Processes I have created to get rid of emails & email accounts
And sharing them with you, cause you might need them too 😉
Today, I joined an “End of the year De-cluttering session” at the Lab by Digital Nomad Girls, the online community I am a member of. In the first few minutes of sharing what we plan to de-clutter, a fellow member and good friend of mine, Kim Marsh, owner of the Open Book Company, was looking for tips on what not to forget before she “decommissions” an old email account.
I shared the steps I followed the last time I “decommissioned” an old email account and while I was writing them down, I realized that
“Hey, why don’t I share them with more people?”
So here we are!
What to check before “decommissioning” an old email account
The steps are fairly easy to follow 😎
- Check where that email is connected — accounts to change
Makes sense, doesn’t it? You don’t want to delete an email and then try to get access to a connected service 😅 - Inform all your “contacts” that this is not gonna be your email after x date.
Pretty obvious, right? People you were in contact with that email, need to find you somehow. Informing them solves the conundrum 😛 - Send the same email to all the “other” contacts
As above! If you want the people who are in your “other” contacts, then knowing where they can email you, will help them to continue finding you. Kinda important, don’t you agree?😏 - Save or forward emails to the new email
A step I like a lot! Going back and reading all emails and figuring out which ones I would like to keep forever! And either saving them in a google doc/word format or forwarding them to my new account. You might want to do something similar! 😍 - Check the Drive from that email account
And make sure that anything that needs to be saved, downloaded, or transferred ownership to your new email account is done before you hit delete and your email account, and everything in it, disappears forever. - Check Google photos from that account
And remember to join any shared albums with your new email account. You don’t want to miss out on memories or try to remember how the album is called or who set it up, so they can invite you back. 😅 - Click delete and say goodbye!
Yay! YOU have arrived at this step! Congrats! Do a final review of everything you have/haven’t forgotten anything, say goodbye and click delete!!! 🤩 - Celebrate — you have 1 less email account! 🥳🥳🥳🥳
Decrease your emails, increase your happiness
or how to get rid of the excess of emails that plagues your email account 😉
- Spam Folder
Cause we need to start somewhere! Let’s start from the spam folder!
So, single out emails (if repeating ) and start unsubscribing! Easy, right? - Setting filters
Check the ones you have, if they are still useful and if you don’t have any, think about creating! They are fun and so helpful! 🤩 - Labels
Create labels & assign labels to your emails eg Perso, ClientWork, x project name, Branding of my biz, and so on. One step further you can take after assigning labels to your emails is to move them to the respective folders under the label and out of your inbox! 🥳 - Trash
Very simple! Delete it! 😎 - Inbox
Time to tackle your inbox! Open, and read emails, decide if you need them and label them or if you don’t, and delete them! - Celebrate
YOU made it!! Congrats!! Your inbox looks empty or slightly empty! 🥳🥳
Here is my inbox today!
Curious to know, if these processes will be as useful as they have been for me!
If/when you use them, let me know how it went in the comments!
And of course, you are welcome to tailor them to your needs! 🤩
