5 steps for eliminating unwanted email

Ask people what their biggest complaint is with their email and you will almost certainly hear that they get too much of it. Worse yet, people don’t know what to do to stop the onslaught of email.

Here are 5 steps you can take to eliminate unwanted email:

STEP 1: Unsubscribe

This won’t work for all unwanted email but it will work for a lot of them. Look for an unsubscribe link somewhere in the body of the email, usually buried at the bottom. Clicking this link should, in one way or another, prevent the sender from emailing you again. I say in one way or another because sometimes clicking the link is all that is required. Other times, you have to verify your email address. And in some instances, you have to jump through hoops to complete the process.

STEP 2: Mark as Spam

If the unsubscribe link doesn’t exist or you have tried unsuccessfully unsubscribing from an email sender, use the option your email provider (or your email software) gives you to mark the email as spam (sometimes known as marking it as junk mail or moving it to the junk folder). In theory if you do this enough times (or if other people receiving the same email do the same), your email provider will eventually block future emails from the sender from ever reaching you.

STEP 3: Set up Filters

This one might be a little tricky for noobies but it’s worth the effort if you can figure it out. Using the settings your email provider (or your email software) provides, set up a filter to automatically delete email from a specified sender (using the sender’s email address) as it hits your inbox. If set up correctly, you’ll never see another email from the sender again.

STEP 4: Ask nicely

This step generally only works with email from people you know personally. I’m referring to your friends and family members who send you virus notices, jokes, political rants and other mass-forwarded emails on a seemingly daily basis. Your best bet here is to gently and kindly ask them to take your name of their distribution or group list for these types of emails. I say gently and kindly because if you offend them, you may never receive another email of any kind from them ever again.

STEP 5: Use a Service

If all else fails, consider using a service like Unroll.me which lets you both roll up all of your not-so-important emails into one daily digest while at the same time eliminating any email you don’t want to see, all with a few simple clicks of your mouse. For more information on Unroll.me, click the link below.