How to Reduce Email
Teach your email to recognize spam., Try a different email service., Avoid websites and services that ask for your email., Don't post your email address on websites., Unsubscribe from newsletters., Change your social media settings., Set up...
Step-by-Step Guide
-
Step 1: Teach your email to recognize spam.
Mark messages as spam to have them automatically filtered out of your inbox in the future.
When you receive spam, select the message and mark it as spam.
This will mark the sender as a spammer, and all subsequent messages will be diverted to your spam folder.
Most web mail clients (like Google Mail, Yahoo! Mail, Outlook, and more) already have built-in spam filters that automatically move spam to your account’s spam folder.
Spam filters are able to recognize spam by their text characteristics and large numbers of recipients.
Spam messages are e-mails randomly sent to a large number of recipients, often for marketing or scamming purposes.
Since spam messages can contain viruses, it's a good idea to avoid opening the message in order to mark it as spam.
It is better to simply delete the message, rather than get a virus while trying to mark it as spam. -
Step 2: Try a different email service.
Different email clients will have more powerful spam filters and other features.
If you aren't impressed with your email service, try using a different one.
Gmail is generally considered one of the more effective at filtering spam and has a large number of tools available for you to further control your email.
If your email address requires that you use a particular client but you want to try another one, have your existing client forward your emails to a new address with a different client. , You should only give your email to websites you trust and that have a good reputation.
You don’t want to give out your e-mail address unless it's really important.
An e-mail address is one of your personal points of contact, just like your cell phone or your home telephone number.
Being responsible about signing up for websites will often help reduce your emails.
Although a website you give your email to might not email you themselves, they might sell your email address to another company which will spam you.
Businesses that you give your email address to in real life may also do this.
Be wary of particularly disreputable industries like travel agencies and bridal shows.
Since they know exactly what you're looking to spend money on, they can easily sell your email address to related companies or services. , Sometimes you might be inclined to post your email address on a website.
This might be your own personal website or it might be the comments section of another website (like news websites or blogs).
Another common mistake is posting your email address in forums.
There are people who troll the web for email addresses and then sell those addresses to companies that want to send you spam.
By taking some precautions, you can make sure this doesn't happen.One common solution is to write the email out instead of just listing it.
So, for example, "[email protected]" might become "jack john at email dot com".
If the website where you want to post your email is your own, you can create a link which automatically generates an email to you instead of posting your address.
This is known as a "mailto:" link. , Aside from spam, newsletters are one of the major factors that contribute to a large influx of email.
When you create accounts on different sites (like Amazon, eBay, etc.) where you are required to put in an e-mail address, these sites automatically lists you as a subscriber to their newsletters.
To stop receiving newsletters, all you need to do is to open it and scroll down to the very bottom of the message.
Newsletters, by US law, have “Unsubscribe” buttons or links on them that you can use to stop receiving them.
Just click the “Unsubscribe” button/link to remove your address from the mailing list, and you won’t receive newsletters from that website anymore.
Your spam filter won’t filter these messages, because these messages come from legitimate websites. , Social media accounts, like Facebook and Twitter, are often set up to send you emails every time you get a message, mention, like, fav, or comment.
If you're tired wasting time looking at your phone as it buzzes for each like, try changing your social media settings to only notify you about important interactions or change it to not notify you at all.
Instead of getting these constant notifications, set aside a few minutes at the end of each day to check your account for activity manually.
This is better than having to wade through a sea of emails. , Another option, if you frequently use sites that ask you to sign up or you still want to receive the standard bulk messages, is to get a new email account and use it just for receiving spam.
Give this email address to websites and businesses and save your personal or work email for personal and work use.
You can also reverse this and set up a new personal or work email address, if it's time to upgrade from "[email protected]". , Most web e-mail clients have a filter option that you can use to sieve out messages.
Message filters work the same way as spam filters, the only difference is that messages filters are manually set by users.
You can create a filter for specific e-mail addresses in such a way that every time you receive a message from that account, it automatically gets directed to the trash bin.
To create filters, simply access your account’s e-mail settings and select the “Filter” option.
From there you can configure the e-mail address you want filtered out and to what location in your account should the message be diverted to (like the trash bin or a custom folder in your account). , If you’re continuously receiving unwanted e-mails from personal e-mail accounts (like those annoying daily jokes you get from your cheerful office or schoolmate), then you may consider filtering them out of your inbox.
In this instance, you will probably want to filter messages by the sender's email address.
Have your client filter by the email of your choosing, routing all of those messages into a separate folder or even into your junk mail. , If spam tends to make it through your email service's natural filters, then you might want to consider setting up your own filter which catches the most common phrases used in the spam you get.
In this case, you will want to filter by the content of the subject line of the email.
Example phrases might include "Cialis"
"Viagra"
or "penis".
Be careful not to include phrases that are sometimes good and sometimes bad.
