Comments on: How to Declutter Your Gmail Archives in 4 Easy Steps

By: Ryan Cole

Ryan Cole — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:54:13 +0000

Andy: You can show all messages, including archives by searching “in:all”. If you want to omit spam and trash labels, just search “in:”.

By: Peterk

Peterk — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 02:44:10 +0000

“not worry about loosing the document”

dang it the word is LOSING! not LOOSING

By: Getting the Most Out of GMail « Web Worker Daily

Getting the Most Out of GMail « Web Worker Daily — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 23:00:36 +0000

[...] Getting the Most Out of GMail Few applications are more of a time sink for web workers than e-mail. If you’re like me, a lot of your time is spent in GMail, which has quite a few unusual hidden features. In this post, I’ll round up some of the GMail tips and tricks that I’ve found to be most useful. Also, don’t miss this blog’s recent post on efficient ways to declutter your GMail archive. [...]

By: Black Belt Productivity » How I keep my Gmail tidy and neat.

Black Belt Productivity » How I keep my Gmail tidy and neat. — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:45:12 +0000

[...] reading Leo of Zen Habit’s article last Friday at Web Worker Daily, I decided to post about how I am keeping my Gmail clean and [...]

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 08:27:09 +0000

I wish they’d include the ability to show all messages that don’t have a label associated with them, sort of like -label:*, it would make sorting my inbox much easier.

By: Leo Babauta

Leo Babauta — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 00:53:22 +0000

@Mark: If that works for you, there’s no need to follow the steps above. But like I said in the article, many people have run up against Gmail’s storage limit, and this article is aimed at them.

However, I do think there’s a benefit to clearing the junk out of your archives. It’s a matter of making your searches more efficient … it’s better to have a focused search with just the most relevant results, rather than a search results page with a long listing filled with junk. At least, that’s been my experience.

The thing is, even though I cleared all my old emails, I’ve never found myself missing them. I never think, “I wish I hadn’t deleted them, because now I need them.” The truth is that we often keep this *just in case* when in fact the just in case never really happens.

But again, if you’re happy with your system, I’m not suggesting you change. This is meant for those who want to declutter and are looking for ways to do that.

By: Matthew Cornell

Matthew Cornell — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 12:28:21 +0000

Thanks for the tips. One Gmail FAQ is “sort by size,” which – for some reason – they’ve not implemented. It would be very handy!

By: Dagens, 08/09 / mblogg.se

Dagens, 08/09 / mblogg.se — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 09:58:52 +0000

[...] How to Declutter Your Gmail Archives in 4 Easy Steps [...]

By: Firefox Porn Extension

Firefox Porn Extension — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 00:20:52 +0000

FYI,
Theres a new Firefox extension called “Bring The Porn”. Kind of like Stumbleupon but with lots more features for porn. You can scrape media clips and save them to your online gallery – amongst other cool things. Check it out:

http://www.bringtheporn.com

By: John

John — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 16:04:19 +0000

Another philosophy is kill the junk before you get it.

I used to subscribe to mailing lists. Today I rely on RSS feeds. Whenever I’m tempted to subscribe to something I ask myself if I really want messages clogging up my GMail.

By: bill

bill — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 14:54:57 +0000

Also, with gmail, you can send your Word and Excel documents to GoogleDocs to save them there and store them. This way you delete the email and not worry about loosing the document and having the attachment eat up your gmail storage.

By: Peter

Peter — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 14:15:25 +0000

I agree with Mark. Unless you’re actually running out of space, what’s the point? Who cares if your mailbox is 56% full or 37% full?

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 13:56:32 +0000

This is antithetical to Gmail’s strengths. While I can agree that moving things out of the Inbox (and out of sight) can be beneficial (personally I leave everything in the Inbox and use * to prioritize), leaving the archive untouched 1) cuts down on time you spend managing and 2) makes it really easy to leverage search to bring up something you need again (a lost contact, a recovered password, a URL, a meeting location, etc).

Does everything need to be kept so that it’s searchable? No. But by not tampering with the archives, you never have to wonder if it will be there to be searchable, and you save yourself the time you would have spent deliberately cleaning things up.