Software What Do You Do to Control the Amount of E-mail You Receive?

[Joe]

I get a ton of e-mail every day. I regret ever having signed up for most of it, but I can't undo that now. So, how do I decrease the amount of e-mail I get?

I've started using the "unsubscribe" links in some of this e-mail. I might use more e-mail filters to shunt some of it automatically into the Trash folder.

But what are your ideas or techniques? What would you recommend?

 

[shyvas]

BBC - WebWise - How can I stop getting spam emails?

 

[Joe]

BBC - WebWise - How can I stop getting spam emails?

Thanks, but the type of e-mails I get is not spam. GMail has a spam filter that automatically puts such things in the Trash folder.

I'll give you a few examples of the kinds of e-mails I am talking about. There was a store I shopped at once or twice called Archivers. I was interested in their products, so signed up for their e-mail newsletters. But then the local store closed down. Yet I kept getting e-mails from the company. So now I have unsubscribed.

I attended an environmental group at a local church. One of the women in the group put my name and e-mail address on a list, which she gave out to other environmental organizations (before she moved out of state). She did not have my permission to put me on this list. But now I am getting e-mails from many environmental organizations I've barely heard of to attend various meetings, give money, etc.

I am also bombarded with e-mails from various organizations to participate in Cyber-Monday and GivingTuesday. I barely know what these events are.

 

[Joe]

Here are just some of the organizations that e-mailed me about Giving Tuesday:

Global Ministries, United Methodist Church
League of Women Voters
Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund
Local public television station

See: Giving Tuesday - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Mikkel]

Two email adresses. One of private stuff, work etc. One for fun stuff, petions etc

 

[Amy SF]

Two email adresses. One of private stuff, work etc. One for fun stuff, petions etc

I do something similar. I use my regular email address for important stuff and a second one for crap that I can delete without reading first.

The thing about the second crap email address is not letting it go too long without checking it, or you'll end up with hundreds or thousands of unread emails piling up in your inbox. I let that happen in the past, and when I finally got around to checking, I had to do a LOT of deleting. Now I just check the inbox every few days on my iPhone, and then I have a manageable number and do a mass move into the Trash folder. I also do "mark all read" so I'm not bothered by the Trash folder telling me I have unread emails.

 

[Second Summer]

I get something in the range of 10 - 15 emails every day to my private email account. I think that's quite manageable. My work account is much worse .... I also have a gmail account, something Google pressured me into by virtue of owning Android devices. I use that account for unimportant stuff. Anyway, gmail categorizes the emails so it's easier to find the important emails. Quite convenient, works fairly well.

Anyway, to answer the question in the OP: I have several email addresses, and use the private one only for important stuff (friends, family, people I want to hear from). In addition I try not to sign up to anything I don't really care for.

Also, I rarely actually delete emails. It's too much work. If my accounts are running out of space, I just sort the emails by size and delete the ones with the largest attachments.

 

[beancounter]

Well, I'm not sure why you cant just unsubscribe the ones you mentioned. But many email spam filters allow you to manually enter email addresses to block. Its a pain, but that should take care of them.

For example, with Hotmail, I just right click on an email and select "block" from the menu.

 

[Poppy]

I unsubscribe from everything! I figure if I need something, I'll go looking. I don't need information about sales and bargains before I even know whether or not I need something.

 

[ledboots]

I get a ton of e-mail every day. I regret ever having signed up for most of it, but I can't undo that now. So, how do I decrease the amount of e-mail I get?

I've started using the "unsubscribe" links in some of this e-mail. I might use more e-mail filters to shunt some of it automatically into the Trash folder.

But what are your ideas or techniques? What would you recommend?

I have an email that I use just for spammy type signing up for stuff.

 

[Joe]

I unsubscribed from two more mailing lists today: Nashville Film Society and Syracuse Cultural Workers.

 

[shyvas]

Well, I'm not sure why you cant just unsubscribe the ones you mentioned. But many email spam filters allow you to manually enter email addresses to block. Its a pain, but that should take care of them.

For example, with Hotmail, I just right click on an email and select "block" from the menu.

I once had a Hotmail account for spam and for other reasons. However it was blocked by HM and I could never retrieve any of the information in it.