Decreasing the amount of email you receive.

The most common abuse of modern technology, must be email. If I had a nickel for every time I have seen an overloaded Inbox, I would be making money in a very strange way. (Thank you Mitch Hedberg.) But in all seriousness it seems most people do not know how to properly manage their emails. How many times have you missed an email because it was in with a bunch of crap email. And I don't just mean the normal spam for male enhancemnt pills, and emails from the sons of nigerian princes needing your help. What about the jokes that your co-worker sends to you hourly or a link to that video with the cutest little kitten your aunt keeps sending.

It is hard enough to stay in control of your email without have non-informative email cluttering your box and your mind.

In this post we are going to talk about reducing the flow of email into your inbox.

Step 1.
Fight Spam

Turn on your spam filter. Most email programs and web-based email services offer spam-filtering. Do yourself a favor and use it. If the program or service you use doesn't offer it than get one that does. I personally reccomend the Thunderbird email client, I absolutely love it. Not only does it filter spam, but it also knows not to filter out anybody in my address book.

Now you may be concerned about missing important emails becasue your spam filter caught it. My advice to you is "Oh, well.". It isn't worth your sanity to receive every piece of email that is sent to you. I know this sounds drastic, but it's not. If the email was important the person will email you again, call, and even come see you in person to make sure you get that important info. You will not lose your job, you are not going to lose your house, and you won't lose your friends, so just relax and let the spam filter do it's job.

Step 2.
Don't write as much email

One way to cut down on email is to send less of it. Use email if the message you need to send has a lot of details and the person receiving may need a copy to remember them all. Otherwise use other communication tools to get what you need. Messenger programs are great for "Quick questions", phones are great if you need to gage the persons tone, and of course getting up from your desk and walking to your co-worker gives you a little exercise, a much needed break from your computer screen, and some socializing.

Step 3.
Opt out

Whenever you give out your email address make it a habit to opt-out of any newsletters, promotions, or anything else they offer to do to your email. I use Bugmenot.com to login to sites that seem to have registration for no reason. This site can give you already registered usernames and passwords for a lot of websites, so you don't have to give up your information.

For those of you more technically inclined, I create email aliases on my web server and when I sign up for something like Netflix I will use netflix@andrebergeron.com as my email. That address forwards to my actual email, so if Netflix ever starts sending me spam, I will know it was them and I can simply create a new alias. And my actual email stays safe.

If you are a member of a social networking site, turn off the email notifications. Social networking sites usually have some way of notifying you of anything new when you login, so why bother receiving an email.