These days, many people no longer bother to clean out their mailboxes. As a result, they accumulate an impressive quantity of unwanted messages, marketing emails, and newsletters. Don’t want to be overwhelmed by a flood of emails anymore? In this article, learn how to clean your mailbox effectively. Let’s go.
Fully Inbox, What Are The Consequences?
Before going any further, it is essential to know what effects the saturation of a mailbox causes. If this happens to you, you have probably already noticed some changes. First, you may often experience slowdowns or crashes. Then, sometimes, your emails fail to reach their recipients, and it is also possible that you no longer receive emails. Another aspect to consider: if you do not manage your mailbox correctly, you contribute to increasing digital pollution. How is this possible? It’s easy. Data, as well as information, are stored in data centers.
These require a significant amount of energy to operate. Apart from that, these data centers also need cooling. According to studies carried out by ADEME, sending emails (within a structure employing 100 employees) can generate the equivalent of around 13 tonnes of CO2 every year, which is considerable. That being said, it is now time to get to the heart of the matter: how do you go about cleaning out an email box?
Unsubscribe From Newsletters
The web is full of advertisements, which can sometimes be tempting, as well as promotions and other exciting offers. It’s completely understandable that, at some point, you wanted to follow these. However, after a few months, these newsletters can easily invade an email box. Therefore, it is recommended that you unsubscribe as soon as these newsletters are no longer helpful to you.
You should know that the person who issues a newsletter is required to provide you with an unsubscribe link (in most cases, on the footer). In addition to newsletters, it is also advisable to deactivate notifications (for example, comments on a photo). In addition to being useless, they can very quickly overwhelm your box.
Deleting Heavy And Old Emails
Another way to do this is to sort your emails and delete those that are the heaviest. If you use Gmail, for example, you can carry out the following operations: in the search bar, type “LARGER:1M” and then validate. You have before your eyes the emails with a size that exceeds 1 MB. Select all these emails and uncheck those that you no longer want to keep. Please note that this action gives you the possibility of performing a mass deletion (200 emails in one go).
You can search based on the date received, and it is possible to combine this with the size of the emails. To make everything clear, let’s take a concrete example: let’s imagine that you are looking for emails more significant than 1 MB that you received before January 3, 2022. In this case, the query will be as follows: LARGER: 1M BEFORE: 2022/ 03/12. Do you use Outlook? Go to the “tools” tab, then “Clean mailbox.” Afterward, you can search for old emails based on their size or their age.
Sorting By Category
Effective cleaning of an email box also requires good organization. It is in your interest to classify your emails according to their content, as well as the senders and recipients. By organizing your mailbox in this way, you will find certain specific emails more quickly.
Furthermore, the accumulation of emails must be avoided at all costs. For better organization, feel free to create folders for each type of email and regularly delete emails that have already been read or are not necessary.
Use Of Specific Tools
Some tools are explicitly designed to help you clean and sort your mailbox in record time. This is the case, for example, with Cleanfox. The latter begins by analyzing your emails and then classifies them by indicating which of your messages are unwanted or useless. Finally, the tool suggests that you delete emails that you no longer intend to keep.
Use Of Spam Filters
Some people need more time to sort their email on a daily basis. In these conditions, the use of anti-spam filters can be beneficial. They act to block all unwanted messages while providing adequate protection to your mailbox.
Deleting Drafts
You may have to start writing an email and stop without finishing it. If you use Gmail, this unfinished email will be saved in “Draft.” Obviously, if there are only a few, this is fine. However, this can become problematic when these drafts exceed a specific number. To remove them, nothing could be simpler. Go to “Drafts,” then choose the email you want to delete. Finally, all you have to do is click on “Delete drafts.”
Deleting Large Files
Do you have a Gmail account? So, you are aware that emails with attachments can take up a lot of space in your mailbox. Indeed, some emails are accompanied by videos or photos. Luckily for you, there is a straightforward way to find these messages. In the search bar, enter the following command: “has: attachment,” and you will obtain all your emails with attachments. Then, delete messages that are no longer useful to you.
Permanent Removal Of Messages From The Trash
Many people need to remember to delete emails in the trash permanently, which is an error on their part, given that this action is required. If you don’t, be aware that these messages continue to take up space. However, it should be noted that the vast majority of mailboxes automatically permanently delete emails from the trash after 30 days.
Keep Important Emails
One way or another, you may be required to justify a purchase made. You may also need to verify certain information. But whatever the situation, it’s always a good idea to have essential emails on hand. To conclude, cleaning your mailbox is an operation that you must work on. Even though most mailboxes offer a large storage capacity, at some point, the space will no longer be enough if you do not manage your messages efficiently on a daily basis. Therefore, make sure to get your mailbox full so that cleaning may take a long time. In addition, if you manage your mailbox correctly, you are making an ecological gesture.
Manage Your Emails Effectively On A Daily Basis
Once your inbox is organized, it’s essential to maintain that order as you receive new emails. For that :
- Process your new messages regularly: read them, respond to them if necessary, then archive them, move them to a folder, or delete them.
- Review your “Read Later” folder or appropriately labeled emails daily to make sure you don’t let anything pile up.
- Reorganize your folders and labels frequently as needed: add some, delete some, or rename them to match your changing needs and priorities.
Read Also: SME Marketing: What It Is & How Much To Spend In The Company
