Email has changed in the last twenty years. And how we use it has changed completely. It may be time to speak about something new. The email inbox is just a digital version of the mailbox next to the street. You go, check your mail, and come back inside the house.

Now our electronic correspondence isn’t so regimented or tied down. We have so many tools at our disposal: SMS, Facebook, Twitter: that we don’t use our digital inbox any more efficiently than our snailmailbox.

At least I don’t.

I have two big problems. One is that I have found myself on tons of mailing lists. The other is that I have a bunch of email addresses. And in the case of the Yahoo accounts, which can’t be forwarded to my primary Gmail. It is hard to maintain order, and for the better part of the last decade, I haven’t.

Now, using Mailstrom on my computer and Mailbox on my iPhone, I have discovered what an empty inbox looks like. And it is beautiful.

On Sunday I celebrated this great sense of freedom. (here are some pictures)

 

One inbox empty.

Four to go!

The hiccup in the system is that Yahoo doesn’t play nice with Mailstrom and isn’t supported by Mailbox either. I’ve had to apply a ruthless approach to those accounts. With those two, I am clearing the dead weight in the more traditional (and obnoxious) multi-click sort and delete process.

For the first time, I feel like I am getting there. Emptying one inbox, and keeping it empty for the last four days, has buoyed my spirits toward these cluttered messes. It has given me cause to get my digital life in order.

If you use Gmail, I strongly suggest using these tools, particularly now as they are currently free. For both, you will have to wait (an hour or so for Mailstrom and in the case of Mailbox, I was on a waiting list for nearly two weeks, which was ridiculous if you ask me).

Yahoo claims that they will be updating their email service soon. Perhaps getting slaughtered by Gmail and the recent Microsoft overhaul means Yahoo will not be able to keep such restricted and limited offerings. In either case, clearing and maintaining Inbox Zero with Yahoo is much more difficult. If you don’t yet use these features, find them and do them.

1. Use filters. Letting your service sort incoming email gets a lot of them out of your inbox and into folders to be read later. This is great for those deals you get from stores that you don’t really need to sort through. Just glance in the folder once in a while. And it means that only important stuff gets into the inbox.
2. Make a Read Later folder. I get a ton of time-sucking email so I don’t read them at the moment I check my email, but put them where I can get to them later. For me, these are favorite blogs and stuff from WordPress. I much prefer reading these together, on my own time.
3. Use outside apps. I have Pocket for webpages, Wunderlist and Any.DO for task lists, and Evernote for information. Yes, this is four apps that can be consolidated into two, but I like to keep things in an order. Each of these is an application that can be accessed on both my computer and phone. Clearing email is easier when the information can be put in a better place than the inbox.

What are ways that you use to unclutter your digital life? Do you struggle with email overload? Have you overcome the desire to be an e-hoarder? What tips do you use?Let me know in the comments section here or on my Facebook page.