How To Declutter Email Inbox for Good

Want to know how to declutter email inbox? Having a cluttered mailbox will affect your overall productivity throughout your working day. Leading to a waste of time, and a never-ending mountain of unread messages. In this article, you’ll learn how to reduce email clutter and how an email management app can help.

What is a Cluttered Inbox?

Is your inbox in a constant state of pure chaos? Are you overloaded with unread messages and spammy newsletters? Those are the symptoms of a cluttered email. If this sounds like your current situation, we are here to help.

Your mailbox can slowly become cluttered over time due to poor management, too many subscriptions, and a bad system at reading and responding.

All these things are redeemable, and you can achieve a stress-free mailbox using the email hacks we have within this article, and some great email declutter apps.

How to Declutter Email Inbox

If you want to finally learn how to clean up an extremely cluttered inbox, take notes.

1. Check emails throughout the day with set times

You will be able to stay on top of your messages if you check them throughout the day.

Although this is a great tip, be sure to only set a time of around 10 to 20 minutes per session. Otherwise, you could be sucked in, and waste hours of work time.

Try to set one of these sessions for a good email declutter.

2. Move last year’s emails into a separate folder

A quick way to declutter email inbox is to move last year’s messages into a separate folder.

Whilst you are doing this, delete any irrelevant or unwanted emails, and archive the ones you may need in the future.

3. Forward emails to other members of your team

If you work within a team of people and find you are getting a ton of messages you haven’t got time to reply to, forward them to a member of the team who is available to respond.

This enables you to keep up to date with messages and decrease your unread folder.

4. Use email management software

Using email management software to declutter email is a smart way to clean up your inbox fast and stress-free. There are tons of apps on the market that offer different features to help manage your mail.

Some examples are:

5. Have separate work and personal accounts

Having work and personal emails all in one inbox can mean you miss important notifications, and your mailbox with be harder to declutter.

Create a separate account for your work messages to be sent to. This way you can easily identify which emails you need to manage.

6. Make use of folders and labels

Create specific folders for the different categories you need.

For example, you can create folders for certain senders or topics. Using labels also helps you to quickly identify messages that are most important or ones you are saving for later.

Create a folder for VIP emails. When you are checking your mail, you can sort through this folder first to get it out of the way.

Also, you would rather not miss incoming message from someone or something important. This is a great way to email declutter.

7. Utilise tools from email service provider

Your mail provider will already have some handy features installed.

Check out what your mail service provides and make use of its built-in features. For example, Gmail already separates promotional and social emails from the rest of your inbox.

8. Unsubscribe

Unsubscribe from nearly all your subscriptions. Unless you find that information you receive worthwhile.

Subscriptions make up most of the mailbox mess. A quick way to unsubscribe is to use an email declutter tool. For example, the Clean Email app shows all the newsletters you receive in one place and you can easily opt out from any of them you no longer need.

Unsubscribe from emails with Clean EmailUnsubscribe from emails with Clean Email

9. Archive or delete unwanted emails

Archive or delete any emails that serve you no purpose. Be mindful of the messages you delete; you will never be able to retrieve them again (or you have only a limited time to get them back from your Trash folder).

Archive emails that hold important documents just in case you need to access them in the future.

You can create automated rules to archive or delete specific messages once they hit your inbox with Clean Email too.

Archive emails with Clean EmailArchive emails with Clean Email

10. Work towards Inbox Zero!

Inbox Zero is the goal for anyone who aims to email declutter!

Inbox Zero essentially means you have zero notifications, nothing left to reply to or read. It seems impossible, but you can achieve this over time with a good system in place.

Reduce Email Clutter with Clean Email

If you're looking for an email declutter app, and something to make your life so much easier, check out Clean Email. The app provides useful features to make your whole mailbox a streamlined process.

Auto Clean feature

Auto Clean allows you to automate any routine email tasks. Once you have set up your automated rules, you will never manually do them again!

Automate email tasks with Clean EmailAutomate email tasks with Clean Email

This saves you time and makes your emailing process a lot smoother, and quicker. You can automate your emails to move to certain folders, archive, or delete them, etc.

To use the Auto Clean feature, all you need to do is:

Automatically move emails with Auto Clean in Clean EmailAutomatically move emails with Auto Clean in Clean Email

Within the Create advanced Auto Clean rule link, you can customise your rule. For example, you can apply this rule to certain keywords, or from specific senders.

You can always view and change rules within the Auto Clean dashboard.

Smart Views

Smart Views make it easier for you to find certain messages, and to manage your mailbox.

This feature automatically sorts your mail into smart bundles of similar emails such as “social media notifications”, “top senders”, “emails from dead ends”, and others.

Smart Views feature in Clean EmailSmart Views feature in Clean Email

Smart Views allow you to sort through sections of your mailbox with ease and remove any groups of messages you do not need.

Unsubscriber

Unsubscriber allows you to easily get rid of any unwanted newsletters or promotional emails that block up your inbox daily. You may not even realise you are signed up to some mailing lists.

With a simple click of either Unsubscribe, Read Later, or Keep, you can organise and minimise your daily emails.

To learn more about how to manage email overload, check out the email ​​management best practices. You will get some helpful tips on how to keep on top of your emails and reduce further email anxiety.


How To Declutter Email Inbox - FAQs

Why do people have a cluttered email?

Cluttered inbox happen due to poor email management and lack of organisation. This article will provide you with helpful tips on how to declutter your inbox and keep it that way.

How do I declutter my Outlook inbox?

To declutter your Outlook inbox, start by creating a routine throughout the day to organise your emails into folders of relevance, and archiving or deleting any messages you don’t need.

How do I organize and declutter my email?

To organise and declutter email you need to create set times throughout the day that do not affect your actual work. Within your time blocks, delete old emails, archive important ones, and sort the rest into easily accessible folders.

Is there an app to declutter your email inbox?

Clean Email is an app that provides useful features to support decluttering your inbox daily. You can set up automated rules to save you time and keep your inbox clean.

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InboxClean Your Mailbox

Tools like Quick Clean and Smart Views to help you quickly clean out an overloaded inbox

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Keep unwanted emails out of your Inbox by unsubscribing - even from email lists that don’t have an unsubscribe link

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Automate repetitive with Auto Clean rules to archive emails as they become old or sort them into folders

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Use filters to find emails you want to clean.Use filters to find emails you want to clean.
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Groups of Emails
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