How to Manage Inbox Overload and Actually Get Stuff Done
The first step to take in conquering your email is reducing the number of emails arriving in your inbox. Here’s how.
#1 Turn off notifications from social media sites
You don’t need to get emails every time someone responds to a tweet or Facebook comment or when someone connects with you on LinkedIn.
You’ll see those updates when you actually visit those sites anyway, so why have them gunk up your inbox?
#2 Mass unsubscribe from bacn
Most email providers do a decent job of preventing spam from hitting your inbox.
But what can you do about those newsletters and coupon deals you yourself have signed up for over the years?
Pronounced “bacon” (it’s a techie term – it’s “better than spam, but not quite as good as a personal message”), these are emails that you’ve subscribed to, but you never open them, they clutter up your inbox, and they’re annoying.
Get a handle on your bacn by unsubscribing from lists you no longer wish to be on.
Here’s a simple trick to clean them faster: use your inbox’s search function and search for “unsubscribe.”
That should bring up most of the subscription emails you get and then it’s just a matter of going through them and unsubscribing from the ones you no longer want to receive.
To prevent more bacn in the future, set up a “burner email” that you can give to websites or companies that require an email from you to access their service.
MailDrop is an excellent service for creating email addresses for those times you don’t want to give out your real one.
#3 Set up filters to stop annoying FWD: emails
We all probably get those annoying FWD: chain emails featuring some political rant or silly urban myth. They’re usually sent by just a select few people in your contact list — an aunt or an annoying coworker.
Filter these emails to a special folder. Gmail makes creating this filter a breeze. (Other email programs do as well, I’m just highlighting the specific process for Gmail.)
When you receive an offending forward from a person, click on “More” and then “Filter messages like these.”
In the subject line, add “fwd or fw.”
Click “Continue.” And then check “Skip Inbox (Archive)” and apply the label “Forwards.”
Now whenever you get a forward from that person, it will go directly to the folder you just created.
Review it once a week on the off-chance that one of their forwards might actually be important.