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How I Went From 1,000 Emails to Inbox Zero (and Stayed There) with Mailstrom
February 18th, 2013Top StoryHow I Went From 1,000 Emails to Inbox Zero (and Stayed There) with MailstromBy Adam Dachis
Inbox zero is a lofty and often unachievable dream for most, and for a long time I just assumed that piles of email would rule my life. Almost by accident, I came across a webapp called Mailstrom and, along with other options, decided to give it a try. After playing around with it for an hour, I noticed something strange: my inbox was virtually empty. I had gone from about 1,000 emails to about 50, replied to the most important, and found myself at zero all while watching an episode of Breaking Bad. In fact, it happened so fast that I thought it was a mistake. Mailstrom doesn't do anything particularly mind-blowing or new, and you could do a lot of the same stuff with some fancy Gmail filters, but it's free to use indefinitely and requires far less effort. On top of that, it works with any email account, not just Gmail. If you want to get to inbox zero and even watch a little television in the process, this post will show you how it's done. Step One: Link Your Email Accounts with Mailstrom
With your settings in order, you just need to wait for indexing to finish. Chances are it'll be done by the time you get back to the main page, but if you've got plenty of messages in your account it may take a few minutes. When complete, you're ready to start clearing out the clutter. Step Two: Remove Yourself From Unnecessary Mailing Lists
In List view you'll see the mailing lists that you are 1) subscribed to and 2) appear in your inbox. If they are not in your inbox, you won't see them in this view which is why it's important to start the cleaning process here. To start, select any mailing list from the middle pane and you'll see the most recent message or a list of recent messages from that sender. Up on the top left, you'll see a big orange "Unsubscribe" button. Click it if you want to unsubscribe, or click the green "Archive" button to simply remove it from your inbox for now. Most of what you'll do in Mailstrom involves selecting messages you want to remove from your inbox and clicking that green "Archive" button, but when in the Lists section you'll want to unsubscribe from as many as possible rather than simply remove them so they don't cause clutter in the future. When you're finished, we'll plan an attack the rest. Step Three: Learn Your Email's Patterns
Before we start clearing things out and getting you to inbox zero, let's take a look at each view and how you can use the information you find to reduce the number of emails you get:
Once you've learned your email's patterns and made any relevant adjustments, you can make your way to inbox zero. Step Four: Make Some Rules
To set up a rule, just select any number of messages in a particular view and click the blue "Move" button at the top right. Mailstrom will ask you where you want to move the messages. You can choose any folder or label in your account. There's nothing inherently special about this action, except you'll also see a little checkbox every time you move something. It'll ask you if you want to perform this action automatically in the future when similar emails arrive. If you check it, you've set up a rule. (Remember, you'll find existing rules on your Settings page and can remove them there later on.) This will help clean up your inbox automatically so you don't have to bother. Step Five: Get to Inbox Zero
Clearing out a bunch of messages doesn't take much effort. The hard part comes in when you have to decide which messages are important enough to keep and respond to and which ones aren't. You'll need to make some tough decisions. You've already taken action to help keep your inbox empty, so don't feel too bad if you didn't reply to a somewhat important email two months ago. You've already dropped the ball, so archiving that message likely won't make matters worse. If you really want to reply, you can always send a simply message like this:
Obviously that message is a little broad, so feel free to tailor it to the matter at hand. Just keep messages brief and to the point. If you need to act on them, the sender will reply and let you know. If not, you don't have to do anything more. While this may seem tedious, you'll reach inbox zero a lot faster than you may expect. Because Mailstrom's views group similar emails together so well, you'll power through your archiving tasks in no time. I found the Sender view to help me the most, but you'll likely have a favorite after you've explored the various views. Before you know it, you'll be at zero and you'll be more likely to stay there thanks to all the actions you took and rules you set up earlier. What About the Future?No matter what you do, email can still pile up. If you set up Mailstrom to do most of the work, you'll have an easier time keeping a clean inbox without ever really using the webapp again. If things get out of hand, however, Mailstrom's there to help you out. Just log in, repeat these steps again, and create more aggressive rules. No matter what tools you use, a clean inbox requires effort on your part. Mailstrom just makes the job a lot easier.  |
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