How to Block Emails to be More Productive

Productivity is your strongest weapon for getting things done and moving your business forward.

And proper email management is the best tool you have to help you reach and maintain the productivity level you need to excel at hitting your daily goals and not burn out.

In this guide you’ll learn how to block and filter emails in Gmail and Outlook to be more productive.

Let’s get started!

#1- How to Use Email Filters Effectively in Gmail

Gmail gives you 2 simple ways to filter your mail.

Let’s cover them both

a) Create Email Filters in Gmail

First, log into your Gmail account and click on the ”show search options” button in the search bar.‍

Second, enter your filtering criteria. The simplest thing to do is to filter by the email sender as this will move all new messages from the particular sender to a designated folder in your inbox.

You can also add trigger keywords that once detected label the particular email and move it to a designated folder outside of your main inbox.‍

Third, pick what you want your filter to do. Popular options are:

• Never send it to spam;
• Forward it to another inbox;
• Mark as important;
• Etc.
  

The basic idea is to move it from your inbox to a folder with your important mail where you know you’ll definitely find it easily, or to a folder, you never check because it’s all junk mail.

And that’s it.

All future emails from the particular sender will be filtered according to the rules you set up.

b) Use a Particular Message to Create a Filter

As this section suggests you can use any message already in your inbox to create a new filter.‍

First, go to your inbox and select an email.

Then click on the “more” button (3 vertical dots) in the header area and go “filter messages like these”.

The next two steps are the same as with the first method. Set up filtering criteria and then decide which folder will receive your filtered messages.

And that’s it!

#2- How to Use Email Filters Effectively in Outlook

Setting up a filter in Outlook is called setting up a rule, but it’s the same thing as you’ll see below.

Outlook also gives you 2 ways to filter and block email messages from reaching your inbox.

a) Use a Particular Message to Create a Rule

First, log into Outlook and right-click on the message you want to set up a rule for.

Then go advanced actions >create a rule.‍

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Second, set up a rule so that all future emails from the particular sender will be filtered based on the conditions you specified.

And that’s it!

b) Create Email Filters in Outlook

The second way to block and filter people from Outlook is also very simple and easy to do.‍

First, select the email you want to use to create a rule.

Then, in the header bar click the 3 dots and go “create a rule”.

Second, now you’re faced with the same option as in the first example.

So, add conditions to the rule, hit save and you’ve set up a filter your exhausted brain will thank you for, as less clutter= better email management and higher productivity.

#3- An Innovative Solution- Use InMoat to Block Unwanted Mail

We promised you in the intro to this article a third, bonus solution to blocking and filtering unwanted emails.

Well, here it is.‍

InMoat is an email productivity app that syncs with your email client and helps you regain control of your inbox.

You can use one of its best features (Smart Filters) to block unwanted mail from hitting your inbox and cluttering it up excessively.‍

Smart Filters are AI-powered filters that use NLP algorithms to sniff out unwanted emails and move them from your main inbox into your special InMoat inbox for later reviewing

With a powerful combo of AI+ NLP technology, Smart Filters scan your incoming mail and look for trigger words that help them detect and determine whether a particular email is something you’d want to see or an unsolicited one that’d be a mistake to let into your inbox.

Here are some of the types of emails on which you can use Smart Filters to filter or let them reach your main inbox.

• Payment-related Notifications (ie: invoices, receipts,  late-fee notices, etc);
• Calendar Notifications;
• Your Travel Itinerary;
• Documents That Request Your Signature;
• Your Appointment Notifications;
• Webinar Invitations & Upcoming Events;
• Your Shipments & Package;
• Terms of Service & Privacy Policy Updates.

InMoat is free to use but does have a premium offer for more advanced filtering. You can learn more about Smart Filters here.

Conclusion

Every day your list of unprocessed emails pile up. It can quickly become a  never-ending avalanche requiring more and more time for email processing.

All of these emails are enough to make anyone anxious or stressed out, and stressed out people are not productive.

Email blocking and filtering is a very powerful tool at your disposal that can help you get your time and productivity back.

Now, you can filter emails the old-fashioned way and manually with Gmail and Outlook; or you can use InMoat’s patented AI technology to do it for you.

The choice is yours, but you definitely need to take action as this problem will only grow worse with the passage of time.

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