Email detox

Does it feel to you like if you receive one more email you might just want to scream, run away, and (just like Belle) rather stay couped up in the castle with the Beast than so much as open, let alone answer the mail? Excuse the Disney reference, but I think it does my point well.

Email takes up so much of our precious time and face it, every single email that enters your mailbox requires action from your side. Even if it is just to delete it.

Funny how it’s so quick and easy to send an email but for the receiver an email is always something that’s requires more.  You need to read it, respond, archive, delete, whatever.

So, I challenge you to do an email detox! That’s right. Detox that inbox. This is how:

1. New email address

   Create a new email address. A dedicated spam email address. This is not an address that you will be handing out to anyone so you can call it whatever you want (spammymail@gmail.com / ifeelfunny@gmail.com). Anything you want. Now you can check this mailbox daily or weekly without these emails taking up precious and important inbox space.

2. Unsubscribe

   Now, every time you receive an email that could potentially be “spam” (these are emails like Groupon, subscriptions you signed up to at some point, or anything else you feel fits into this category) either unsubscribe or edit your preferences and have them go to your new email address.

3. Delete

   Delete anything you don’t ever want to see again.

4. Archive

   Go through your inbox and archive anything that you have already dealt with, don’t want to deal with, or are finished with. Remember you can always search your mail at a later stage for what you need.

5. Answer

   The emails left at this point need to be attended to. Answer them. Answer them all until you have nothing left. A clean inbox.

6. Keep it this way!

Congratulations on your super clean email inbox!