Overloaded with UnRead Gmail Email. Plus Tips & Tricks for a Better Inbox.

It seems like it only takes a day or two of not reading your legitimate mail and not deleting the spam (network emails and annoying newsletters), then you are behind on your email account. Soon enough you will have hundreds, if not thousands of unread emails in your account. It was just a few months ago that I had over 33,000 unread emails in my account. It wasn’t so much that I was too lazy to clean it up, but it was just a massive amount, and a lot of it was email I actually wanted to go back and read. Eventually I went to work and got my unread email down to a few thousand.

Yesterday I found myself in the same position again, my Gmail account was quickly loading up with unread emails and it was becoming a burden. Gmail has a lot of features, but some of them are not as easy to find. To manage your unread email better, it would be great if they had a tab that said “UnRead Email”, then it would list everything unread. Instead, you have to go to the search box and type in “label:unread“. This makes a world of a difference when cleaning up your Gmail inbox, as you can quickly delete what you have no interest in, then respond to any emails you may have forgotten to respond to.

Another way to help clean up your email account is to simply setup folders and filtering. Every day I am getting a load of network emails telling what new offers are available and what I should be promoted. The majority of these are trash which just take up time. Filter your newsletter subscriptions and network mailings into specific filters so they don’t flood out your important emails.

While Gmail may not put “everything” in your face for easy management of your account (like reading only unread email), the capabilities and features are they. While looking over new ways to better manage my Gmail account, I came across a few cool sites that really helps in how to use Gmail better. Be sure to check the following sites out.

– Gmail Hacks: 35 Tips & Tricks for Gmail
– Gmail Tips: The Complete Collection
– Gmail Keyword Shortcuts
– 15 Awesome Gmail Tips and Tricks

All of us are using email, and it’s a crucial part to the success of our business. If your inbox is managed only 25% better, think about how much time and less stress you would be saving yourself on a daily basis.

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25 Comments

  1. I have a one year "unread" mail search bookmarked, so I just click the bookmark when I need to read my unread mail. A little cumbersome, but it works.

  3. I usually take a bit of time each week to clean up my Gmail account. Not too much time but just a bit each day plus a full flush on Sunday nights usually keeps it nice and clean.

  4. <a class="replyTo" href="#comment-118800" rel="nofollow">@TODHD:

    Sam here. I find myself joining a lot of lists to get their bonus whatever, then I forget to unsubscribe and get loaded up with their daily promo emails.

  5. I was about to ask you how often you check your email. I never let mine build up and at least once a month I always unsubscribe from lists I have no interest in anymore.

  6. I have around 2176 unread emails.. and they just keep coming. I think that the most important emails I will read and the others I don't even open. I don't really understand why (besides the clogging up of your inbox) unread emails are an issue 🙂

  7. <a class="replyTo" href="#comment-118811" rel="nofollow">@Dean Saliba:

    Dean, I check my mail daily.. and every few hours. The problem is I get so much, then I leave things as unread, and they start building up… in just a few days my unread mail will easily get into the 100s if I don't keep on top of it.

  9. @Zac Johnson: That's exactly what happens to me. After only a few day I end up with well over 500 emails from various list I signed up for. The problem is that, like you, I don't wish to unsubscribe or submit to spam but I also don't want to miss top priority emails either.

    My solution? I create a rule that automatically archives all of my newsletter signups so that I can review them as they come in without cluttering my inbox. Annoying to set up at first if you belong to a lot of list but after that it's a pretty simple process.

  10. @Phil:

    Hi Phil,

    Thanks for the suggestion. I never thought of bookmarking my unread emails, will try to do that so I can still go back to the emails that I want to read.

    Regards,

    Gary

  11. Thanks for sharing this Zac. I never had any problem when it comes to having thousands of unread emails because I always check my email on a regular basis.

    The most number of unread emails I had was 200+, and now I unsubscribed from some newsletters and just focus on the important ones.

    Kind regards,

    Gary

  13. <a class="replyTo" href="#comment-118839" rel="nofollow">@dk purposeinc:

    I'm making sure I stay on top of my mail. It's a lot less stressful when that inbox is under 50-100 on a daily basis.

  16. I was actually thinking about a good idea to filter emails. I wish gmail had a feature where you can tag certain email addresses that are important or you already know, and then put each one in a certain folder based on what the email address is. I think that would organize the inbox better. 30,000 emails is wayyyy too much!

  18. lol, that's awesome, I know how that goes… I currently have 43,976 unread emails. Pretty soon Google's going to charge me for storage space. Would that be false advertising? Them claiming you'll never run out of space then?

  19. Unsubscribe unsubscribe unsubscribe. I've found I can only keep track of so much information at a time.

  20. Its' tough to organize mailbox….I have around 1000 mails remain unread all the time in the box…and real prob arises when legit mails get into junk mail and piled deep down…and then you clean up junk mail folder without giving much thought.

  22. 30K emails thats insane!

    I try to implement everything I've learned from Tim Ferris and the Four Hour Work Week with the "Low Information Diet" and setting up rules.

    Good luck with that Zac.

  25. Its really unbelievable how spammers get to know my personal email address even though I send only to a few friends. Your tips here would really save me a lot of trouble. Thanks !

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