A lot of email hacking tips, tools of the trade, guides and strategies are geared towards ninja filtering skills and stealth-like organizational manuevers.

Forget all that.

Let’s kick this bad boy called email up a notch and own it. I’ll show you how.

1. Abolish numerous email account systems and addresses.

Who needs more than 1-2 email account systems/addresses? Not many people, in all honesty. People THINK they need 3, 4, 5 or more because they’ve put themselves on an holier-than-thou pedestal that has a shiny, fake gold plaque on it that reads: “I am way more important than you. Ha!”

I say kick the damn pedestal down and abolish away! Delete them altogether.

Go to account settings, find the Delete Account Forever button, verify, then click away. Yes, it’s that easy. What’s not is our hesitation to let go.

2. The ones you do keep, forward to ONE primary email management system (Google, Outlook, Yahoo, etc.).

I currently take care of my email using Gmail. This includes personal and professional.

“But what about managing/organizing/filtering what’s personal from what’s professional, Nina?”

Answer: Nope.

Personal and professional, it all goes back to me in the end. Who I am may shape-shift a little depending on my audience, message, and main idea implementation, but essentially, it is still ME.

Back when I was a compulsive organizer, schedule-keeper, planner-and-pen always ready and on the go, yes, I had multiple email accounts all serving varying purposes.

But all this led to more time spent, more frustration, more hassle. I wanted less of these pesky nuisances and more life. Perhaps you do too.

All email systems nowadays should have the option to have email forwarding set up. Pick your favorite system and forward your remaining email address(es) (remember you deleted the rest?) to that system.

And while you’re at it …

3. Stop answering stupid emails.

If you email me with stupid questions or comments, I will be forced to digital karate chop you to death. Do recall the Black belt in Shotokan Karate.

None of these “Do you own any toothbrushes or towels as a minimalist?” type questions. Seriously. Read this blog’s archives thoroughly and you’ll get almost all the answers you’re looking for regarding radical minimalism.

Likewise with your email. Bloggers, if need be, set up a simple FAQ page that answers commonly asked questions and/or an About page. Or, answer the question publicly with a blog post, if you feel like it.

4. Send less than you receive.

People will incessantly email you, whether you want it or not. If these people are of any importance to you and you’re receiving way too much email, please do you and them a favor by telling them to suspend emails altogether or tweet to you on Twitter. Short and simple.

When you open emails that have paragraphs and paragraphs all dotting the screen like fresh, black ink splattered on a crisp, white piece of paper, do you get a thumping headache? An “oh-WTF” sinking feeling?

Yes? So you understand how it feels. Don’t be an agent of such feelings to perpetuate itself into venemous digital monsters.

Send less. Write less but succintly and clearly.

5. Tell people to stop emailing you because you simply won’t respond (unless it is for your clients and personal important contacts).

Most people in my contacts list know they won’t always receive a response from me. And that’s fine because most understand how I operate.

I use my email to serve me. Not the other way around.

Likewise, don’t be a bumbling fly in the poisonous venus fly trap that is your email inbox. Aka black hole of inevitable, suffocating death.

6. Close the laptop, turn off your iPhone, walk outside and watch the sun set.

Have you watched the majestic sun set recently? What about watching it rise?

No?

Shame. It’s absolutely beautiful and awe-inspiring. I’ve seen countless sun rises and sun sets ever since I quit my day job in November 2010. And ever since I decidedly made it a point to get out of the email death trap and into my own life.

I write this to you right now from the mountain town of Sapa, Vietnam. My feet has traversed through 6 countries now for the past 2 months (including starting location of Chicago in the States) and will continue through a few more before I land again somewhere, somehow.

But I couldn’t have done this if I didn’t say no to getting out of death traps. Traps such as continuous email, a job you despise, a relationship you know is doomed, destructive habits, etc.

You may not travel the world just because you are stopping email (either altogether or severely limiting it), but you can start having a life wherever you are right now, right here.

7. Cancel/suspend your email entirely.

Whoa. That’s radical!

I know. But you know what else it is? It’s amazing. What happens instead of email is life.

And life is ambiguous. It’s splintered. It’s raw. It’s a funky kaleidoscope of vivid colors and subtle shades.

Email, while an infused part of our digital evolutionary life now, is not life entirely. Not your personal down time. Not your professional time in the office. Not everything.

This is the sound of truth coming to you right now, possibly even from your email inbox if you’ve subscribed for free updates via email.

It’s okay.

Close your email. Start your life.