We’ve all been there… tempted by sales, Black Friday deals, the classic ‘sign-up for our newsletter to get 10% off your first order!’ pop-ups. So we enter in our details, forget about it and then the spammy marketing emails just keep on coming, and before you know it you could have literally 100s, maybe even 1000s of marketing emails in your inbox.
And do you really have hours to sort this out? Nope.
Looking after your data in this digital world is so very important, and by taking back control of your inbox you’ll be reducing your carbon footprint.
If you’re pushed for time or quite simply cannot be bothered, get in touch with me and I can give it a good spring clean.
In the meantime, here are my top five tips for making your inbox as spotless as a swanky 5* hotel.
Bulk unsubscribe
You can unsubscribe from individual emails really easily, if you scroll to the bottom of the email in question it will usually have the option in the small print at the bottom. It’s worth noting that you may have to select ‘view entire message’ if it’s a long email to find the ‘unsubscribe’ link. Unroll.me is an excellent way to bulk unsubscribe from multiple emails, and the ones you want to keep you can have in a handy ‘roll-up’ email at the end of each week, instead of multiple emails. Handy, right?
Bulk delete emails
I once had an inbox with over 15,000 emails in. I know. Shocking. That’s why I’m such a stickler for sailing a tight email ship these days. Sadly, there isn’t a quick win to bulk delete emails. For Gmail you can delete up to 50 at a time. There are resources that you can adopt to help with this however, such as Clean Email.
Protect your data
Rightly have some excellent tools for you to request data held by companies you shop with online, and social media platforms (including WhatsApp). You can give your inbox an MOT and take back control of your personal data by taking advantage of Rightly’s handy tools. You can do the following via their website:
- Request your data
- Delete your data
- Get your credit files
Well worth doing.
Archive and create folders
There may be emails you’re not quite ready to get rid of that may be important that you’ve read, so in order to make your inbox, well, orderly, you can archive these. If you’re doing this in GMail, your archive will be found in the ‘all mail’ heading.
Folders are also a great way to manage your inbox. I use these all the time, and find them especially helpful for seasonal and corporate events, and travel planning. For example you could create a folder named ‘Mini break’, then add subfolders such as Tickets, insurance, Itinerary, Contacts, etc. Simple!
Create priority lists and labels
You might have a busy lifestyle and see important emails popping up but not have time to read them. Make sure you leave these ‘unread’ and give them a label such as ‘Important’ and review these later on in the day when you have time to tackle them. You can also create a folder and title it ‘To-do’, if that’s an easier way for you to manage your inbox. If you’re particularly busy, you can always set an automated email response to inform those contacting you of your turnaround time to reply to emails. This helps manage their expectations and doesn’t get you into such a muddle.
