Chances are, when you go to check your email each day, the majority of the emails in your inbox are either notifications or advertisements, as opposed to legitimate communications. While it’s nice (and sometimes motivating) to be able to quickly run through the list and delete what you don’t need or want, it can be time consuming and problematic if you don’t clean it out regularly. The new year is a great time to spend some time cleaning your inbox, and think about either unsubscribing from that store that emails you daily- or in some cases, requesting less-frequent communication. Here are a couple of steps you should consider if you think your inbox needs a good cleaning:
- Unsubscribe. This is usually the best way to eliminate inbox clutter or change the frequency of emails you get. Legitimate stores will offer an “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of the emails. Click on that link….sometimes you can request to get less frequent notifications (maybe a weekly newsletter as opposed to a daily promotion), or you can altogether unsubscribe from receiving notifications from that company. Be careful though….make sure you only click on the unsubscribe links on legitimate emails (not spam ones)….if you click on spam emails, you could be opening Pandora’s box to spyware and other malware problems.
- Use A Free Cleanup Service. There are some pretty cool free services out there that will scan your inbox for you and automatically find which mailing lists you belong to, and offer a one-click way to unsubscribe. It’s a timesaver, and an easy way to find what’s cluttering up your inbox. We like http://unroll.me. It’s free, safe, easy to use, and offers you the ability to further clean up your inbox by rolling promotional emails you still want to receive into one daily email. Similarly, http://deseat.me finds sites online where you have created an online user account that you might no longer need anymore.
- Consider A Paid Service. If you’re a high-volume email user, and have 100+ emails a day to navigate and organize, chances are you would benefit from one of the paid services that help you get some sanity in your inbox. Services like http://sanebox.com and http://mailstorm.co are paid sites that monitor your inbox and use complex algorithms to filter out junk, advertisements, and other non-important emails into different folders that make valid, actionable emails stand out so they don’t get lost in the shuffle. Both services have free trials, and are worth considering if you find yourself stuck behind too much email junk.
We would love to hear what suggestions you have for services or ways you use to clean up your inbox! Leave us comments below with your experiences!
