Wrong Number
      • Spark on Apple Watch doesn’t work
      • Issues with Smart Search
      • Can’t Receive Push Notifications
      • Cannot Send Emails
      • The App Quits Unexpectedly
      • How to Clean Install Spark for Mac
      • Enable the IMAP Protocol for Gmail and G Suite Accounts
      • Temporary Outlook, Hotmail issue
    • Billing & subscription
      • Spark Premium Plan Subscription
      • How to cancel the subscription
      • How to cancel free trial in Spark
    • Privacy & Data
      • Spark Email Privacy: Everything you Need to Know
      • Remove data from Spark & request data copy or deletion
    • Contact us
    Home Set up & Focus Home Screen

    Home Screen

    The Home Screen is what greets you when you open Spark, giving a quick update on what happened while you were away. It helps you reduce the number of times you open email throughout the day and form better email habits. Home Screen gently suggests you work with your emails only a few times a day to reduce stress, distractions, and boost productivity.

    This article will discuss how to set Home Screen according to what works best for you.

    Jump to:
    • Home Screen Overview
    • Access the Home Screen settings
    • Show Home Screeminutes of inactivity After 15
    • Set Email Focus Schedule
    • Disable Home Screen

    Home Screen Overview

    We tend to spend up to 3 hours per day managing email, often checking our inboxes multiple times every hour. How much of this time is efficiently spent? Home Screen helps you optimize the way you handle email:

    Develop an efficient email schedule

    Limiting your email work to 2 or 3 sessions per day helps you be more efficient and free up more time to focus on important things outside of your Inbox.

    We recommend 2 sessions daily (9 am and 6 pm by default). You can customize the schedule in Preferences > Home Screen to match your style.

    Keep your email checks in check

    “Checking email less frequently reduces stress and improves wellbeing” - the University of British Columbia.

    Home Screen displays a counter of how many times you check your Inbox each day, helping you do this less often.

    Get a summary of new emails

    If you open Spark in between your sessions, the Homescreen will give you a handy overview of emails that arrived while you were away. This way you can decide if you need to open your Inbox at all, staying on top of things without email anxiety.

    There are two ways you can set the summary: with or without a preview showing the sender, email’s first line, and subject if any. 

    How to change the Email Preview settings:

    1. Open Spark Desktop.
    2. Click the phrase to the right of the search icon in the upper right.
    3. Choose any of the following settings:
    • Hide Preview - get a text summary with a number of new emails based on their categories (People, Newsletters, Notifications).
    • Show All - show preview for all new emails.
    • Show People - show preview only for emails from the 'People' category.
    • Show Priority - show preview only for threads and emails from senders you marked as Priority.

    Access the Home Screen settings


    Mac OS Windows

    Open Spark Desktop and use the ⌘, shortcut (press and hold ⌘ and press , ). Then, open the Home Screen section.

    Open Spark Desktop and use the CTRL, shortcut (press and hold CTRL and press , ). Then, open the Home Screen section.

    Alternatively, open Spark, click the Settings icon at the bottom left > Home Screen. Or, after opening Spark:

    1. Click Spark Desktop.
    2. Select Settings.
    3. Switch to the Home Screen section.

    Show Home Screen After 15 minutes of inactivity

    To access this setting, open Spark Settings > Home Screen. The setting automatically enables Home Screen when Spark is inactive for some time, except when you compose or view an email.

    You can change the time by entering a new number of minutes, or disable this setting by toggling this section off.

    Set Email Focus Schedule

    Remember the “Next email session is scheduled to…” phrase on Spark Home Screen? There’s a manageable schedule standing behind. Sticking to a schedule minimizes the number of context switches as well as time spent inside the app, which allows you to preserve your mental energy and get more time to focus on what is important outside of your inbox.

    To access this setting, open Spark Settings > Home Screen > Set Email Focus Schedule.

    By default, there are three times per day set for working with mail. You can:

    • Change the time;
    • Disable any of them;
    • Delete any of them;
    • Tick a handy reminder option. Once you have it ticked, you get a notification when the Email Focus Time comes.

    Also, you can set and manage additional Email Focus Time, and reset your settings back to the default ones.

    There are certain limitations. It’s not currently possible to:

    • Schedule Email Focus Time for certain dates or days of the week;
    • Rename the schedule items.

    If you don’t find this functionality useful for your workflow, you can disable the Email Focus Schedule suggestions by toggling this section off.

    Disable Home Screen

    1. Open Spark Settings > Home Screen.
    2. Disable the Enable Home Screen toggle.
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