Smart Tool: Get Rid of Email Clutter with OtherInbox

If you’re like me, your email is constantly flooded with social media notices, coupons, mailing lists and bill reminders. You can try to set up filters for everything, but it’s hard to keep up, and you might miss things you should pay attention to. Consequently, you either have 800 unread messages in your inbox, or you spend hours reading, filing, archiving, and deleting things.

If this sounds like your life, you should check out OtherInbox – a suite of tools that auto-filters messages and helps you unsubscribe from lists you don’t want to be part of any more. I found the service a couple of months ago, and it has drastically reduced the amount of time I spend managing my inbox!

OtherInbox has 3 main services: Organizer, Unsubscriber, and Message Finder  - each of which play an important part of my Gmail Domination Strategy.

Organizer: Automatically Organize & Prioritize Email

When I first signed up for OtherInbox Organizer, the service automatically scanned my email, created a series of standard labels, then applied them to my messages using its fancy algorithm, and archived them out of my Gmail inbox. Within a few minutes, I had about 75% less mail in my inbox!

Organize.

Image Courtesy of OtherInbox

OtherInbox created a new set of pre-defined labels in my Gmail for things like Coupons, Shipping Notices, Receipts, Travel, and News – and my mass email was filed for me using these labels. I did a quick check and found a few things that weren’t sorted right, so I quickly updated the settings by reassigning the email to a different label. To my delight, OtherInbox learned the new rule and got it right the next time.

I also discovered that I could create my own OtherInbox labels for things like Meeting Notices and Libary Notices. Once I applied the label to new incoming messages, OtherInbox learned the rule and filed the messages appropriately the next time around – labeling and archiving them immediately.

By default, the OtherInbox Organizer archives emails from your inbox, but if that makes you nervous, you can always change the setting and it will just apply the labels.

Prioritize.

Because all of the emails labeled by OtherInbox are still marked as Unread in those folders, I can easily review the emails when I have time, but my inbox is no longer cluttered with these low priority messages. Every day, OtherInbox sends me one email summarizing what has been filed so I can do a quick scan for important notices and adjust any settings.

Unsubscriber: Easily Stop Unwanted Email

Image Courtesy of OtherInbox

OtherInbox Unsubscriber makes it really easy to unsubscribe from lists you no longer care about. Just drag the email to the Unsubscribe folder, and they’ll take care of the rest for you!  No more answering questions or entering passwords to get yourself off unwanted email lists like the “Spice Girls Fan Club” you signed up for in 1998.

Using the Unsubscriber service, I’ve become much more disciplined about unsubscribing from lists I no longer care about.  Now the messages coming into my inbox are restricted to only those I truly care about, which helps me use my time more wisely!

Message Finder: Locate Messages On Your Phone By Category

Image Courtesy of OtherInbox

OtherInbox recently introduced an iPhone app called MessageFinder that makes it easy to find an email on your iPhone with an icon-and-category based view of your inbox.  Using their simplified interface, it’s really easy to find email on your phone without doing complicated searches or scrolling through hundreds of messages. This app is especially helpful when you’re on the go and you want to find your boarding pass, locate a coupon, or view a receipt.

Using the OtherInbox suite of tools in combination with Taskforce, I’ve reduced my email inbox volume by about 90%, I’m more productive, and I have a lot more time to spend on other things!

OtherInbox is FREE, and is compatible with Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and AOL and Apple’s iCloud.