For example, you might be tired of emails about sales, but setting the word "sale" as a trigger to send a message to spam is a bad idea.
Sometimes you might want to know about a particular sale. , Another option is if you don't want to receive any emails with particular content.
You can set your filters to browse the content section of an email for key words or phrases, and then reroute those messages elsewhere.
This is handy if you're tired of being emailed about a certain hot topic issue, or if you know you'll have a lot of emails coming in about something going on.
For example, let's say that you run a clothing company and you just released a new shirt for the hit show "Rainbow Unicorn Fighting Squad".
You might want to create a filter that sends all emails about the shirt to a different folder, so that you can deal with those messages without losing sight of important emails in your main inbox. , It's easy to sink a ton of time during your day into checking your email.
This is a common problem especially in office settings.
Because of this, it's a good idea to try to change your habits to reduce the amount of time you spend dealing with your email.
Set limits, giving yourself only two or three short periods during the day, when you are "allowed" to check your email.For example, check your email at 9 am, 1:30 pm, and 5:00 pm, and spend no more than 10 minutes going through your messages at those times.
If you are a business owner or manager, you can set these rules for your staff in order to help productivity, too. , One bad habit that many people have is replying to an email just to be polite.
They treat it like a conversation but what it really does is create more email for everyone.
Don't feel compelled to reply to an email using responses like "have a good day" or "thanks".
Generally, you should only reply to acknowledge that you got a message if it's important that the other person knows you got it.
For example, if someone sends you some paperwork, it's better to respond by returning the filled paperwork or with a message saying when they can expect the papers back. , Emails are designed for quick, one off messages.
The sort of thing where you need to exchange no more than two or three messages to complete your conversation.
If you need to send many messages, or have more of a conversation, then meeting in person or talking over the phone will save both of you time and significantly reduce the number of emails you need to check., If you want to help reduce how much time you spend with your email and also reduce the amount of email that other people have to read, try setting a limit for the number of messages you can send in a day.
This will make you think a bit more about how important the message is and if it really needs to be sent.
For example, if you know that you need to send a message to your boss later, you might be less inclined to email everyone about your daughter's canned food drive.
If you want to send mass messages out to everyone, there are better channels.
Try putting a post-it on everyone's lunch in the fridge, for example. -
Step 3: Avoid websites and services that ask for your email.
-
Step 4: Don't post your email address on websites.
-
Step 5: Unsubscribe from newsletters.
-
Step 6: Change your social media settings.
-
Step 7: Set up different emails for different purposes.
-
Step 8: Consider making your own filter.
-
Step 9: Filter by sender.
-
Step 10: Filter by topic.
-
Step 11: Filter by content.
-
Step 12: Set specific email-checking times.
-
Step 13: Avoid emailing for "politeness".
-
Step 14: Try to communicate through other channels when you can.
-
Step 15: Limit the number of messages that you're allowed to send a day.
Detailed Guide
Mark messages as spam to have them automatically filtered out of your inbox in the future.
When you receive spam, select the message and mark it as spam.
This will mark the sender as a spammer, and all subsequent messages will be diverted to your spam folder.
Most web mail clients (like Google Mail, Yahoo! Mail, Outlook, and more) already have built-in spam filters that automatically move spam to your account’s spam folder.
Spam filters are able to recognize spam by their text characteristics and large numbers of recipients.
Spam messages are e-mails randomly sent to a large number of recipients, often for marketing or scamming purposes.
Since spam messages can contain viruses, it's a good idea to avoid opening the message in order to mark it as spam.
It is better to simply delete the message, rather than get a virus while trying to mark it as spam.
Different email clients will have more powerful spam filters and other features.
If you aren't impressed with your email service, try using a different one.
Gmail is generally considered one of the more effective at filtering spam and has a large number of tools available for you to further control your email.
If your email address requires that you use a particular client but you want to try another one, have your existing client forward your emails to a new address with a different client. , You should only give your email to websites you trust and that have a good reputation.
You don’t want to give out your e-mail address unless it's really important.
An e-mail address is one of your personal points of contact, just like your cell phone or your home telephone number.
Being responsible about signing up for websites will often help reduce your emails.
Although a website you give your email to might not email you themselves, they might sell your email address to another company which will spam you.
Businesses that you give your email address to in real life may also do this.
Be wary of particularly disreputable industries like travel agencies and bridal shows.
Since they know exactly what you're looking to spend money on, they can easily sell your email address to related companies or services. , Sometimes you might be inclined to post your email address on a website.
This might be your own personal website or it might be the comments section of another website (like news websites or blogs).
Another common mistake is posting your email address in forums.
There are people who troll the web for email addresses and then sell those addresses to companies that want to send you spam.
By taking some precautions, you can make sure this doesn't happen.One common solution is to write the email out instead of just listing it.
So, for example, "[email protected]" might become "jack john at email dot com".
If the website where you want to post your email is your own, you can create a link which automatically generates an email to you instead of posting your address.
