Email Overload: The Quick Tips

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It’s something we all live with and don’t like – email! Whether it’s for work or personal emails arrive all the time. At the moment (while I’m writing this post) my email is at 3,379 emails (in the Inbox), of which 945 are unread, and I can see more arriving. In this series of posts, I’m going to show you how you can deal with it, starting with the quick tips for email overload.

Overflowing Inbox

(Can a digital inbox overflow?)

You may have heard of the term ‘Zero Inbox’ before, the idea that you keep your Inbox at 0 emails, because you deal with them – either as messages arrive, or at specific times of the day.

It sounds great, for me, this is a pipe dream! 😂

I have so many emails arriving every day (including public holidays), that I feel I’m doing well if I can get down to a few hundred.

Se really, what can you do?

Mark as Read

For me, it’s the unread emails that I really don’t like, but I also don’t want to ‘cheat’, as that doesn’t help to really deal with the emails. Plus it’s a bit of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).

An easy way (and the ‘cheat’ option that I was just talking about) if you don’t like seeing unread emails is to mark them as read.

In both programs, emails that you haven’t read (i.e. clicked on) are shown in bold text.

‘Reading’ them (select or open them), removes the bold automatically.

Note: Gmail and Outlook, both show you number of unread emails for information.

Gmail (Google)

Mark emails as read can help with email overload Gmail
Mark as Read in Gmail

Select the emails that you want to mark as read.

Note: You can use the select all option at the beginning of the toolbar (circled on the left).

For more selection options you can also watch my YouTube video – Gmail Tips: Selecting messages

Once selected, click on the ‘Mark as read’ envelope icon.

On the toolbar, an open envelope is mark as read command, while a closed envelope icon is mark as unread.

The ‘bold’ highlight is removed, leaving the email in place.

Outlook (Microsoft)

Microsoft’s Outlook has two commands that will mark an email as read quickly.

If you need some tips for selecting your emails, take a look at Outlook Tips: Selecting Multiple Emails on my YouTube Channel.

Mark multiple emails as read

Similar to Gmail, select the emails to be marked as read.

On the Ribbon, at the top of the screen, you’re looking for the Tags group.

Note: Depending on the size of your screen and the available space, it will either be a button called Tags (for the group) which will expand as you click to display the commands (as shown below), or you’ll be able to see the individual icons.

In that group is the option Unread/Read. Click to change the status of the selected emails.

Mark emails as read can help with email overload Outlook
Mark as Read in Outlook

Mark individual emails as read

Read and Unread Line in MS Outlook
Read/Unread Line

Have you ever noticed that sometimes there’s a blue line at the left side of your email list?

This is another way that Outlook shows you whether an email is read or unread (in addition to the bold).

Sure it’s a lot easier to see the bold text, but this line has a trick up its sleeve – as it can change the read/unread setting.

Hover over the line (or for a read message where it would be), it expands out a little.

Click on the blue line to mark as read, or the pale blue line to mark as unread.

Useful for those occasional unread emails…

Disadvantage

Marking emails as read removes the number displayed, but it doesn’t actually do anything to help with that email overload. You’ve still go the same number of emails, and more will keep coming into your inbox.

Although it might make you feel better.

Deleting Emails

For email overload quick tips this is one that really will make a difference.

When you look at the large number of emails, that’s when it gets overwhelming.

Bringing that number down can make the ones that you leave more manageable. (sometimes 😋)

Both Gmail and Outlook have a Delete option available on their toolbar and within the email list (for a single message).

Deleting emails can reduce the overwhelm. Toolbar and email delete in Outlook and Gmail
Delete in Outlook and Gmail

Ribbon/Toolbar

Select the email or emails first.

Click on the bin icon to delete the email.

Message Delete

Hover over the email to be deleted, and the bin icon will be displayed. Click on the icon to delete the single email.

On Mobile

Of course, so many of us tend to read our emails on the go through our smart phones.

Depending on your device and the app that you are using the delete option will be in slightly different locations.

Popular options:

  • Drag the email (in the list) to the left to delete
  • Edit the email list, select the messages and press Delete (look at the top or the bottom of the screen)
  • Open the email, and press Delete (most often in the top-right corner)

Note: Outlook on iPhone – drag to left is archive, not delete. Archive is another folder in Outlook and your message will be moved there.

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IMPORTANT

The Deleted Items (Outlook) and Bin (Gmail) are NOT folders to store messages in.

Depending on your settings they can be automatically emptied regularly.

Only delete message that you no longer want.

Pros and Cons

Deleting or even bulk deleting will bring down the total number of emails currently in your inbox.

It can be a quick and efficient way, but unless you review each and every email, you don’t know if you’re missing out on some really important information.

Reviewing each email can be a time-consuming effort, but at least you then know if it’s relevant to you.

Next Steps

These are two email overload quick tips that you can use anytime to help with your inbox. In the following posts I’ll be taking a look at some of the built-in options that can help you ‘automatically’ deal with emails.

All of these posts will cover options for both Gmail and Outlook.

Need some more help dealing with your emails? You need Email Overwhelm Rescue

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2 thoughts on “Email Overload: The Quick Tips”

  1. Pingback: Email Overload: How to Organise Your Messages with Folders

  2. Pingback: Email Overload: What about Outlook Quick Steps or GMail Send and Archive?

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