Thursday, January 4, 2018

I'm Ashamed of My Inbox. {The Confessions Series}

You guys.  I have a problem.  And I need help.

Some of you will laugh at me.  Some of you will judge me.  Some of you will have heart palpitations.  And some of you will be in the same boat.

So here goes.  This is my confession.

I currently have 21,528 unread emails. And counting.


Gaaaaahhhhhhh that's a lot of emails.

To be fair, there are two email addresses in there that make up those 21,000+.  #doesthathelp

And just this past year, I deleted a third email address.  I barely used it anymore and when I deleted it, it took off about 30,000 emails...

Are. you. kidding. me.

So yeah, that's my confession.  I am an email hoarder.


Now I need help on what to do about it!  Because here's the deal.  I cannot spend hours and hours going through emails to decide what can and can't be deleted.  I went through the other day and deleted a few hundred and ended up deleting several that I actually needed because I got careless.

So how can I delete the bad ones and keep the ones I need??  I feel like if I started from zero I could totally stay on top of it from here on out.  But there are just so many that I've just given up.

I scroll through on my phone several times a day and click the ones that I need to read.  But I don't have time to tap tap tap tap on each random one that came in and then delete them.  I mean, I guess I could do that from here on out but like I said, I feel like there are just so many that it doesn't seem to matter if I get more.

Any suggestions??

I tried to look into this topic on Pinterest because you can always find an answer to stuff like on Pinterest, right?!

I found a few things that were helpful.  One article said I could type the word "unsubscribe" into the search bar in my email account and then delete all those emails all at once because they are all newsletter type things.  I thought that was kind of genius.  I tried it but I could only select and delete 50 at a time.  If you have gmail, then you are probably familiar with the "social" and "promotions" tabs.  I delete all those every once in awhile.  But in the grand scheme of things, it really doesn't even make a dent.

Sigh.

I've also done Unroll.me before.  Have y'all done this?  I did it so long ago that I don't even really remember what it is but I found a folder with over 4,000 emails (newsletters and promotions) in it and deleted them all in one swoop!  So satisfying!  

Go here to check out unroll.me.  I tried typing out what I thought it did and how it works just now but deleted it all.  I know I'll get it wrong.  All I know is that it helped me somehow delete thousands of emails I don't need just now so I think it's awesome and my interest has been re-peaked.

And then I found this helpful post about organizing my gmail accounts better.  I love that she starts by talking about how she has 500 emails though.  Hahaha.  #amateur ;)

I may not be able to clear out all 21,000 emails but I am going to take some time and do some email organizing I think. I'm talking labels, categories, color coding...the works. I get so many different emails about so many things that I actually need to respond to.  Personal, stuff about the blog, stuff about my Etsy shop, stuff about the coffee...so I'm going to organize them into categories so I don't lose them among the thousands of promotion emails I get every day.  

How did I not know I could do all of this?? 

Posts I found that helped a lot are HERE and HERE if you need some help too!

UPDATES:  I think as I find out helpful info I'll post it here.  So last night I added filters to my email. So, for instance, any time an email has the word "blog" in it, it automatically sorts into the Blog Folder I set up.  Or "coffee".  It filters into the Revital U folder.  It's not helping to get rid of my emails BUT it's so much easier to find them when I go "I really need to write that girl back about how to place that coffee order" or "Where did the email go from the girl who reads the blog and she was wondering how to start her own?".  Bam!  

I woke up this morning to several that had already been filtered in to their correct folders and it felt SO GOOD.  Check the second article I linked (above) for how to do it!

SECOND UPDATE:

BAM.


Down to 17,000ish.  #workinprogress


So if you have any other suggestions on how I can get these two email addresses down to a manageable number QUICKLY, please leave a comment!  Or if you just want to tell me this post made you sweat just thinking about all of those emails, you can do that too.  ;)  

If we're getting down to it, I probably just need to quit subscribing to things just to get that 10% off for giving websites my email address.  ;)  I love a coupon code.

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And because I also love a good sale, I wanted to let you know that some of my FAVORITE earrings are on sale right now!


These green beaded tassel earrings are so fun and right now they are on sale for just $20 (normally $36)!  They also come in a ton of other gorgeous colors.  I just grabbed another pair in cobalt blue.

Find them HERE.  (And give them your email address and get 15% off your first purchase! ;)  Ha! I don't know if this will work in conjunction with the sale but I thought it was funny considering that's part of what got me into this email mess in the first place!)

Feel free to link up some confessions of your own below!  Have a great day, friends!





