Email is one of the most widely used forms of communication in today’s digital world. It’s so easy and convenient to type up a message on your computer or phone, enjoying an instant connection with friends, family, and colleagues across the globe.
However, for all of its convenience and other advantages, email also has some notable downsides.
One of the most common issues, encountered by millions of users worldwide, is inbox clutter. You start off with a fresh, clean account and empty inbox. But in no time at all, you find yourself flooded with messages.
Your inbox gets stuffed with everything from unnecessary newsletters and marketing emails to important emails for work and private conversations with loved ones. Plus, with every day that passes, more messages keep on piling up.
Before you know it, your account is a total mess, and it’s so much harder to sort everything out and find the ones that matter. Well, this guide is here to help with that, providing top tips for a clean email inbox. Whether you’re looking to tidy up your Gmail or carry out some inbox cleanup for your Outlook account, read on for all you need to know.
The Benefits of a Clean Email
Before we dig into the details of tidying up your Gmail inbox (or other email service), let’s explore some big benefits of a clean inbox.
Much Easier to Find Things
Ever spent ages searching through your inbox for a specific message? Or found yourself having to delete thousands of worthless messages just to make the important ones easier to find?
If so, you’re not alone.
Every day, countless people trawl through their email accounts, digging through endless old emails and spam for one particular message. It’s frustrating, tedious, and boring.
The beauty of a clean email is that, with everything organized, finding messages becomes a far less time-consuming and daunting task. You should be able to sign in, find exactly what you need in seconds, then carry on with whatever else you need to do.
Less Risk of Missing Valuable Incoming Emails
Another big benefit of a clean email account is that you’ll have far less risk of missing important new messages when they arrive.
If your account is overloaded with promotional emails, unwanted newsletters, and so on, important messages sometimes get lost in the crowd.
You might open your Gmail, scan through your account quickly, and not even notice something valuable due to all the mess.
However, if you can set up filters and automatic sorting rules in your Gmail inbox, it’ll be much easier to spot the messages that matter.
Saves You Time and Hassle on a Daily Basis
In the short-term, having to organize your email account may seem like just another annoying task on your “to do” list.
You have to hit the trash icon to delete those unwanted messages. Block spam senders. Set up sender rules. Unsubscribe yourself from dozens of mailing lists. It’s a lot of work to manage.
However, while it might take a little time and effort, you’ll be happy you did it in the long run.
It makes your account much neater and more aesthetically pleasing. Plus, day-to-day management of your Gmail (or other services) becomes so much easier once you’ve put in the time to delete some spam and tidy things up a little
In the same way that tidying up your social network profiles makes them much better to use, a tidy email account is a joy to work with.
Free Up Space
Millions of people sign in to their email accounts on a daily basis. Many even log in multiple times, as they may receive messages from old and new senders throughout the day. The most active accounts can receive dozens of even hundreds of emails daily, all of which need to be scanned and sorted.
Those emails add up. Each one takes space in your account, and even the best premium accounts have storage limits. If you let too much mail accumulate, you could end up hitting those limits and being unable to receive any new data.
But if you go through your account regularly, delete old content, and unsubscribe from newsletters that aren’t relevant to you, you shouldn’t have to worry about that. You’ll always have free space available, in case any big messages or crucial attachments get sent your way.
Top 10 Tips for a Clean Email Inbox
It happens to everybody: you sit down to give your Gmail account a quick scan, but you’re still there an hour later, scrolling unread emails, and wondering why you haven’t yet accomplished higher-priority tasks. The sheer volume of today’s electronic correspondence is overwhelming, but these 10 email management tips can help you keep your account, and your sanity, in check.
1. Group Like With Like with Smart Sorting and Auto Clean Rules.
Arranging emails by topic allows you to move more quickly through your account by eliminating the need to constantly shift focus with each message. Almost every webmail system or email client offers two ways of organizing messages: You can either use tags to label emails in your inbox or create folders for sorting emails into discrete groups.
Gmail also has a category system that can be trained to automatically sort emails for you. This is just one of the many powerful features that Gmail, and other account providers, offer to help you manage your account.
2. Become a Search Ninja in Your Gmail Inbox.
Half the trouble of a full inbox is being able to easily locate the emails you need. Use this guide on Gmail’s advanced search to find what you’re looking for quickly. Of course, the whole process goes even faster if you’ve already sorted your emails (see previous tip).
3. Shut Off Notifications.
You can’t ignore your email completely, but constant checks and those “You’ve got mail!” notifications are tiny distractions that can hurt your productivity throughout the day. Cut down on interruptions and focus on more pressing work by limiting Gmail checks to one-hour windows in the morning and afternoon.
4. Snooze Emails.
If your inbox is cluttered with unread emails, schedule their re-delivery at more convenient times. Polymail offers this function, along with the ability to send emails at times customized for specific recipients.
5. Consolidate Annoying and Unwanted Emails Subscriptions With Unroll.me.
The iOS app Unroll.me lets you review your email subscriptions and decide whether to unsubscribe or roll multiple emails into a single message. Voila: fewer emails in your inbox!
6. Filter Based on Priority.
When it comes to email tricks, automated filters are old news for most of you – but did you know you can also use hashtags to filter your emails, just like you do on social media? Simply insert the hashtag in the body of the email and use your email client’s advanced search function to ferret it out as needed.
7. Send and Archive.
An inbox full of unopened emails can be stressful, but so is an inbox crammed with content you’ve already read. Once you’re done with a conversation, use Gmail’s “send and archive” feature to put it out of sight and out of mind.
8. Put Email on Your To-Do List.
Do you use a workflow management tool to keep your projects organized? Well, some clients (Wrike, for example) let you move emails out of your inbox and into the workflow task list, where they belong.
9. Take Immediate Action with Rapid Responses and Unsubscribe Requests.
Even well-filtered email inboxes can become cluttered. Whether you hit “delete” or type out a short reply, keep disarray at bay by taking immediate action. This way, you won’t have a slow-building pile of email impinging on your awareness throughout the day.
10. Be Brief.
Certain situations require long, carefully constructed email responses, but limiting yourself to a few short sentences wherever possible can help you reduce the time it takes to get through a crowded inbox.
One Last Tip
With hundreds of billions of emails sent daily, chances are your inbox hit the critical stage just in the time it took you to read this blog. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to do it all at once – that’s a recipe ripe for frustration! Instead, dedicate just five or 10 minutes a day to implementing the tips we’ve already showed you. Before you know it, you’ll finally reach inbox zero.
Products Seen In This Post:
Download these worksheets and start practicing with simple instructions and tracing exercises.
Download now!
Making beautiful design simple & accessible to all.
View More Posts
