6 Easy Ways To Clean Inbox of Unread Emails

[title maintitle=”” subtitle=”How I Removed 37,257 Unread Emails In 24 Hours”]A friend posted on Facebook that there are two types of people in this world: those that have zero unread emails and then people like me. We are the ones with the little red sign above our inbox counting the crazy amount of unread emails.

As of yesterday, I had 37,569 unread emails. When I commented on my friend’s post in January I only had 34,060 unread emails. I am slightly ashamed by my numbers, but being ashamed and doing something about it is a whole other ballgame.

So how did I go from 0 to 37,569 unread emails in my inbox? I signed up for tons of email lists, as I love learning about new hot spots, travel deals, shopping steals, music concerts and twenty other random topics. However, as the number of unread emails grew, the less I read these emails I was so excited about getting. It became too daunting to read them, so I denied they ever existed.

I have yet to find someone with as many emails. It’s not a claim to fame I’m proud of, but at the same time who in the world wants to go through their emails and figure out which ones to delete?

I was inspired one day to at least start unsubscribing from all the random email lists. Then I’d thought to myself, “what if they post something I NEED to read?” Next thing you know, I had talked myself out of unsubscribing and deleting emails and the number emails continued to grow.

Yesterday I finally had enough and was ready to de-clutter my inbox. It wasn’t an easy task, but bourbon and music helped make going through my emails easier.

As of this today, I’m now down to 312 unread emails. It’s not where I want to be, but it’s a healthy start to clearing my inbox.

There is something about decluttering your space, be it a room or your inbox, that helps bring clarity to your life. I feel more productive and open to reading emails as they come in now that I don’t have this huge number of unread emails waiting for me. I can’t guarantee others will have the same experience, but it never hurts to begin the process of deleting your emails.

6 Easy Ways To Clean Your Inbox

Unsubscribe from email lists that you haven’t read in two weeks.
Search and delete emails in bulk. For example, I searched for the word “Facebook” and deleted everything at one time.
Turn off email notifications for apps. Why get two notifications?
Create folders in your inbox for emails you want to save.
Read and immediately delete emails you don’t need.
Don’t wait until you get to 37,569 unread emails!