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38 comments

  1. You just made my shoulder twitch with all your red notifications. I can't stand those little red bubbles! HA

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    1. I hate them too!! I know some people who have hundreds of unread texts and that red bubble shows a crazy high number there and THAT would make me twitch for sure. hahaha! I need heeellllppp!!!

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  2. There is an option on gmail in the promotions tab that allows you to “delete all”. I would start there! ;) Also remember to empty your trash folder as well.

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    1. Yes! I love that tab! I also have one for "social". I delete all of those all the time. It is my Primary that is a mess. And yes, I always empty that trash folder or they aren't really gone. I WILL conquer this!! hahaha!!

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    1. Ha! Yes, if I could just delete them all and start over that would be great!! But there are definitely many in there that I can't delete so I can't do that just yet. I'm so tempted though! ;)

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  4. OMG. This is the Story of My Life for real. I am a Type A person but not when it comes to my email. I have upwards of 30,000. Crazy!! I can’t wait to read some of those articles to help me clean mine out! I have thought of just starting over with a new email address but what a pain to change it everywhere! 😩😩😩

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    1. The struggle is REAL! I thought about a new address too but it really is such a pain to change it all. And I'd still have to check it regularly because not everyone in the world is going to know I changed it up! So I think I'd just make the mess bigger!

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  5. The more I read of your blog, the more I'm convinced we are the same person. I have over 7,000 unread stupid emails and growing. It makes me crazy and I don't know what to do about it. But going through every email? #aintnobodygottimeforthat I'll be stalking these comments for someone to save me with a brilliant tip. 😉

    Amy | www.lovingourmessy.com

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    1. I would love to only have 7000! haha! ;) But really, anything past about 1000 makes you just want to give up. If I find a secret, I'll be sure to let y'all know!

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  6. Not going to lie...this post made my eye twitch. I feel bad for you. One thought, can you delete everything from a certain date? Say, everything from Nov 1st or older is gone. If it's that old is it needed? Just a thought. Good luck, lady. :)

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    1. I will look into that!! Great idea! Thank you!!

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  7. Totally judging you AND having heart palpitations! Oh my word!

    I'd for real organize those for you. I weirdly enjoy doing that.

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    1. Ha!!! So sorry, girl!! I am working on it right now though. I think once I implement a few of these organizational tips I've read about, we'll at least have the new ones under control. ;)

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  8. Oh. My. God. I can't stand to have any red notifications for longer than about a minute. I have yahoo mail, not google, so I don't know if there are any fast tips to deleting unwanted mail (I did quick search and there are a few sites that will give you quick tips on how to delete unwanted mail). Personally, I don't think there is going to be a quick fix for you, unless you delete the two email addresses and start over. Just like with any never ending task, it's better to take baby steps than looking at the whole project. Try and set a goal of how many you want to delete in a day that is doable to you (maybe like 1000). I would take the time to organize as you go (meaning save the ones that need saving and put them in their particular folder) and also unsubscribe as you go. That way, you won't have unwanted emails adding to your already high number. I would call it your "3 week challenge". Delete while waiting for appts, delete when waiting for your kids in car pool line (if you take your kids to school), delete while going to the bathroom (yes, I recommending pulling a George Costanza...if you haven't seen that Seinfeld episode, it's a funny one even though he was reading books, instead of a phone), delete while cooking dinner, delete while commercials are on when watching TV shows (instead of forwarding through the commercials). I bet you'll be able to weed through and organize all your emails in 3 weeks. Good luck!

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    1. I wish I could just delete the emails and start over but my entire life is wrapped up in them. It would cause so many more problems. But yes, I love your ideas!! I've been organizing and deleting all morning. It'll take awhile but hopefully I'll get there! Thank you, Wendy!

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  9. My tips: Use unroll me again and then make a rule to only keep 10 messages in your inbox (i.e tracking shipments or upcoming school events. Print anything extremely important.

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    1. I've been doing that for the past half hour! So satisfying! I'm going through and quickly unsubscribing to a ton of stuff! This will definitely help! Thank you! :)

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  10. This is SO fascinating to me! My husband is an "inbox zero" person, and I try to keep mine around 10-20...so yeah, your predicament is fascinating to me :) And I don't mean that in a bad way! I sympathize with your dilemma of not being able to just delete everything/start a new email address and go from there - you've got businesses to run! But please do share an update in a week or so - it sounds like you're committed to making this better, and I know lots of people (my mother included) share your stress about emails.

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    1. My goal is to become you. haha. I will definitely let y'all know how it's going! I'm down to 17,000ish right now!! whoop whoop!!

