I’m celebrating because I totally cut down my emails.
Recently in my Greater Ashburton Business Facebook group I dared everyone to share their inbox numbers. I had thousands of emails and a few hundred unread emails. Most people had way less than me.
I had to take action. Mostly, I generally prefer to be better than everyone else, if at all possible.
I’m sharing how I did it in case it helps you too.
1) Mass delete
Anything over six months old I deleted en masse.
2) Name search
Quickly deleted unwanted emails by searching by name (eg Woolworths) and deleting them all.
3) Unsubscribe
Really questioned how many brands I was subscribing to and unsubbed from a lot.
4) Use the unsub folder for pesky brands
There is always the one brand who simply do not respond to unsub requests (hey there JAG). Instead of unsubscribing once a week, I flick them to my Gmail unsubscribe folder.
5) Choose my gurus
A lot of my email subscriptions are from business leaders and lifestyle influencers who share inspiring articles. I didn’t want to ditch them all so I chose only one per category – one for fitness, one for health, one for parenting, etc. I gave preference to Australians.
6) Use the Gmail unsubscribe plugin for discounts
I don’t want to miss out on discounts from my favourite brands, but I don’t want their emails clogging up my inbox. So I moved emails from these brands into the unsubscribe folder in Gmail, rather than directly unsubbing. To do this, you need the Unsubscriber plugin.
Now, if I am considering a purchase from Country Road I can check the unsub folder for any discount offers and the emails don’t hang unwanted in my inbox.
7) Primary folder for primary emails only
I made sure all subscriptions were going to the Gmail promotions folder and not the primary folder.
8) No subs to main work email address
I updated all my subscriptions to ensure they were going to my Gmail and not my main work email account.
9) Emails instead of candy crush
When I have a few spare moments, I will check out my promotions folder and read the words of wisdom from the gurus I am following, and delete them as I’ve read them.
10) Maintenance
Allocate 10 minutes a week to delete recent emails to keep on top of the inbox – eternal vigilance people!
