to be overwhelmed by emails and want to delete them all

[outofofficeagain]

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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)

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.

First take a deep breath and get yourself a cup of tea / coffee.

Start by unsubscribing to all the spam / newsletters in your inbox. Go through, starting at the latest e mail and click unsubscribe each one. Then in search key in the sender for each unsubscribed e mail and delete all. Go back one month. This will then stop any more being sent and clear out all the spam from your inbox.

Second check your spam e mail folder and do the same. This will leave anything important which has been directed in there in error. Move these to your mail inbox.

You will find this has significantly reduced the 6000. It will take time but if you invest this now it will make your in box more manageable and you will be able to see the important stuff. Don’t be tempted to sign up for e mails from companies otherwise your inbox will start filling up quickly - make sure you tick the no marketing box if you buy something online.

Then up to you how you organise going forward but would suggest setting up sub folders to help manage and be able to locate e mails if there is a future query - i.e. all fulfilled orders / utility bills / queries dealt with etc.

Allocate set periods of time everyday when your task is to keep your inboxes up to date and tidy - delete any spam , file things which have been dealt with - leaving just e mails which need actioning - will stop you getting overwhelmed.

Then use separate allocated time to actually action e mails. If you do this you won’t get sidetracked with dealing with an e mail and as a result not keep your in boxes tidy / under control

Good luck

You know there are virtual assistants that’s will sort this out for you? And manage your inbox on an ongoing basis.

I believe in outsourcing stuff that isn’t my strong suit.

otherwise there are apps / plug ins that will do a similar job.

you know you’ll feel better once you’ve tackled this. Good luck!

Thank you all, it feels so manageable when you write it down.

A VA is an option, although it feels like something I should be able to do myself and, due to various issues, I'm quite short of money.

But maybe it would be worth it just to get back on my feet.

Quite a few good tips already. Just some of my own, for the future:
I once followed a 'personal effectiveness' training, which taught me that at least once a day (If you receive many mails), you take the time to go through all mails. In reality, I now tend to do it at least once per week as I found that's sufficient for me.
Anything that can be dealt with within 2 minutes you do immediately - a quick reply, a confirmation, etc.
Anything that can be deleted you read diagonally and delete immediately
Anything that needs following up by a certain deadline and needs more than 2 minutes gets a flag and I'll note it down on my to do list.
All other things are read in order of priority and are then filed in the many many subfolders I have.
I agree with pp that for a backlog it is easiest to sort by name which will allow you to delete whole blocks of spam/newsletter emails in one go.
I also sort by subject to see how conversations went. you start with the oldest and can then save only the latest one if it contains the whole chain.
What also can help is to use different email addresses: I have one for work, which only has work stuff and work-newsletters. Then I have a private one for online shopping, private appointments etc. And then a made up address (with a fake name) for all newsletters/mailinglists from shops etc. This last one I'll only visit when I need to buy something and need a discount code or something.

200 of them are from Mumsnet! I've adjusted my settings!

These are great tips, thank you.

L

Do you use Outlook? If so they have some very handy functions to organise your inbox including a "sweep" function where you can create a rule to delete all emails from a sender. Here's a how to

Get a new email address for all personal stuff, change over any social media, mumsnet sign ups etc to that one, so it’s not clogging up your business one, that alone will take so much pressure off, I have a business email then all sorts of junky personal ones for sign ups to various things

If you’re strapped for cash then I’d set aside a whole day and implement some of the strategies here.

• unsubscribe from everything non-essential
• folders to put things in that you’ve read but don’t need action
• those that do need action more than 15 seconds, add to your to do list and then file. (My project management software - Asana - lets me create a task from an email via a plug in. It’s very useful).
• Delete anything more than 6 months old.

Ooh I have Asana. This is another thing that has slightly run away with me.

A lot of my problems are I get so excited by shiny new software and things but then never use them properly, or immediately forget I have them, rather than using them to their full advantage.

That could work though - as a delete or to do rather than them just hanging about.

That’s a plan then. Put a day aside. Put your phone on dnd and an out of office on the email and get A proper grip on email and asana. It’ll be worth it!

I would LOVE to come and do this for you! 😬

I feel your pain!
here are a couple of tips I use.

1. About once a month I sort my inbox by sender, so I can bulk select and delete irrelevant emails based in sender.
2. I use a "smart mailboxes" where you can set up rules in the mail client to group mails that meet the rule criteria, i.e. sender includes "amazon"/ linkedin / mumsnet etc. or subject contains "newsletter" etc. I then weekly delete the contents, knowing that if it's in there I don't need it.
3. Unsubscribe when you can.
4. If you feel you have gone back far enough with your cleaning, set all the remaining emails as read, then try to keep on top of it going forward by aiming to get the unread count to zero every day.

You should be able to feel you're on top of it within a few days. Shout if you need help with the set up.

I have different emails - works well for me. A real personal one - for finances, friends, interests, schools etc. Then a 2nd for retail (dont they love to over send!), junk, offers etc. Then work when I was at work and I think a googlemail for back up.

I spend (sadly) a few hours each week clearing out - unsubscribing, blocking junk (so I get relatively few junk emails now). I have hundreds of folders but they are logical and it makes moving emails over very quick. I can then decide to review a particular folder - eg gardening companies (also send far too many) or recipe sites (send too many) etc and bulk delete. I occasionally get really creative and sort by oldest first. How much info do you really need that is more than 1 year old? That gets rid of loads.

You need to develop your own system - we are all different. I left work recently with a shared work email. My colleague would happily have left every email in the inbox. I set up a system - 4 years she never used it. My final day - my replacement went nutty - couldnt believe the quantity of emails. I shrugged and said they needed their own system.

It will take a little bit of time but totally worth it to get on top of it.
Make some sub folders for things you think you want to keep receiving but don't actually need to action, so you can move them into there straight away when you get them so they don't clutter your inbox and stop you seeing what needs to be done.
I also have sub folders for other things that only get moved in there when actioned but you don't have to do that if it doesn't work for you but I find it helpful for finding things again in future if needed.
Go through, take some time and do mass deletes now of anything you don't need.
Then when clear, everyday that you get an email - if you don't want to receive it, change your settings or block! Keep doing that consistently and you'll find you get much less junk email clogging up your inbox.
As you get each email, decide if it needs a subfolder etc.
Use the notifications thingy to make things as different levels of priority.

Thank you everyone, this has been great.

I've got them down to 4,000 in an hour, using the unsubscribe and search things.

I've moved all my client emails into a separate folder so I at least know they are all in one place.

Still a long way to go but progress!

I've also asked a VA friend of mine if she'll sit down with me and look at some processes for not letting it get out of hand again.

Do you use multiple email addresses?

I have 7 in active use

only on work devices
2 for work

Actually give me phone notifications because these are important
1 for dc school and activities
1 for close friends and family
1 for doctors offices and other important contacts

just exist and I check them as needed. This is the only place that gets truly inundated
1 for shopping, subscriptions, giving to businesses, larger acquaintance circle

one that does get some spam, but I only use it occasionally
1 for selling things online, I will turn on notifications only when actively selling something

This is a great idea.

I have one for personal and one for work, but now feel like I need more!

I probably have more google calendars than email addresses.

You've done really well. It is actually quite tiring and does take work to manage. It is the modern version of papers and they need filing or destroying.

Oh @outofofficeagain that’s a really good start age I bet you feel great! Well done. Are you glad you posted?