56Organize Your E-mail In-Box

If you’ve ever tried to find something specific in a cluttered cupboard, you know how time-consuming and frustrating it can be. Plowing through old boxes of junk, piles of paper, and bric-a-brac saved from Auntie Mildred’s wedding eats up time and tests your patience. A messy e-mail in-box can create a similar level of dysfunctional clutter and drive you crazy. A few minutes spent organizing your online life now will pay off tenfold in time saved later.

There are two aspects to sorting out your in-box. One is cleaning out and categorizing the e-mail you already have, and the second is managing new e-mails as they arrive.

To begin with, do a housecleaning on your mailbox and delete old messages (including spam) hanging ...

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