Your email inbox is out of control. These tools will help
One of these solutions may be just the thing to tame the beast.
With great power comes great responsibility—and that responsibility is often accompanied by an endless barrage of emails.
The average worker spends an estimated 28% of the workweek managing email, according to a recent study. That share of the day can grow even larger for senior business leaders as they manage a busy workforce by way of their inboxes.
The near ubiquitous problem of email overload has prompted the development of numerous systems to help better manage inbox workflow—from Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh’s Yesterbox method to a recent French proposal to legally allow workers to disconnect from email after working hours.
Read on for a selection of tools that can help tame an out-of-control inbox and get you and your company running more efficiently. Maybe one of these solutions will help you finally get to that mythological organizational Eden called inbox zero.
Boomerang
Available for: Gmail and Outlook
What it does: Boomerang bills itself as a “snooze button” for email messages. The program lets users clean up their inboxes without losing track of important messages and helps manage messages that can’t be dealt with immediately, but that need attention or a response later. The program can help you remember to pay bills, schedule birthday or holiday notes when you have the time to write them, make sure you follow up with a sales lead and even clear out travel confirmation emails from your inbox and return them on the day of your trip.
Coolest feature: You can set it to “boomerang” a message back to your inbox, to remind you of it on a specific date at a specific time.
What it costs: A basic version is free, while more advanced versions start at $4.99 per month.
Unroll.Me
Available for: Outlook, Gmail, Google Apps, Yahoo! Mail, AOL Mail, and iCloud
What it does: Subscription newsletters are a leading contributor to email clutter. Unroll.me is a free service that allows users to combine those types of emails into one easy-to-read message. First, the software scans your inbox and allows you to easily unsubscribe from junk emails. Next, you can combine your favorite subscriptions into a single daily digest email called the Rollup that you can have delivered at any point throughout the day.
Coolest feature: It works for social media notifications, also.
What it costs: Free
Mailstrom
Available for: All email programs
What it does: Mailstrom offers an extra layer of organization for your inbox. The software identifies bundles of related mail and makes it easy for you to act on them as a group.
Coolest feature: Mailstrom includes a “chill” function that allows users to decide when to deal with incoming messages, and and an “expire” feature to set a time limit for emails from certain senders to remain in your inbox. The “People I’ve Emailed” view lets you go directly to the emails from people you most often reply to.
What it costs: Multi-tiered pricing—with Basic ($9/mo., $59.95/year) Plus ($14/mo., $99.95/year) and Pro ($29.95/mo., $199.95/year) subscriptions available—but everyone starts with a free trial
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