I’m not going to suggest a lot of automation and stuff. Instead, I’m going to suggest how to use the existing inbox in a certain manner so you start liking your inbox again.
Check emails with a purpose
Whenever the email inbox is opened, you should have a purpose for that time. For example, I check the work emails when I open my work inbox first in the morning. I don’t read the newsletters at this time. You would have a different purpose each time you open your inbox. Do not mix them up.
Work or personal?
I don’t view work emails and reply to them on my mobile app. I know a dedicated time to reply to work emails and I would have reference to something else. So, it would be easier to reply to work emails from my computer. You might have different business or work that would require a on-the-go email replying.
Examples from my own practices
An unmanaged inbox would do the right opposite of what do you want. Spam emails are one of them that pollute our inboxes. My practices would help reduce spam and maintain a clutter-free inbox.
I will share how do I use my inbox that helps me to check emails efficiently.
- I use three email addresses. Personal, work, and a public email address (I like to keep public profile in some of the social sites where email address require to be public).
- I use Spark email client (link) that automatically categorises and enables me to check all the inboxes in one place.
- I have a couple of email signatures that I use across all my accounts. If I use a different one with a minor different, I don’t save it unless it is repeated.
- I’m a zero inbox person though only difference is unread emails are zero in my account. clutter-free environment lets you move freely.
- I use different folders for repetitive emails such as notifications from GitHub about any code repository activities.
- I subscribe to newsletters and like email digests from some products. I unsubscribe whichever ones that I do not like. If I do not read three continuous emails, I will unsubscribe the email digest/newsletter as it is apparent that I’m not interested in them or they are not relevant to my anymore.
- I check newsletters and weekly digests over the weekends. I mostly start my week on Monday with zero unread emails.
- I read all other emails based on my free time. I would probably respond to you in a few hours if you send me an email if not the next day.
- I either check my email on the Spark desktop app or the mobile app. I stopped using the web browser for emails.
- For security perspective, I have multi-factor authentication activated in all my email account. Security for email accounts should be a primary concern for everyone as it is the single door to all other services that we use.
I hope these practices would be helpful and you could adopt some of them for a tidy inbox.
Happy email-ing! 😃