Emailing has become part of people’s everyday lives that they send and receive a staggering number of emails per day. To eliminate the overwhelm, we recommend you declutter you inbox.
According to data by Statista, worldwide, the number of emails sent and received per day in 2021 was 319.6 billion – 4.3% more than in 2020. In 2022, approximately 333.2 billion emails were sent globally each day. That’s an 8.9% increase from 2020.
It is predicted that the average number of emails received per day will continue to grow at least until 2025.
In our professional world, business owners or C-Suite executives, in most cases, have an assistant who can help them manage their inbox, however, on a personal level, it is very rare to delegate the management of your email. This is understandable, because there are a lot of emails that you need to attend to personally.
To help you to manage your ever-growing personal emails, here are four tips to decluttering your inbox:
1. Unsubscribe
Keeping a clean inbox is crucial to keeping your sanity, so start by unsubscribing from any emails that you no longer need or are not interested in. This will prevent unwanted emails cluttering up your inbox and distracting you from the important emails you do need to act on. Take the time to review which newsletters or promotional offers you truly need, and then unsubscribe from the rest.
2. Create Filters and Folders
After unsubscribing from unnecessary emails, set up filters for incoming mail so it can go to the appropriate folders (or labels as Google calls them) for easy sorting. You can create separate folders for specific topics or areas of focus such as personal, kids, parents, and leisure emails. This way, when an email comes in all you do is review the relevant folders. Having these separate folders also makes it easier for you to quickly search for what you’re looking for without having to scroll through pages of clutter in your inbox.
3. Archive Important Emails
If there are certain emails that don’t require any action but may be important enough to hold onto, archive them rather than leaving them in your primary inbox folder. These archived emails can be quickly accessed later if needed without cluttering up your main inbox message list view. If the email is not needed, delete it.
4. Empty Trash and Spam Folders
Finally, make sure to regularly review and empty your spam folder, and empty your trash folder, as they fill up with useless junk mail over time. Doing this helps keep everything more organised and manageable while freeing up space on the server hosting your email account as well as help reduce clutter in other folders within your mailbox too!
There is a discipline to each of these approaches mentioned and as with any change in habit, repetition is the key. You need to be conscious about what you’re doing rather, and in no time, with consistent action, you’ll be decluttering your inbox without thinking too much about it. Good luck!
If you’re overwhelmed, struggling to get things done, or recognise you need some assistance, book a discovery call to discuss your personal support needs.