This is known as a "mailto:" link. , Aside from spam, newsletters are one of the major factors that contribute to a large influx of email.
When you create accounts on different sites (like Amazon, eBay, etc.) where you are required to put in an e-mail address, these sites automatically lists you as a subscriber to their newsletters.
To stop receiving newsletters, all you need to do is to open it and scroll down to the very bottom of the message.
Newsletters, by US law, have “Unsubscribe” buttons or links on them that you can use to stop receiving them.
Just click the “Unsubscribe” button/link to remove your address from the mailing list, and you won’t receive newsletters from that website anymore.
Your spam filter won’t filter these messages, because these messages come from legitimate websites. , Social media accounts, like Facebook and Twitter, are often set up to send you emails every time you get a message, mention, like, fav, or comment.
If you're tired wasting time looking at your phone as it buzzes for each like, try changing your social media settings to only notify you about important interactions or change it to not notify you at all.
Instead of getting these constant notifications, set aside a few minutes at the end of each day to check your account for activity manually.
This is better than having to wade through a sea of emails. , Another option, if you frequently use sites that ask you to sign up or you still want to receive the standard bulk messages, is to get a new email account and use it just for receiving spam.
Give this email address to websites and businesses and save your personal or work email for personal and work use.
You can also reverse this and set up a new personal or work email address, if it's time to upgrade from "[email protected]". , Most web e-mail clients have a filter option that you can use to sieve out messages.
Message filters work the same way as spam filters, the only difference is that messages filters are manually set by users.
You can create a filter for specific e-mail addresses in such a way that every time you receive a message from that account, it automatically gets directed to the trash bin.
To create filters, simply access your account’s e-mail settings and select the “Filter” option.
From there you can configure the e-mail address you want filtered out and to what location in your account should the message be diverted to (like the trash bin or a custom folder in your account). , If you’re continuously receiving unwanted e-mails from personal e-mail accounts (like those annoying daily jokes you get from your cheerful office or schoolmate), then you may consider filtering them out of your inbox.
In this instance, you will probably want to filter messages by the sender's email address.
Have your client filter by the email of your choosing, routing all of those messages into a separate folder or even into your junk mail. , If spam tends to make it through your email service's natural filters, then you might want to consider setting up your own filter which catches the most common phrases used in the spam you get.
In this case, you will want to filter by the content of the subject line of the email.
Example phrases might include "Cialis"
"Viagra"
or "penis".
Be careful not to include phrases that are sometimes good and sometimes bad.
For example, you might be tired of emails about sales, but setting the word "sale" as a trigger to send a message to spam is a bad idea.
Sometimes you might want to know about a particular sale. , Another option is if you don't want to receive any emails with particular content.
You can set your filters to browse the content section of an email for key words or phrases, and then reroute those messages elsewhere.
This is handy if you're tired of being emailed about a certain hot topic issue, or if you know you'll have a lot of emails coming in about something going on.
For example, let's say that you run a clothing company and you just released a new shirt for the hit show "Rainbow Unicorn Fighting Squad".
You might want to create a filter that sends all emails about the shirt to a different folder, so that you can deal with those messages without losing sight of important emails in your main inbox. , It's easy to sink a ton of time during your day into checking your email.
This is a common problem especially in office settings.
Because of this, it's a good idea to try to change your habits to reduce the amount of time you spend dealing with your email.
Set limits, giving yourself only two or three short periods during the day, when you are "allowed" to check your email.For example, check your email at 9 am, 1:30 pm, and 5:00 pm, and spend no more than 10 minutes going through your messages at those times.
If you are a business owner or manager, you can set these rules for your staff in order to help productivity, too. , One bad habit that many people have is replying to an email just to be polite.
They treat it like a conversation but what it really does is create more email for everyone.
Don't feel compelled to reply to an email using responses like "have a good day" or "thanks".
Generally, you should only reply to acknowledge that you got a message if it's important that the other person knows you got it.
For example, if someone sends you some paperwork, it's better to respond by returning the filled paperwork or with a message saying when they can expect the papers back. , Emails are designed for quick, one off messages.
The sort of thing where you need to exchange no more than two or three messages to complete your conversation.
If you need to send many messages, or have more of a conversation, then meeting in person or talking over the phone will save both of you time and significantly reduce the number of emails you need to check., If you want to help reduce how much time you spend with your email and also reduce the amount of email that other people have to read, try setting a limit for the number of messages you can send in a day.
This will make you think a bit more about how important the message is and if it really needs to be sent.
For example, if you know that you need to send a message to your boss later, you might be less inclined to email everyone about your daughter's canned food drive.
If you want to send mass messages out to everyone, there are better channels.
Try putting a post-it on everyone's lunch in the fridge, for example.
About the Author
Brian Hughes
Experienced content creator specializing in creative arts guides and tutorials.
Rate This Guide
How helpful was this guide? Click to rate: