Chances are you struggle to organize and manage the emails lying dormant in your inbox. Most email users these days feel overwhelmed or frustrated when dealing with email overload and clutter in their inbox. In this guide, we’ll learn how to reduce the clutter of emails in your inbox and how to avoid the sense of overwhelm you feel when dealing with an overloaded email account.
Anyone who spends time on the internet today has an email account filled with hundreds of emails. There’s a good chance that a majority of these email accounts all have emails lying dormant in the “Inbox” — the default place where any emails first land. Most users don’t have the time to move these emails into folders, or archive them. Even though most email service providers now support the ‘Archive’ feature, users don’t often implement it. In this guide, you’ll learn how to get into the habit of actively archiving emails using Spark Mail’s “Mark as Done” feature that helps you keep on top of your inbox.
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JUMP TO:
- What is the Archive folder in email?
- What are the advantages of archiving emails?
- How to Archive emails in Spark?
What is the Archive folder in Email?
Simply put, the Archive folder in an email account is where your emails need to be moved after you’re done with them. Think of your email account as your desk or your workspace. When you’re working, you want a neat and tidy desk in front of you, so you can focus on what’s important. The stuff you don’t need, things like old or irrelevant files, are stashed away in the cupboard or closet. It’s the same principle for the Archive folder. The emails you want to take action on — such as reading, replying, forwarding, archiving, etc. — must be the only emails available in your inbox. All the other emails should be moved to the Archive.
What are the advantages of archiving emails?
There are several benefits of getting into the habit of archiving emails:
- Less Clutter — By moving the emails you don’t need to the archive, you reduce the clutter of irrelevant emails from your inbox.
- Better focus — With a lesser number of emails to deal with, you can focus on the tasks much more efficiently.
- Increased clarity — With less clutter, it’s easier to notice important emails that need your attention.
- Measurable goals — With only the emails that need your attention in front of you, you can gauge how long it’ll take you to deal with them.
How to Archive emails in Spark?
Spark changes the way users archive emails, not only making the whole process extremely straightforward and simple, but also habitual. In Spark, you can think of your email inbox as a list of tasks in a To-do app. When a new email comes in, think of it as a new task that is added for you to work on. The emails that are sitting in your inbox as the tasks that need your attention. And as you are done working on emails, you mark them as Done.
That’s it — to archive an email in Spark, simply mark the email as Done! Marking an email as done automatically removes it from your inbox and moves it to the Archive folder. It doesn’t matter what email service you use for your email account, Spark works across all popular email services and automagically archives your emails for you. You can even mark multiple emails as Done at once to quickly clean up your inbox.
How to mark emails as Done in Spark?
There are two different ways in which you can mark one or more emails as done in Spark. You can either click or tap on the Done button denoted by the ✓ (checkmark) icon, or you can press the E keyboard shortcut.
— In the inbox view, hover over the email you want to mark as done, then press the E key on your keyboard or press the ✓ icon to the left of the email.
You can select multiple emails in Spark and collectively mark them as done.
— When the email is open, simply press E to mark it as done, or click on the ✓ icon at the top left of the Spark window.
For up to 5 seconds, you can press Cmd + Z to undo the Mark as Done action on the last email and bring it back to the inbox.
To learn more about marking emails as done in Spark, read our Help Center article here.
How to view the emails marked as Done in Spark?
Spark comes with a Toggle switch that, when enabled, shows you all the emails that you’ve marked as Done. The toggle is available at the top right of the window and once enabled, your inbox will show you a chronological list of all the emails you’ve received — both the Done and Not Done ones.
The Done toggle switch only toggles between the two views (Not Done / Done + Not Done) and does not affect or move any emails.
If you’d like to separately see only those emails that you’ve marked as Done, simply open the Archive folder.
Along with these new Done mechanics, there are a number of amazing features available in Spark that help improve the email experience for you, so that you can get more done.
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[Last updated: 2nd November, 2022]
Preshit Deorukhkar 
