Managing Thunderbird Email Overload

I admit that I am powerless over my email, Thunderbird has become unmanageable.

Image: by uzvards

If you can relate to this do not despair but spend some time, to save some time in the long run. Although most of the following applies to my email program of choice, Thunderbird, some can be adapted to other programs. If you use online email applications consider importing and reading them from Thunderbird to take advantage of its more extensive features.

I recently had to take more steps to organize my own emails so as not to miss those that I need to read straight away. It took a little time but has been worthwhile. I am keeping up with and actioning the more important messages, the rest are tucked away for reading if and when I have the time. Here are the steps I took.

1. If your inboxes are full now, click on the top of the "Organize by Subject" or "Organize by Sender" columns and concentrate on senders that send multiple emails. The others can be done bit by bit as they come in. It is not worth spending time searching for or trying to remember them at this stage.
2. Unsubscribe from emails that you do not read and have no need to refer to in the future. Then delete those that already exist.
3. Create a number of Inbox folders for mail you do not need to read or action straight away. A two tier system of of folders works well. One tier is for emails you do need to action, but not immediately, the other for those that can be left until you have some spare time to read them. If you are bringing in mail from more than one email account do not create separate inbox folders for each but in only the one you use more regularly. Some emails could be filtered directly into Local Folders rather than Inbox subfolders, although I recommend you only do this for less important ones, if you think they may get forgotten.
4. Create filters to automatically file relevant incoming mail from all email accounts into the folders you have just created . I filter my gmail accounts and my ISP email into subfolders of my ISP account inbox.

5. Make sure that emails you mark as junk are removed from the inbox - Go to Options/Privacy tick "When I mark messages as junk" and choose to send them to the junk folder or delete them. Make a habit of marking spam as junk rather than just deleting them so that Thunderbird’s spam filter can learn what you consider to be spam.

6. You could also create filters for spam that slips through the net, such as those containing the word Viagra, to send them straight to junk (unless they are emails you have subscribed to of course) .
7. Create folders within your Local Folders for filing away emails you have read but need to keep. Base your folder structure to suit yourself but I advise creating folders just for registrations and subscription confirmation emails, for important emails that you may need to find again quickly and those that have ongoing threads.
8. Use Thunderbird’s default tags and/or create your own to mark inbox emails that you need to do something about in the future. They are much easier to find again.

9. Take advantage of Thunderbird extensions to further automate the process.

Next I will talk about the Thunderbird extensions that are useful for organizing your mail and saving you time.

Post from: Blogging Sueblimely

Managing Thunderbird Email Overload