Simplify Life with Less Emails

I can’t help but confess that I feel a bit hypocritical writing this post.  It’s because my inbox is always so filled with emails.  Right now I have over 700 emails.  Some days I think I need a secretary.  Since I can’t afford a secretary, I’ve decided I need to do some things to get a handle on all this inbox clutter.  It is time consuming and it needs to stop.  Here’s a few tips I have thought of to simplify our lives and receive less emails.

1)  Unsubscribe from unsolicited newsletters.  Somehow I am receiving several newsletters that I am certain I did not request.  Most of them have an unsubscribe button at the bottom of the newsletter.  If unsubscribing doesn’t work, then block the sender.

2)  Have a massive deleting party.  I admit that I am subscribed to some google alerts and newsletters from companies such as Better Homes & Gardens.  I really enjoy looking at their ideas, but I don’t have time for it each day.  Every now and then I will sort my emails by sender.  That way all of the emails from BHG, Hungry-Girl, and Google are all sorted together. Then I can do some quick massive deleting.

3)  Delete anything with “Fw” in the subject line.  Like my hubby says, “If the person can’t take the time to delete the word ‘forward’, then it’s not worth my time reading it.”

4)  Have a separate account for work and personal email.  I think this is one of things that would really help me.  I should have done this a long time ago.

What tips do you have on saving time and sanity with emails?

image from kveselyte at sxc.hu