Organize your email and/or gmail

When I got my first Internet account, it was exciting getting email. In fact, the first email I received was one I sent to myself to see if it worked. At that time the "Inbox" was all I knew. Every email came into my inbox. This was back in the days of dial-up for me. It was exciting waiting for the buzz as the computer dialed up my Internet connection and watching to see if any emails came in. That wasn't a big deal until the spammers got hold of my email address. Then it started taking forever for my emails to download. And I got tired of paging through tons of emails only to discover that I didn't get anything important that day.

Eventually I discovered that Microsoft includes the ability to create new folders and "message rules" which allowed me to direct incoming emails to separate folders. For example, all emails from family members go directly to my "Family" folder. That helps because I don't have to look through all the incoming emails just to see if there is one from a family member. If you haven't discovered that yet, your email program should allow you to do that. In Microsoft Outlook Express, for example, go to File/Folder/New and create the folders you want. Then go to Tools/Message Rules to create the filters you need. Or if you have an email open, you can go to Message/Create Rule from Message. That will help keep your inbox empty.

Eventually, waiting for the dial-up to download emails got too tedious. I was envious of my son who had high speed service. He finally convinced me (and my wife who needs more convincing than I do) to switch to Roadrunner. My Roadrunner account has EZ anti-spam which does a good job of filtering out spam and sends it directly to a Spam folder where it is autaomatically deleted after 30 days. So my Inbox is basically always empty except for a few spams that sneak through. At that point I can click on "Block" on the EZ-Anti-Spam button, and it is gone.

Then my son, Brian, introduced me to gmail. This Google service works great for email. It puts emails in threads, so when I reply to a gmail and they reply back, it keeps them together like an ongoing conversation. I now use my gmail address whenever I'm asked for an email address. Gmail does a good job of filtering out spam. If something sneaks through, I click on "Report Spam" and it goes to the spam box.

Brian later pointed out that I can put labels on incoming gmail. It is a simple process of clicking on "Create a Filter" and following the instructions. After setting that up, I can now click on a label and see everything in that folder. Brian probably figured I would be able to figure out the next step by myself, creating filters to automatically direct them there. But later he had to point that out as well. It seems pretty basic, and I should have figured it out by myself. But I didn't. He is smarter than me and figures these things out by himself. That's one of the reasons he is referred to around the country as "The Brain," A.K.A. Mr.OneBox.

So following his instructions, I set up filters to automatically archive my gmails and apply labels. Now I can instantly see if I have any new gmails in any of my labeled categories. And my inbox is always empty. No sorting through a bunch to see if there is anything important. Important gmails automatically go where I want them.

Maybe you already have your email or gmail accounts all organized. If you don't, I would highly recommend it. It will save you a lot of time that could be spent on much more important or fun things. So spend a little time organizing. Then when your inbox is empty, take time to have some fun.