The most worrisome traffic after road traffic is the email traffic. Most of us have subscribed to email alerts from social media sites, newsletters, and many other email alerts. This uncontrollable flow of emails in our inbox creates a havoc in our life. We are not to able to respond quickly to urgent emails. Apart from receiving emails from subscribed sources we also receive a huge number of spam mails. According to google reports, 90% of mails we receive are actually spam. If we follow some simple basic rules and use some cool applications, then this flood of emails can be controlled.

1. Eradicate Clutter

We are mainly responsible for the disorderly state of our inbox. We receive emails whenever someone likes our photo on Facebook, when some one follows us on Twitter, and whenever you are associated with any events in social media sites. When we look into our inbox, we will realize that a majority of the mails are from social media sites. We also receive daily mails from news sites and shopping sites. If you want to stop this overflow of unwanted mails, then simply go to the settings and turn off email notifications.

2. Filter The Mails

This method is useful against mails which you can't unsubscribe. For such mails, you have to apply filters. This will help you to manage all the mails coming from a particular source by creating a separate folder for them. If you are interested, you can read the filtered mails in that folder or delete all of them with just one click. The disadvantage of filtering mails is that you can create too many folders for different clients and in that process you will forget to check them all.

3. Instant Messages

Emails should be mostly used for official purposes, so when you are corresponding with friends and colleagues, then use instant messages from Twitter and Facebook. Sending text messages via mobile phone is also a good option.

4. Sanebox

Sanebox is a cloud based service that filters email. Whenever a new mail arrives in your inbox, Sanebox decides whether you want to read this mail now or later. Thus sanebox reduces your inbox down to the most important emails. There are also some disadvantages of Sanebox like, it judges mails on the basis of senders rather than individual messages and it also sends occasional mails to you for asking suggestions about filtered mails.

5. Inbox Pause

The overflow of mails can't be completely stopped but can be paused. As the name signifies this application, pauses your incoming mails. This a google chrome add on with a large blue pause button and clicking this button will cut you off from all the distractions caused by mails. Unpause this button and you can see all the mails you have been ignoring pile back into your inbox. This is a free application.

6. Mailbox

Mailbox is the latest free email application which helps you to control email traffic. The main attraction of this application is that it comes with a snooze feature which helps you to put off mails out of your inbox for later viewing. The snoozed messages will automatically return to your inbox when you are ready to deal with it. This helps you to focus on important and urgent mails. This application is also now available on Smartphones.

7. Courteous.ly

It is new service for Gmail users which will analyze your email patterns, the condition of your inbox and your unread messages count and based on these statistics courteous.ly will determine your current level of email traffic. This service provides you with a link of your current email traffic load, which you can share with your friends or you can also use this link in your email as signature. The people who send you mails will see this traffic load and they will be more courteous in sending you mails.

The image used in this article is from wikimedia.