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    2. Whoop whoop! You can get it to 10 :)

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  11. What about sorting by ABC order by email sender and then deleting them as a whole or going through them then? This would only help if you get lots from one sender. For example, if you sort and see you have 300 just from one place (like FYI school emails), then you can realize you could just delete them all if you don’t need them OR focus only on that group to go through and read and delete or file. Then, set your filter or rule so that when they come in, they go straight to your preferred folder or whatever you want done with them. Then, you could take care of some of those big batches maybe? Just an idea. Good luck!! :)

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    1. I did something very similar to that this morning!! I get an email notification from Etsy every single time someone makes a purchase so I have over 3600 notifications just saying that. (And I cannot figure out how to turn that off through Etsy.) But I clicked on one of those emails and then clicked on "Filter" (something like that) and it brought up every single email with that heading. I was able to quickly delete all of those! I did it on quite a few other things like that too. My email is looking sharp now with all my little labels and stuff. ;) It's getting there!! Thank you!!

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  12. So exciting!!! It’s so good to feel productive!!!

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  13. 12,460 unread over here, and I actually thought I had a lot more!!! Maybe it automatically deleted tens of thousands since I obviously refused to?!😂

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  14. I.Would.Die. I cannot stand unread emails, what if you won something important or your long lost third cousin twice removed died and left you money... Filter and making folders is your best friend.

    PS i have a friend that has over 150,000 unread emails, i had a heart attack when i saw it and made her give me her phone so i could delete some... so if your ever in Colorado, i'll delete emails for you ;)

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  15. I'm just impressed you deleted so many in one night! I'm rooting for you to get it down to zero! By the way, I love reading your blog! I just started reading it about a month ago, but I check every day to see if you have a new post up!

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  16. I have over 80,000 unread emails. 🙈 Hopefully that makes you feel a little better! #itcouldbeworse Also, just want to say that I love your blog and am so glad I found it. You’re one of the few real and relatable bloggers out there. Please stay that way!

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    1. I agree, love Amanda's blog for how down to earth she is!

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    2. Oh my gosh, y'all are so sweet!! Thank you!!

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  17. I used to have as many as you but I did unroll.me and I took a long time deleting email by topic. So I searched target and then deleted all target emails! That really helped clear down my email!

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  18. Bahahahaha I'm dyyyyyyyyyying! I'm right there with you, my inbox is RIDIC!! Like close to 30K!! It doesn't even phase me anymore, is that bad? but really, I need to get it under control - 2018 resolution right here!

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  19. I stay at zero unread emails. I guess I'm OCD about it. I delete the junk as it comes! I'm always amazed by my coworkers with thousands of unread emails. When they scan past and pick what to read why not just delete all the ones they are skipping? I can never figure it out so I'm truly fascinated!

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  20. I used to have a ton of unread emails (like, so many that it just said 99,000+), but my husband spent hours one day deleting huge batches of them for me. He is OCD and can't stand having any unread at all, so seeing that number on my phone made him crazy, haha.

    I now keep it at around 1200 unread most of the time. If it hits 1500, I know it's time to go through them again, and I'll get them as low as I can (maybe around 700), then do it again when it hits 1500. I don't know if gmail does the same thing (I have a gmail account, but rarely check it), but my yahoo one is the one that gets out of control. On yahoo, I can click a little magnifying glass icon beside the senders name (say, Pottery Barn, for instance), and it will pull up all emails I have from Pottery Barn. Then I click the 'select all' button, then delete, and poof, they are gone! If I have more than 50 from a sender, it will only do 50 at a time, but still, only takes a few seconds and clicks to delete them that way.

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  21. Sorry if someone already said this but my way to deal with the anxiety around unread emails is to just turn off the notifications (so you don’t have the red number above the app icon).. makes me feel so much more organized and who cares then if I have a bunch of unread ones! ;p

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    1. I'm down to zero now! By the last 550 I just figured I could select all and then "mark as read"... and the bubble immediately went away!! Why didn't I start with that?!! 😂😂😂

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  22. Honestly, you need to go DEEP with purging haha

    I have work and personal email accounts and often they both get deep into the thousands (especially after holidays) BUT after a certain time period and you still haven't read them...how important are they really?

    I usually create a folder called "Archive" and pick a date. Anything older gets moved (so you still have it for reference but it is isn't a stress on the inbox) and anything newer stays to be worked through.

    I know everything seems important and needed but once you get up so high with unread emails, something has got to give. I do email purges often. And then when I find myself with extra time, I go through the Archive to organize it. But that red bubble haunts me and I just dont need that negativity in my life (haha!) so I purge!

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