15 In Family/ Organizing

Declutter Challenge {Day 12} Emails

If you are anything like me, you may have a couple different email addresses – work email, personal email, freebie/junk email etc. It is SO easy to let all the emails just accumulate until…you have thousands to go through and it overwhelms you just to think about it. Well, today I am giving you a few tips to go through the email clutter and free up some time and space.

Declutter challenge emails

Day 12: Emails

Assignment:

  1. If you don’t have Gmail already, you may want to look into it. They have a feature that lets you set up a Priority Inbox, which has been amazing for me. I admit, it took me awhile to use it because I am not the best when it comes to change. However, once I did, I knew I could never go back to using only one inbox. My emails are now sorted for me, based on a priority inbox, a social inbox, and a promotional inbox.
  2. Most email servers let you set filters for your emails. This lets you apply a certain label to an email, color code it, send it immediately to a certain folder and more. I love being able to see what I need to respond to at a glance, based on what color the filter is. For the emails that you get a lot of that aren’t urgent, set up filters for them to skip your inbox and go straight into a certain folder to look at later.
  3. Here is the big one- UNSUBSCRIBE from all of your junk emails! Yes, I realize this will take work and therefore time. But I promise you that you will not regret doing this and will feel SO much better. Clear the clutter form your inbox, and clear the clutter from your mind. When was the last time you even opened an email from that store or read that online magazine? Take a good amount of time today to unsubscribe from as many emails as possible. Then, over the next week, every time you get an email you don’t really need, take the minute to unsubscribe instead of deleting.
  4. If you use your email for business in any way – let me let you in on one of my secrets. It’s called Streak and it’s life changing. Honestly. It is a plugin that works with Gmail only. It has completely organized my email lists and saved me so much time and boosted my productivity levels tremendously. You can look for yourself here. This is not an affiliate link, just something I love and recommend.

There you have it! I hope you actually completed the task and are already feeling less cluttered.

Do you have any other tips for organizing your inbox?

 

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15 Comments

  • Reply
    Victoria (@ohmissengineer)
    July 12, 2016 at 11:33 am

    My emails are always a mess, but they make sense to me. Thank you for sharing your challenge!

  • Reply
    Kiara Catanzaro
    July 12, 2016 at 11:38 am

    I just recently did this myself and it felt amazing! Thank you for sharing!

  • Reply
    Ashley Stephenson
    July 12, 2016 at 11:43 am

    I am in the process of unsubscribing from so many junk emails right now! But I do love gmail bc it is a lot easier to see which emails are junk and which are ones you need.

  • Reply
    Rachel Ritlop
    July 12, 2016 at 12:37 pm

    I use unroll.me and it’s been a game changer!

    Rachel | http://www.theconfusedmillennial.com

  • Reply
    Wendy Tomlinson
    July 12, 2016 at 1:53 pm

    Keeping my inbox is so essential. I used to come back from a weeks holiday to thousands of emails. It’s not a nice way to start back to business life. Great tips.

  • Reply
    Beth Patterson
    July 12, 2016 at 2:54 pm

    Email is a real challenge to keep up with. Thanks for the tips. I need to look into filtering email!

  • Reply
    Erin | A Welder's Wife
    July 12, 2016 at 7:25 pm

    I cannot stand email clutter! My goal each time I check my email is to get my inbox to zero messages! Everything goes into some sort of file, or is deleted. I also like to keep my Junk folder clear of emails as well! Unsubscribing from sales or promotional emails saves me a ton of time when I check my emails now! I am loving your declutter series! I may have to borrow it in the future 😉 [that is if it’s okay?]

  • Reply
    Rachel
    July 13, 2016 at 12:06 am

    Email clutter is the worst! I’m usually pretty on top of it but I’ve been slacking a little lately!

  • Reply
    Jessica
    July 13, 2016 at 2:11 am

    I love Gmail’s priority inbox! It helps me to sort through e-mail clutter, which there is alot of!

  • Reply
    Jenny
    July 13, 2016 at 3:28 am

    My inbox is overwhelming sometimes lol. Totally going to check out Streak.

    xoxo, Jenny

  • Reply
    All Things Big and Small Blog
    July 13, 2016 at 1:05 pm

    I have to look into Streak. I have used UnRoll.Me for my inbox in the past but I need to re-boot it because my inbox is seriously at 25K unread emails. not even exaggerating! great tips for getting your inbox organized!

  • Reply
    Brittany Bergman
    July 13, 2016 at 1:45 pm

    I cannot stand it when my inbox is out of control! These tips are great for keeping it in check. I find it especially important to unsubscribe from store email lists — it keeps my inbox and my closet nice and slim!

  • Reply
    Brittany Bergman
    July 13, 2016 at 1:46 pm

    I cannot stand it when my inbox is out of control! These tips are great for keeping it in check. I find it especially important to unsubscribe from store email lists — it keeps my inbox and my closet nice and slim!

  • Reply
    Cristina
    August 1, 2016 at 4:53 pm

    From time to time I unsubscribe from spam newsletters that I have never subscribed to and delete e-mails that are no longer needed. It feels so good to have a clean inbox!
    I had no idea that there was a plug-in for Gmail like Steak. I will have to try it! Thanks for sharing!

    • Reply
      terryn
      August 1, 2016 at 7:50 pm

      You are welcome Cristina! Streak is a lifesaver for me!

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