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Original poster

to be overwhelmed by emails and want to delete them all

32 replies

outofofficeagain · 01/10/2024 10:57

Help

I run my own business.

As a caveat, I have quite a few mental health issues, anxiety mainly, which is causing my to feel overwhelmed.

I have over 6,000 emails in my inboxes. Most of them are completely irrelevant/newsletters or spam, but it's causing me complete paralaysis.

I'm missing ones that are important, other important ones are being sent to junk. I don't know where to start.

It also seems to do that thing where it lumps all messages together so often I don't see replies as it's got filed under a chain.

It's a mess and is making me panic. I really want to sort it out but I don't know where to start. I know it's not an impossible task but it feels it. I'm so busy I don't feel I have time to sit down and sort it out.

Help!

Please tell me
a) how to sort out the current shitshow
b) how to stop it happening again.

OP posts:
AlisonDonut · 01/10/2024 11:13

I'd do it a different way.

I'd go through the most important people who are sending me stuff, search for their email address, and then select all their emails and put it into a new folder called 'their name'. Do that for all your clients. You can also set up rules so that Dave's emails always go straight into Dave's folder. Or a company's emails always go into their folder.

Once you have all the important people [clients/suppliers/whatever it is], shove everything else into a 'FFI' folder. For Future Info. So that you can find them at a later date. If you have to go looking for it, then move it into it's own folder maybe all quotes go into a quote folder or all invoices into an invoice folder. Whatever it is.

Then when a non important thing comes in, either do it, delete it, unsubscribe from it, or just slide it into FFI.

Yumpo · 01/10/2024 11:06

Search the spam names, mass delete, search for keywords like newsletter, mass delete, look through the junk folder and click “not spam” for all the important stuff and star them, don’t just mass delete everything as you will be losing the thing that’s stressing you out (important emails)

Inhaledfoodohno · 01/10/2024 11:04

Use the search function.
Search for the ones you know are trash and bulk delete them.

Iridescentdragon · 01/10/2024 11:03

Could you hire someone? A virtual PA? Someone in my area offers this service and I've been looking into it.

PixiePirate · 01/10/2024 11:02

The lumping all emails together in one long chain is a simple setting on your email account. Google how to change that and update your settings. As pp said, small steps will get you to a better place.

PatsyPatsysaid · 01/10/2024 11:01

Filter by sender - then delete all spam emails. Then unsubscribe or block

BrightGreenLeaves · 01/10/2024 10:59

Start by going back over the last month and unsubscribing from all newsletters that you don’t want. Then any others you don’t want you can report as spam. This will stop it getting worse.

once you’ve done that, you can think about next steps.