I need advice about whether I should delete a large email backlog or manfully struggle to process all the messages in my bloated Inbox?

I would delete anything older than two weeks. If it was important, they would have called you about it by now.

I feel your pain.

932 unread. I just gave up. I don’t even bother anymore unless I expect something. And those are all legit. GMail has good spam filters.

Delete, if it is important, they will contact you

Amen, Dr Bill!

My daughter occasionally declares email bankruptcy, so it is done.
You can’t just go thru and delete based on subjects?

I like PandoraBoxx’s two-week rule.

Once you get it cleaned up, here are some methods other people use to keep their inboxes slim.

How I Tamed My Inbox
http://www.chrisbrogan.com/how-i-tamed-my-inbox/

Inbox Zero
http://inboxzero.com/articles/

Reduce Your Inboxes to Streamline Your Workflow and Reduce Stress
http://lifehacker.com/5364596/reduce-your-inboxes-to-streamline-your-workflow-and-reduce-stress

I make a bunch of folders and sort everything.
Eventually deleting the contents of each folder.

At work normally I don’t. From time to time I encounter situations when I gave to go through my bloated inbox and retrieved some old (unread) email. Power users do have an inbox worth several gigabytes. But good search tools and search skills allow us to deal with it.

Delete! Delete! Delete! I bet 99% are not important and 1% is old news you already knew cus someone called you about it a day later! It will be a waste of your life searching threw it!

@savingmyself303 Welcome to Fluther. Lurve.

If you are using a relatively easy-to-navigate system like Gmail with keyboard shortcuts, I would recommend making a “Follow Up” folder and zipping through your inbox. Anything that looks really important at first glance (preferably based on the subject line) goes in there (odds are pretty good this will only be about 10% of the messages) and the rest are deleted/archived.

Then take an hour or two to read the messages in your Follow Up folder and respond to those that need a response (again, odds are pretty good that this will be a small percentage). It can be worth investing a little time in this process but if the thought of even doing that makes your stomach turn I’d just delete and start fresh (I’ve done this, too). I find that I worry too much if I just delete, so even doing a super quick spin through the backlog prevents any serious heartburn and catches most vital stuff.