Do you hate looking at your inbox? Is checking your email becoming more of a chore that never seems to be completed? Well, it’s a new year, so why not start by taking control of your email inbox once and for all?
If your inbox is out of control and you don’t know where to start, or if you just want to start the new year off productively, here are 3 free tools that can help.
ActiveInbox
If your your inbox is totally out of control and can’t keep your priorities straight, you really need ActiveInbox. This plugin for Chrome and Firefox works with both Gmail and Google Apps accounts. It lets you turn emails into tasks, snooze messages to read later, and helps you focus on top priorities. Emails can also be organized into project folders and you can even add notes, which will only be visible to you.
The “Previous Conversation Viewer” is also nice because it helps you keep up with all correspondences from a single recipient. ActiveInbox adds a whole new section to your sidebar for better organization of your tasks and messages.
Taskforce
Taskforce is a lot like ActiveInbox in that it lets you convert emails into tasks, but it stops there. Taskforce displays a small collapsible task window at the top of your inbox, so that you can keep up with what needs to be done and what is currently being worked on. You can delay tasks and collaborate with other people right within the task window, but only if the other person is using Taskforce as well.
If that person does not have Taskforce installed, you can still collaborate with them, but it will be done via email. The Taskforce plugin is available for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari; it works with Gmail and Google Apps accounts.
OtherInbox
I’m a long time user of OtherInbox (for 2 of my email accounts) and love how it automatically organizes your messages into labels. It currently works with Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and AOL mail. Basically, OtherInbox automatically analyzes your incoming mail and then sorts them by priority. The low priority messages are archived and organized into automatically created labels; however, you can create your own labels and it will automatically adapt.
You’ll get a daily email digest showing you a summary of all your organized messages. A great addition is the ability to unsubscribe from newsletters just by placing messages in the “OIB/Unsubscribe” folder. OtherInbox will take care of the rest by working with the sender to make sure you’re removed from the mailing list or newsletter.
If you’d rather organize your inbox on your own, there’s always Gmail filters, which have to be setup manually.
What is your favorite method of organizing your inbox?
this is interesting with so many emails coming from my subscribed list i need to be more organized to keep up and this free tool is what i’m needed
So much of what goes in my inbox are notifications. A quick glance and I just delete them. I find if I just sit down daily for 5-10 minutes I can sort everything, and then figure out how I’m going to deal with it all. Much of it can be handled with my delete button. Sometimes I wonder if these tools are more work than just doing stuff by hand.