How to Optimize Gmail for Maximum Productivity in 2023

Why You Should Optimize Gmail

New users, especially those coming from outdated email services, sometimes marvel at how much free storage space they get from Google.

Indeed, 15 GB seems like a lot considering that the average text-only email is less than 100 KB large, but there’s one critically important catch: the storage space is shared across Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos.

When your account reaches its storage limit, you lose the ability to send or receive new emails.

In other words, you don’t actually have nearly as much storage space for your emails as it may seem at first. That’s why you should proactively organize your email to prevent unimportant and old emails from taking up valuable storage space, and the Clean Email app makes the organization straightforward.

Step 1: Optimize Gmail Inbox by Unsubscribing from Annoying Email Senders

Unwanted email subscriptions are among the biggest storage space thieves out there, which is why you should tackle them first when you embark on your email organization journey.

In most cases, unsubscribing from unwanted subscriptions is relatively easy: you open a subscription email, click an unsubscribe link near its end, and confirm your decision to unsubscribe.

Sometimes, however, marketers hide unsubscribe links (which they must include by law) to make it harder for subscribers to click them, and some don’t include them at all. There’s also the fact that unsubscribing from a large number of subscriptions at a time can be time-consuming and tiring if you use the manual approach.

Fortunately, an alternative exists, and its name is Unsubscriber.

This useful feature of the Clean Email app lets you unsubscribe from all annoying subscriptions regardless of whether they contain unsubscribe links or not with a simple click. To use it:

1. Go to: https://app.clean.email/
2. Sign in with your account.
3. Select the Unsubscriber feature from the left pane.
4. Click the Unsubscribe button next to each subscription you no longer want to receive.

Besides unsubscribing, the Unsubscriber feature also lets you pause subscriptions, move them to the Read Later folder, and more to give you plenty of ways to clean email inbox.

Step 2: Use Smart Cleaning Suggestions to Optimize Gmail Inbox

Sometimes, it’s easy to identify emails that shouldn’t be in your inbox (unwanted subscriptions are a good example). The problem is that choosing which emails you should delete after you’ve picked all low-hanging fruit can take a lot of time.

What is the solution? An email optimizer app that knows which messages you frequently delete or archive and is able to make suggestions based on that information, and that’s exactly how Clean Email’s Cleaning Suggestions feature makes it easier to clean up email storage.

The Cleaning Suggestions feature analyzes the following data: sender addresses, subject lines, number of attachments, size of attachments, and message age. The gathered information is kept strictly private, and even Clean Email staff doesn’t have access to it.

To see Cleaning Suggestions:

1. Go to: https://app.clean.email/
2. Sign in with your account.
3. Select the Suggestions option from the left pane.

You can then apply the individual suggestions to delete or archive all emails from specific senders.

Step 3: Optimize Gmail Inbox Automatically with Auto Clean

As useful and convenient as Cleaning Suggestions are, they still leave something to be desired, and that something is the complete automatization of Gmail organization.

What if you could automatically move emails to a folder in Gmail as soon as they arrive, effortlessly configure Gmail auto archive rules, or take advantage of the automated email tasks? Well, your inbox would be a lot more organized, and you would have more time for important tasks.

The good news is that Clean Email’s Auto Clean feature empowers you to create sophisticated inbox automation rules in a few simple steps, allowing you to move, label, archive, and perform other actions without any manual work required.

Bonus Gmail Optimization Tips

Are you hungry for more tips on how to optimize Gmail storage? Then keep on reading because this section contains three bonus Gmail optimization tips.

Tip 1: Block Unwanted Senders

Are there some senders who are constantly bothering you and sending you messages you don’t care about? Then don’t hesitate to block emails from unwelcome senders.

How? By automatically moving all emails from them to the Trash folder using Clean Email.

Alternatively, you can flag their emails as spam, and Gmail should eventually start moving new messages from the same senders to the Spam folder.

When you block an unwanted sender using Clean Email or by flagging their messages as spam, the sender won’t be notified that their messages can’t reach you anymore, so you might want to politely let them know yourself.

Tip 2: Snooze Emails if You Can’t Respond Right Away

Gmail has a useful Snooze feature that lets you temporarily remove messages you don’t have time to deal with right now until a specified time in the future, such as later the same day or tomorrow.

To snooze a message:

1. Log in to your account.
2. Right-click the message you want to snooze.
3. Click the Snooze option and specify when you want to receive the message.

You can find all snoozed messages by opening the main menu (the three horizontal lines to the left of the Gmail logo) and selecting the Snoozed option.

Tip 3: Make Gmail Optimization Part of Your Daily Routine

Gmail optimization takes time, so you should make it part of your daily routine so that you don’t neglect it.

We recommend you set a specific time each day for Gmail optimization, preferably before you start your day or after you’re done with work.

Ideally, you want to end your Gmail optimization routine by reaching Inbox Zero, a state when there are no emails in your inbox because you’ve organized everything.

Having a second mail account on Outlook? Follow our guide on how to optimize Outlook inbox.