Spring Clean Your Gmail Inbox

Spring is finally here, and with it comes this need to get organized. I don't know what it is about the weather change, and maybe it's just me, but as soon as the flowers start blooming and nature wakes up, I just want to clean. This year, however, I decided that it was time to get my digital life organized, starting with my Gmail inbox.



Yikes! Yes, I know, it's a big job. I've had a Gmail account since 2004, and frankly, I've gotten spoiled. One of the things I really love about Gmail is that I never have to delete anything, but leaving everything in my inbox means that my screen is too cluttered and I end up missing important emails. It doesn't have to be this way. Google has provided many tools to make managing email easy.



If you want to get your Gmail inbox under control, here's how:



Give it a facelift - The first step is to make your inbox a place you actually want to spend a little time. You can give it a fresh new look by changing your Gmail theme. There are lots of different themes to choose from, so pick one that makes you happy. Personally, I like the cartoon ninja theme, but for this job I changed it to the Cherry Blossoms theme.



Clean out old messages - Resist the urge to become a digital hoarder and get rid of the old stuff. Don't worry, you don't have to just trash everything, there are plenty of options to make this process easy.

1. Delete it - If you know that you won't ever need the message again, just delete it. You can even do this in batches. For example, if you get daily emails from Target or Amazon, just search for all of those messages and delete the old ones. Sorting email by groups saves time and gives you a better idea of what can go.
2. Archive it - Archiving email means that it's still there, but just not showing in your inbox. I like to archive messages that I may need to search for later. For example, emails that confirm my account details or log on information with certain sites. If I forget it, I can easily search for it, but it won't clog up my inbox.
3. Label it - So many people don't use labels, but if you give it a try, you'll probably find that it's really easy. You can create all sorts of labels and each message can have multiple labels. For example, I can label work messages with the tag "work" and then label it with other tags to make it easier to search for later.

Create filters - Another great organizational tool is filters. You can create a filter to handle specific emails each time they come in. For example, I receive several daily email offers and most of them are ones I don't want to have to deal with on a regular basis. By creating a filter for them, I can have them marked as read as soon as they show up in my inbox.



Keep it clean - Once you have your inbox organized, it's easy to keep it that way. Each time you check your email, reply to the quick messages and archive them. For the ones that you need to think about or plan to respond to later, star them and come back to them later. Unsubscribe from newsletters or notifications you don't need. Another way to keep things organized is by using Gmail's Priority Inbox. This feature filters your inbox to show you just the email that is important. It's really neat, but what makes many people give up on it is that you have to train the filter in order to get the best performance. Do this by selecting the little yellow flag on important messaged and taking it off of messages that you don't want to see.



Hopefully these tips will help you get your inbox organized, which will save you time and headaches.