Archive, or delete
Clear an inbox in a minute flat without ever losing anything.
Beside almost every message there are two buttons: one that puts it away and one that throws it out. Most people only ever use the second.
Storage used to be precious, and people deleted post the way they threw out newspapers. A modern mailbox holds tens of thousands of messages and nobody has ever run out.
Key points
- Clear a message out of the inbox without deciding whether you will ever want it
- Tell exactly what Delete does, and how long you have to change your mind
- Bring anything archived back to the inbox in three presses
What to remember
- If you would hesitate for even a second, archive it. Hesitation costs nothing and deleting is the only one of the two that can be regretted.
- Archive is a filing cabinet with a very good index, and the index is the search box.
- Anything archived can be moved back to the inbox with one press, whenever you like.
Try this
Open your own inbox, pick ten messages you have already dealt with, and archive them. The inbox will look better and nothing will have been lost.
Practice: Archive, or delete. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.