Issue link: https://nest.uberflip.com/i/922940
a Mac or Control+A on a PC—and drag them into your folder. Once you do that, a box should pop up that tells you it's copying the results into your specified folder. After the messages are copied, go ahead and delete them from your main inbox. Or in Gmail, type "before: 2015/08/01" into your search bar. Click the "select all" box. At the top of the page, you'll see the option to "Select all conversations that match this search." Click that option, drop your emails into your folder, and then click "Archive" to clear your emails out of your inbox. Yes, this is not a permanent purge but it will start you on the path to organizing. Step 2: Stash or Trash Step 3: Avoid a Future Pile-Up N ow that your pile is more manageable, start sifting through it. Delete anything you don't need—which may be the bulk of your inbox if you get a lot of marketing emails or social media notifications. For any emails that you need to handle, follow the 2-minute rule: If you can take care of it in 2 minutes or less, do it now. Put any emails that will take longer than that in a separate "to do" folder for when you have time. The trick here is to desig- nate the time—weekly or monthly to take care of this. E mptying out your inbox religiously is probably a waste of time. You can re- duce your clutter by unsubscribing to mail- ing lists. Beyond that, hitting delete, delete, delete may be satisfying, but why bother? Ask yourself if you are doing it because it makes you feel good or because it's actual- ly useful. If it's not useful, maybe you don't need a clean in-box—and maybe you should stop using that as a barometer of success. Give yourself a break. Now that your inbox is cleared out, take these steps to keep it that way.