If you get too many e-mails to cope with, it can be overwhelming to tackle your e-mail inbox. You may have signed up for newsletters or coupons for stores where you shop; they sometimes send several e-mails every day! There is not enough time to read them (and never will be), and it takes time to delete them every day! They make it hard to find your ‘real’ e-mails.
There are several strategies that will help you wade through and more quickly eliminate the e-mails you no longer want to receive.
NOTE that:
- the headings FROM, SUBJECT, DATE will re-sort your e-mails when clicked
- marking an e-mail as JUNK trains your e-mail service not to deliver from that sender to your inbox again
- clicking the UNSUBSCRIBE link in an e-mail informs the sender to remove you from their automated e-mail distribution list
Strategy #1: Sort by FROM - to group your e-mails by who sent them
- Look for many e-mails from the same sender that you no longer want to receive.
- Open one of them and click the unsubscribe link (usually at the bottom of the e-mail), then mark it as spam or junk.
- Back to the sorted list - select the first in that group of senders, hold the SHIFT key then scroll to the last in that list from that sender, and left click your mouse. This selects many e-mails at once (they will show in blue).
- Delete that group (you can use the DELETE key on your keyboard).
- Repeat steps 1-4 for more groups in the sorted list.
Strategy #2: Sort by SUBJECT -
- Mark as junk / spam any subject that seems suspicious
Strategy #3: Sort by DATE - oldest first
- Delete very old e-mails that you no longer need to keep
Strategy #4: Search for words in the Subject
- Enter a term, one at a time.
- Terms that may find lots of unwanted e-mails: SALE, OFFER, FREE, URGENT, %, WIN, WON, GIFT, ATTENTION, BENEFICIARY, DEAR, ATTENTION, RECIPE, CRAFT, etc.
- Mark unwanted e-mails in the short list and send to junk
- Repeat steps 1-2
Strategy #5: Empty folders
- Empty your junk / spam folder - select all messages and delete.
- Empty your trash / recently deleted folder - select all messages and delete.
Strategy #6: Make new folders
- Add a new folder, such as SAVE THIS
- Move emails you want to keep, by left clicking the mouse and dragging email to the folder
You can make the cleanup a game - see how many emails you can purge in a 30-minute session (during TV commercials). Every time you unsubscribe, that is less e-mail you will get in the future! Before you know it, you will be surprised how much easier it is to manage your inbox.
I am committed to protect your computers at an affordable price. Thank you for trusting me to keep your computers healthy. Contact us at 239-567-0104 when it is time to renew your protection software, or if you need computer and internet help. Be well.
By Linda Lindquist, May 16, 2022
