Tips to Organize and Declutter Your Email Inbox

Email isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, so we might as well try to squash inefficiencies so we don’t waste too much of our professional time. Thankfully, Gmail have a ton of intuitive, flexible, and easy-to-implement features for improving your inbox organization.Tired of wasting time, sacrificing productivity, and putting up with subject lines because of email clutter? Here are few simple ways to declutter your inbox.

Get Your Inbox Organized with Gmail

1. Customize your Inbox Layout

Gmail allows you to customize your inbox’s layout. One option is the default layout (tabbed inboxes), the second option is three layouts that put specific types of emails first (“important,” “unread,” and “starred”), and a priority inbox layout that arranges mail based on importance.

We recommend choosing either the default or priority inbox layouts. These are arguably the most useful, as one categorizes and the other prioritizes. You should try out different layouts until you figure out which one best suits your needs

2. Skip the Inbox

Not every email needs to end up in your primary inbox. For messages you want to file away automatically — say, messages regarding a work project or bills, create a filter that skips the inbox.

3. Archive Emails

Archiving emails is a fantastic way to reach Inbox Zero. This method ensures already-acted-upon emails aren’t cluttering your inbox — use Gmail’s “Send and Archive” feature.

4.Unsubscribe from 90 percent of the lists you’re on.

While you probably just delete most of these unwanted emails every day, they clog your inbox, waste your time checking them off and then pushing delete, and make it hard for you to see the emails that actually matter. So, take the time to open it, scroll down, and figure out how to unsubscribe from the list. It will require a little more time upfront but it will pay off in the long run when the number of emails you receive on a daily basis goes way, way down.

5.Use your calendar rather than your inbox.

People often leave emails in their inbox to remind them to do something — to make a call, start a project, or to follow up with someone. Instead of taking up valuable inbox space with emails you have already read, schedule these to-dos in your calendar to remind yourself that way. If you’ve been meaning to call to make an appointment somewhere but the place doesn’t open until Tuesday, create an event in your calendar for Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. as a reminder, rather than leaving the related email in your inbox (which you might not even see on Tuesday anyway).

6.Turn on Nudges

It’s easy to miss important emails on Gmail thanks to marketing newsletters and Spam. The Nudge is an algorithm in Gmail that brings priority emails back to the top of your inbox when you or a recipient hasn’t yet responded. It’s perfect if you need consistent reminders to send replies or follow-up. You can turn off or on it in setting menu.

7. Select Labels to Show in Your Inbox

Select only frequently used labels to show in the left column of your inbox view. Your Gmail will not only look decluttered, but you’ll also locate important messages much quicker.

8.Disable social media email notifications

Social media is distracting! I know you know that already but social media has a way of making way inside your head even against the strongest of restrains.

You really do not really need to know who commented on what photo on Facebook or who recently retweeted your meme, at least not right away.