Three Tiered Approach to Email Hygiene

Once upon a time, I was an email administrator. I had to untangle calendars, find deleted email, and teach people how to set up inbox rules. Over the years, I became philosophical about the way email should be managed. I've developed what I call my Three Tiered Approach to Email Hygiene. It goes something like this:

Tier 1 (yahoo.com): This is the outer tier, where all the junk will accumulate. Give this email when entering contests or drawings. Other good uses include facebook, insta-chat, and snap-gram. Anytime you know you're risking SPAM, this is the email to use.

Tier 2 (outlook.com): This is your close tier, where most of your correspondence will happen. Friends and family, your bank, Cabela's, Best Buy, some trusted organizations. Be picky with how you share this email address. Set up rules and folders (or labels) so that your email is categorized when it hits the server. Inbox rules will save the day in this tier, make sure you set up good rules...

Tier 3 (gmail.com): This is your inner tier, where almost nothing happens. Family can send you email here. Your main bank, perhaps. Be extra picky and set no rules. Your discretion, not inbox rules, will keep this tier clean.

Hopefully this helps you to keep your email clean.