How To Delete All Mail In Gmail Or Other Email Services Without Losing Anything Important
Digital clutter can be nearly as overwhelming as physical disarray. If you feel as though your inbox is overflowing and you wish you knew how ...
Read moreHow To Delete All Mail In Gmail Or Other Email Services Without Losing Anything Important
Posted — UpdatedDigital clutter can be nearly as overwhelming as physical disarray. If you feel as though your inbox is overflowing and you wish you knew how to delete all mail in Gmail, you are not alone.
So, how do you get the number of emails in your inbox down to zero? And how do you maintain order? I decided to learn how to delete all mail in Gmail or other email applications without losing anything important.
How To Delete All Mail in Gmail
In Gmail, I had pages of emails wanting my attention. So, before I just started clicking the “delete” button, I thought it would be wise to determine the cause of the clutter. There were many newsletters and promotional emails that weren’t important to me. Some messages required a response or some other action, others had content I wanted to check out at some point, and there were a few that didn’t fall into a clear-cut “keep or delete” category.
Unsubscribe From Junk Mail
We provide our email addresses when we shop online, sign up for services, create website accounts and on and on. But most of the time, companies use the addresses to send us newsletters, advertisements and other marketing content in the hopes that we’ll spend money on their brands.
Once you have this summary, you can choose to unsubscribe from those you don’t want, keep important ones in your inbox and keep the rest in the rollup.
While signing up for Unroll.me didn’t delete any of the existing emails in my inbox, it did help stop the flow of incoming messages adding to my stressful situation.
Move To Folders
Chipping away at an overly full inbox reminds me of a saying about eating an elephant one bite at a time … but how do you really do it? To delete all mail in Gmail, I thought it might seem less daunting if I broke down the hundreds of messages into bite-size segments.
Once they are all neatly organized by month (or, if necessary, by year), your inbox will be empty, and you can tackle the deluge of emails in smaller segments. I opted to begin with the oldest ones, as it seemed likely they would already have been handled and could be deleted more quickly.
Use Email Rules
From there, I tackled one folder at a time. I took care of anything that needed attention immediately or moved it to an “Action” folder.
Next, I sent items that I might need or want in the near future to the Archive folder and I stored only the messages I knew I needed long-term in the Save folder or a folder I created for a particular topic, such as School or Work.
Start New Habits
Of course, I was happy to have a cleaned-up inbox, but I know it won’t stay that way for long if I don’t maintain it. Here are some new habits I’m incorporating going forward:
My goal is to have minimal messages in my inbox at the end of each day, and everything cleared out by the end of the day on Friday. It takes some time and effort, but it’s a great way to reduce stress and feel a little more accomplished.
Do you plan to empty your inbox?
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