Reducing Email Clutter

I have a half a dozen email inboxes which means it is important to keep the clutter down regularly to get through the mails. Here are some steps I take to reduce the clutter and keep the email life saner.

1. Use Junk Mail or Spam Filters from the native email service provider. This reduces or at least diverts several unwanted messages to separate folders.
2. Use exclusive senders list where applicable to keep the list of trusted parties small. Periodically I review the junk mail folder to ensure I do not miss out on some mails.
3. If a mail can be dealt with in under a minute do so then and there.
   1. A good chunk of mails are informational and can be deleted immediately. So removing that mail is useful.
   2. Some emails require a quick reply, which when done can be removed out as well.
   3. And the phone based email clients enable this quick triage well.
4. If a mail requires more work – reading a document, writing follow up, answering in length, then leave it in the inbox till the end of week.
5. If a mail is unanswered after the week ends, then perhaps it is worth preserving or pushing to follow up later folder.
6. Periodically find time to go through the ‘later folder’ and deal with any pending emails.