Focusing electronic mail messages in a list of messages. Category information is received for classifying particular e-mail messages or senders of the messages in the list of e-mail messages according to a category. The method also includes setting a status data associated with each of the particular messages. The status data indicates the category classified by the user. A first instruction is received from the user for focusing the particular messages according to the category. The particular messages having the status data therewith in the list are focused collectively without altering a preexisting order of the messages in the list.