Our inboxes quickly fill up. Without a method to sort what's what, we end up with a clutter of promotions, social media notifications, spam, and important updates. 

Wrangling an overwhelming inbox isn't just a matter of how often you check your email. The best way to maintain focus is to use a method like Inbox Zero and your email client's tools for sorting and categorizing emails.

Most email clients offer filters, which can be used to sort, delete, archive, and store emails. Here's how to use them to your advantage.

What are the best ways to organize your inbox?

Let's define some of the key components for organizing emails:

• Filter: A filter is a set of instructions. Filters sort incoming messages by criteria like keywords, sender, or subject, and organize them with actions like moving them into folders, labeling them, or marking as spam. 
• Delete: You can apply rules to move certain emails straight to the trash. Deleting an email typically sends it to a trash folder, where it will stay for up to 30 days before being permanently removed. Your mail client or settings for handling deleted emails may vary.
• Archive: Archiving removes emails from your inbox but doesn't delete them. Archiving is a good option for emails that don't need your attention right now, but contain important information, like personal messages or paid receipts. Archived emails can always be accessed later by search. 

Before we cover how to use these components, we'll want to clear the existing clutter from your inbox. 

How to unsubscribe from irrelevant emails

A good first step is unsubscribing from promotional emails or social updates that you never open. 

In your email client, go to your promotions folder or find the marketing emails you don't interact with. By law, any automated marketing emails are required to provide you with an option to unsubscribe. This is typically located at the bottom of the email and this method can be applied to any email client. 

In Gmail

In your Gmail inbox, select the email sender you'd like to stop receiving incoming emails from. Then, select the "unsubscribe" button at the top of the email next to the sender information.

In Outlook

Click "View all Outlook settings," then Select "Mail" from the menu. Select "Subscriptions." Click unsubscribe from each business that you no longer wish to receive promotional emails from.

In Superhuman

In Superhuman, hit Cmd+U or Ctrl+U, or just swipe down and tap Unsubscribe if you’re on mobile. You can also mark all related messages as done, or trash them at the same time and remove them from your inbox.

How to delete or archive emails in bulk

Maybe you have a backlog of promotional emails you never opened, or read or unread emails that are no longer needed. Whether you're looking to delete or archive emails in bulk, the method will be the same, with slight variations for your email client.

A standard approach is to search your inbox for the sender of the email. You can then select all results and choose to move them to your trash or archive. Depending on your email client, this should be above or next to where you're able to select all emails in the results.

In Gmail

To delete emails in bulk, follow these steps:

• Type the email address or copy and paste it from an email into the search bar.
• Click the checkmark box just under the search box to select all.
• There may be an option that reads "Select all conversations that match this search," which you can click to select all existing emails from that sender.
• Otherwise, click the button to delete or archive those emails.

In Outlook

To bulk delete emails in Outlook, you can follow similar steps as those used for Gmail. Choose the checkbox next to all of the emails you want to get rid of, then tap the trash icon. 

Alternatively, you can click the first email you want to delete, press and hold the Shift key, then click the last email, and press the Delete key to get rid of all of the selected messaged.

In Superhuman

With Superhuman’s Select All feature, you can select multiple emails at once from a search, from your inbox, or within a specific Split. 

Go to the first message you want to archive. On Desktop, hit Cmd+A (Mac) or Ctrl+A (Windows) to Select All From Here. You can also hit Cmd+Shift+A or Ctrl+Shift+A to select everything.

If you’re on Mobile, long-press, tap Select All, and then tap or swipe to keep recent messages.

From there, hit E on Desktop or tap the checkmark on iOS to mark all selected messages as “Done.”

With our inboxes de-cluttered, we can now set up rules and filters to handle future emails and get you to Inbox Zero.

How to use Gmail filters to organize your inbox

Gmail provides many filter options to help you control your inbox, customize your view, and organize the stream of incoming messages. Let’s take a look at how you can use filter criteria in your Gmail account for a more efficient inbox:

• Select the checkbox next to the email you'd like to create a rule for.
• Click the three dots that read "More" when you hover over it.
• Select "Filter messages like these" and then click the "Create filter" button.
• Decide how you want to handle future emails from the sender in a way that makes sense for you.

To edit or remove an existing filter:

• Click the gear icon at the top right, then select "See all settings."
• Select "Filters and Blocked Addresses."
• Select the filter you'd like to change.
• Click edit or delete filter.
• If you're editing a filter, click "Continue" and then "OK" to save.

How to create rules for Outlook to organize your inbox

Outlook offers similar features to Gmail in terms of its ability to filter out emails. You're also able to send automatic replies to certain emails using rules, which can be a handy feature for some. 

Let's take a look at how we can set rules for Microsoft's Outlook:

• Find an email you'd like to filter and right-click it.
• Select "Rules” and then "Create Rule."
• Select the condition that best matches what you'd like to do with the email.
• With your filter rules defined, select "OK."
• To implement the rule immediately, select the "Run this new rule now on messages already in the current folder" checkbox and then "OK."

If you need to edit the rules you've created you can go to "File," then "Manage Rules & Alerts." Select the rule you'd like to edit and make those changes.

Superhuman: a better way to organize your inbox

Superhuman is blazingly fast email which works seamlessly with Gmail and Outlook accounts. Superhuman eliminates email anxiety with features like Split Inbox, Reminders, and Ask AI — keeping your inbox organized and calm. 

Try Superhuman now, and fly through your inbox twice as fast.