Let’s be honest, most of us check our inbox constantly during the day. Although we use it productively mostly during work hours, if you are like me you usually get overwhelmed by the gigantic inflow of emails that end up in your inbox.

And you know what the sad part is? Most of them distract you from doing important work or worse, get you frustrated every time you see a promotional email from the store you only bought something once. Yes, that sign up to our newsletter you agreed on to get 15% off a sweater? That’s the one I’m talking about.

Regardless of either seeing useful emails at the wrong time or seeing useless emails anytime (or every time) we can all agree on one thing. Relationships with inbox mail can be “complicated”.

So don’t just sit there and accept your chaotic inbox fate, fix it!

But first let me explain you how.

Use Smart Filters

The automatic rules and filters built-in to Gmail are pretty powerful and easy to manage. To avoid making a mess like the one we just cleaned up, there are plenty of options out there to help you keep your inbox in order.

The customize labels optionThe what? The customize label option is nice built-in feature that Gmail provides to help you manage your subscriptions better. You can append anything to your email address by adding a plus sign (+) to it. For example whenever I sign up for a newsletter, I use personalemail+newsletters@gmail.com.If you want to manage newsletter subscriptions this way you can simply do the following:

1. Click on the Cog on the top right corner of your gmail
2. Select Settings,go to the Labels tab and create a new label called “Newsletters”
3. Click on the Filters and Blocked Addresses tab and go to the bottom. Click on “Create a new filter”
4. In the “To” field of the “Create a Filter” box, put your email address with “+newsletters” after the username e.g johndoe+newsletters
5. Click on "Create a new filter"
6. In the check boxes, select “Skip Inbox” and “Apply label” (choose the "Newsletter" label from the dropdown menu)
7. Click “Create Filter” and you’re all set!

This option can be tricky at first, but you can easily get the hang of it after a while.

Use an Unsubscription Tool.

A cluttered inbox can be a good enough disincentive to lead a productive day. If your situation is similar to mine, you probably have zillions of emails from subscriptions clutter your inbox making it impossible to find emails that matter or concentrate on your tasks.

Gmail offers you the option of unsubscribing to subscription mails manually, so that’s your first option. However, unsubscribing to those manually would take forever, not to mention the frustration it would cause right? Right. Since you can’t manage that load on your own there are plenty of tools out there, especially for Gmail, that do it for you.

These tools allow you to massively unsubscribe from all the newsletters that are bloating your email. I suggest you try one ASAP. They can help you manage your email better and stop useless emails from reaching your inbox, thus giving you some peace of mind.

Use Email Assistants

If you want to keep your sanity and your focus on your tasks during work hours by checking only the important work related mails, then this solution is for you!

E-mail assistants help you concentrate on your work and help you manage your emails so that only the important ones show up in your inbox.

Take SilentInbox for example, a Gmail plugin that helps you do just that. It automatically moves unimportant emails into a separate folder for you to deal with them later. It also allows you to blacklist or whitelist senders so you wont find your self in panic mode losing important emails that should have been delivered on time.

SilentInbox lets you choose when and for how long you want to mute your inbox from unimportant emails,delivering them silently to a different folder. After the muting time period you have selected, your favourite newsletters and subscription mails will pop up in your inbox again, thus allowing you to read them in your non-working hours.

E-mail assistants like SilentInbox are a great solution for busy professionals that want to focus on the tasks that matter and boost their productivity.If you’re one of them, I suggest you give them a try. They offer free and premium option so you literally have nothing to lose.

That’s a wrap! I’ve told you everything you need to know in order to clean your inbox mess and prevent it from happening again. So its up to you now. Take a deep breath, use the tools mentioned and say goodbye to your cluttered inbox.