How to Reduce Mailbox Clutter
- 1). Use your spam filters, if they aren't already turned on, to filter out unwanted junk mail. You can set it up so that email that looks like spam will go to a spam folder, which you can check periodically to make sure legitimate messages haven't been miscategorized. Check your email application's preferences settings and help feature for assistance in setting up your spam filters. Some programs let you click on a piece of incoming mail and label it as spam, to help filter out similar messages in the future. Your email at work may be set up to filter spam by the information technology department, with no settings for you to adjust on your own.
- 2). Click on incoming messages and apply labels to them to designate them with categories such as urgent, work-related, deadline and personal. Messages will be highlighted with different colors, so you can see at a glance the important ones that demand the earliest action and the ones that can wait until later in the day or week for your response.
- 3). After you respond to a message and are done with the issue, such as answering a single question from your boss or colleague, move the email to a folder that you can name something like "Finished" or "Finished this Month." If you get a lot of email from certain people on a regular basis, you can create folders for each person and put messages there as you finish with them. When you start working on a new project, set up a special folder to store all the emails relating to it, instead of letting them clutter up your mailbox.
- 4). Set up incoming mail rules, using your preferences settings, to automatically move messages that fit certain patterns into folders to help you organize your work. For example, all messages that have the name of a certain product in the subject line, such as "garden hose," can go to a folder you create called "Gardening Supplies." You also can have folders for mail sent from your boss and friends. In the morning, you can quickly click on the "Boss" folder to see the latest messages, and during your coffee break, you can browse the latest news from your friends in the "Personal" folder.
- 5). Go through your inbox periodically and delete messages that are no longer useful to keep, such as an invitation to a potluck lunch that took place a month ago or a reminder to attend a meeting that has since been canceled. Depending on your schedule, you might want to prune your inbox once a day or week or month. While it will take a little time to go through and delete unnecessary messages, you can ultimately save time that you'd otherwise spend wading through the clutter to find your important mail.
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