What’s your wildest inbox fantasy? Is it sorting through and clearing out your SPAM? Is it organizing, tagging and filing away your important messages? Is it just going through and making sure you haven’t missed anything important?
How about getting your inbox down to zero emails?
No weary web crawlers that wasn’t a typo. We’ve compiled a few tips and tricks you can use to not only clear through the junk, but actually get your inbox down completely. Wouldn’t it feel great to start from scratch?
1. Archive it.
Once you’ve read something it’s time to delete. For those messages that you’ve read but can’t seem to part with forever, use the archive function to sort and save for later. Once a message is archived it’s out of your hair, but still completely accessible. Archived messages are also completely searchable, perfect for those moments of “I’m sure I must have that somewhere.”
2. Create folders that work for you.
Of course you feel hesitant to delete emails confirming travel plans, purchases made or upcoming events. But in order to achieve that almighty goal of the empty inbox you’ll need to file those away somewhere they won’t distract you from actually important messages. Creating folders for your most common email confirmations can help you get them out of your inbox and out of your hair.
3. Use some common sense.
It’s not difficult to find junk emails or mass messages that have no real business in your inbox. Scan the first few lines of preview text and get a feel for the message. If it doesn’t seem applicable then it probably isn’t. You can let those who email you frequently know about this if you’re a bit squeamish about deleting before reading, but you probably won’t miss much.
Bonus: This technique can also help you cut down on the number of phishing attempts you’re likely to fall for.
4. Anytime can be a good time to tidy up.
Whether you’ve got some downtime during the day or a few moments before bed, a couple minutes of sorting and deleting can make a huge difference to your inbox. Better yet give yourself a finite amount of time and see just how much clutter you can get rid of. After all, a spoonful of sugar…
5. Unsubscribe, unsubscribe, unsubscribe.
How many junk mailing lists are you on? And how many of those do you actually need? Try unsubscribing from two a day and see just how much you miss that Baskin Robbins newsletter. And for those looking for a quicker clean, try an app like Unroll.me to clear away the junk newsletters instantly.
6. Put your trust in a trusted community.
Another great way to an empty inbox is with Sendio’s Trusted Email Communities. Because Trusted Communities focus on the messages you want to receive, rather than the ones you’d like blocked, they can virtually eliminate junk while still ensuring you receive all of those crucial emails.
Caution: Sendio is not responsible for any random acts of kindness or uncharacteristically joyful behavior that may result from a clean inbox. If you’re ready to make your inbox sparkle, you can try Sendio for six months free or learn more about how Trusted Email Communities can cut junk mail and increase productivity.
