How I Decluttered My Personal Email Inbox: A 90% Reduction
Today, I dedicated a few hours to decluttering my Gmail inbox—not because it was overflowing or I couldn't find important emails, but out of curiosity to see how many truly needed to remain.
The process
I began by reviewing the first 100 emails and manually categorized them into the following groups:
- Confirmations from online orders or new account registrations
- Notifications and security alerts from various services
- Marketing or promotional emails from auto subscriptions
- Verification emails or the ones with one-time 2FA login codes
- Any old conversations that no longer meaningful
- Emails that I sent to myself for drafts or certain topics
One look at an email can rob you of 15 minutes of focus. One call on your cell phone, one tweet, one instant message can destroy your schedule, forcing you to move meetings, or blow off really important things, like love, and friendship.
In addition to deleting those emails, I also unsubscribed from many of the newsletters that I didn't sign up or no longer relevant to me.
Why not archive?
While archiving old emails can free up space without deletion, I prefer not to use this feature, as I don't anticipate needing to revisit those emails.
The results
I reduced my inbox from over 6,000 emails accumulated over 15 years to fewer than 700—eliminating approximately 90% of past messages. To my surprise, over 70% were emails exchanged with my wife—discussions about meals, updates on our children, and sweet messages from our dating days.
Perhaps life isn't about accumulating memories or possessions but learning to let go. I aspire to be someone who doesn't dwell on the past, who knows when to discard the unnecessary, who lives without regret, and who focuses on meaningful goals.