3 Options to Help You De-Clutter Your Email Inbox

Learn 3 ways to declutter your inbox of junk mail

The day after I bought and registered the warrantee for a new printer for my home office I started receiving multiple emails touting their other products. Sorry, not interested.

Does your email inbox look like a traffic jam? Do you keep getting the same junk mail over and over again?

You have three ways to handle this annoying situation:

1. “Delete”
2. Label it as “Junk Mail” or
3. “Click here to unsubscribe.”

“Delete” is the easiest, and what most of us do. A simple mouse click and poof it is gone. The only problem is mail from the same source keeps coming back, again and again, clogging up your inbox.

Labeling it as “Junk Mail” will send it to you Junk Mail folder. But that can fill up quickly too. You might want to save if for really questionable junk mail or spam; more on that later.

If the ads, newsletters and emails come from or through a reliable source, such as ConstantContact or eWebber there will be an “unsubscribe” link at the very bottom of the page. Click on that and a page will open up asking you to confirm that you really want to unsubscribe (this is called “double opt-out”).  Check “yes” or “confirm” and you are removed from the mailing list.

Recently I unsubscribed to a newsletter. The standard unsubscribe information was in pale blue text on a white background, making it almost illegible and very difficult to navigate. They complied with the letter of the protocol, but not its spirit. We are not amused.

Please note: if an unsubscribe page asks you to enter your email address DO NOT enter your email address. Exit that page immediately. Instead add that email sender to your junk mail “blocked sender” list.

Most email newsletters come from good guys. If you are not interested or no longer interested in a newsletter, announcements or special deals take the few extra seconds to unsubscribe.  Your inbox will be less cluttered and easier to scan for important messages. Save your junk mail box for mail from the bad guys and the clueless.

Check your “junk mail” box at least once a day, just in case your mail box filter did not recognize some “white hat” mail. “Empty” your email folder on a daily basis too. Don’t have time? Decluttering your emails is a great thing to do, when your brain needs a rest from real thinking and you feel too guilty to goof-off.

Now excuse me while I empty my junk mail folder of missives from ”chanel vuitton” and “BIG GENTLEMAN.”

Photo by Yandle