How to sync gmail sent only by specific contacts?

I used to be an email-on-the-phone junkie. Then, I read 4 Hour Work Week, which convinced me to un-sync my email (gmail) from my phone (Samsung S3). I started checking my email once per day on my laptop... then once per week. My productivity skyrocketed, and my stress levels went down. Some weeks, I spend less than 1 hour per week reading and returning email. After 6 months of not having email on my phone, things are pretty good. But, there are 3 contacts (my wife; my PhD advisor; and a key customer) whose email is actually worth reading in real-time. I'd like to sync email from ONLY these 3 people with my phone. Here's what I've tried so far: ---- **First idea** 1. Configure Android phone gmail to use me@gmail.com 2. In me@gmail.com, create a label called "Send to phone" 3. In me@gmail.com, create a rule to tag wife@gmail and advisor@gmail as "Send to phone." 4. In me@gmail.com, create a rule to forward all "Send to phone"-labeled messages to me.phone@gmail.com 5. In the Android gmail app, under Settings > me@gmail.com > Manage labels, I was able to unsync all labels (including Primary, Social, Forums...) except for "Send to phone." **But, it didn't work:** emails to my Primary inbox (from people other than wife/advisor/customer) are still syncing to my phone. WTF?! ---- **Second idea** 1. Create a new account called me.phone@gmail.com. 2. In me@gmail.com, set up a rule that forwards email from wife@gmail.com and advisor@gmail.com to me.phone@gmail.com 3. Use me.phone@gmail.com on my Android phone **But, it didn't work:** I like having the me@gmail.com calendar on my phone. I haven't found a clean way to use the me@gmail calendar but me.phone@gmail email account. ---- Has anyone done this before? What else should I try?