Why Delete Emails When You Can Archive Them?
If you ask someone why they delete emails, they will most likely tell you that they delete emails because they want to keep their email organized and reduce clutter. White this is a valid reason for deleting emails, it is not the real reason why we delete them.
The original reason that we were given the option to delete emails is simple. We did not have enough space to keep them. If you wanted to be able to receive new emails, you had to make space for them by deleting your old emails or your mailbox would be full.
Guess what? It’s 2011. Having enough space to hold all of our emails is no longer an issue. Gmail alone allows its users over 7GBs of space before their email is full. That is enough room for two, full length, 720P movies. If you plan on using your email account as a storage space for movies, then you may run into space issues. If you use your email like most of us do, to store text-based messages along with some small attachements, you will have to work very hard to fill your email account.
Up until recently, however, we were still faced the problem of organizing our email. In order to move things out of our inbox we needed to delete them. Email continued to evolve and the idea of folders was introduced. This feature allowed us to save important emails in specific locations for use later.
But what about all those emails that don’t fall into a specific category?
Until recently, those were the emails that we felt pressured to delete. This is where the concept of message archiving comes into play. In Gmail specifically, users have the option to archive their messages. This feature removes emails from the user’s inbox but holds them in the all mail folder.
Now, even emails that we might not need to use again, can be archived. You may think that you’ll never need to view a particular email again but, if 6 months later you decide that you do need to view that email, you have the ability to do so. If you really don’t ever need to view it again then you don’t have to, but the option is still there.
I don’t think the option of deleting emails will ever completely disappear. It is still nice to delete spam messages when they come in and some people like to delete messages that contain sensitive information. I personally think that sensitive information should not be sent using public email accounts but that is a completely different topic.
We all know that it is very annoying to go searching for an email and then come to the realization that you deleted it a year ago. That being said, next time you’re about to delete an email, think twice and ponder the idea of archiving it instead. It will surely make your life a lot easier in certain situations.
I love to hear feedback from my readers.
Leave a comment below explaining the reasons why you still delete emails!
If you’re a Gmail user you may want to check out my article, “5 Quick Tips for Using Gmail More Effectively“.
About Anson Alexander
Anson Alexander is a graduate from the University of Tampa with a degree in International Business and Information Systems.A previous IT Administrator for a medium size publication company, Anson has recently decided to work full time on his own business by publishing on AnsonAlex.com, publishing technology tutorials on YouTube and offering SEO, IT training and digital marketing services.His main interests include technology, social media, infographics, economics, marketing and web design.Connect with Anson on Google+.
My gmail is now 40 % of its capacity. I know in a while I will reach the limit … I have yet to find a way to go in and delete the oldest archived messages .. I know I have many archived that I simply should have hit the delete button instead but my finger has the habit of archiving … any suggestions?
San,
Thanks for the comments!
My suggestion to started emptying your email would be to create a filter and filter only the emails that have attachments. Because emails with attachments are taking up the most space in your email account, once you clear out some of them you will see your available space go up drastically.
Take a look at my tutorial on filtering emails:
http://ansonalex.com/videos/automatically-label-and-organize-emails-in-gmail-using-filters/
The filter that you want to create is a little different, however. Instead of entering an email address in the "From:" field, leave all the fields blank and check the checkbox that says "has attachment". Give all of those emails a label such as "Has Attached" and finish creating the filter.
Once you've completed that, you should see your new label on the left side of Gmail and you can go through all of your emails with attachments and delete the ones that are not longer needed.
You will still have to go through those emails manually but at least you know you're deleting the ones that are taking up the most space in your email.
Let me know how it works out and if you need more information!
-Anson
Thank you. That is an excellent solution to clear out the largest files that I will never need … as much as I use my email I can see that I could easily hit Google's max in a a couple years, and this approach along with deleting emails I know I will never refer to again versus archiving make take me another year past that. The next question is, what happens next!
@San
Gmail might also just increase their limit as storage become even more cheaper. You can also archive them offline with a desktop email client (I still have all my emails since 1997 or something!).
Oh, and thanks by the way!
I like Ur Stuff….Its Very Useful to all of us….as Technology has To be at its best.
Aside from space, cluttering, etc. some people just do not want to "waste time" organizing their email (to do a life parallel we do not either keep all of our mail, but it is not like we receive as much mail either, except for bills, "ads" and items we ordered online most of the time). However, while you can organize your emails a million ways, if you do not want to invest time organizing your emails, then using the simple "everything in one archive folder" pattern won't cost you more than deleting them. Of course as of anything, if you could do perfect decisions when deleting, throwing away junk, etc. then it might worth it, but aside from spam, it is hard to do such decision. Plus it cost almost nothing to archive an email.
Well me I am an archive freak, so I am the type to log all my online conversation (IRC, IM, etc.), keep all my emails, if I was setup that way I would keep all my invoice messages and why not, be able to go back in time and heard (or even see) anything I experienced during the day (would be useful when some people argue if they said something or not). Not necessary most of the time, but useful. And yes, I do refer to very old messages/conversation from time to time (it is even fun sometime to see what you were talking about 10 years ago, like looking at old photo).
I do not waste more time than others as all these are almost done automatically. Most email clients nowadays have an archive button, including Gmail (for those saying "move to" is slower than clicking delete!)
Of course, if everyone were archiving everything, then would the resources of the earth be enough to stock all these information?
BTW, you can also buy additional storage on Gmail if you really need it: https://www.google.com/accounts/PurchaseStorage?hl=en
I would be very curious if someone really bought their 16TB package though.