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It's a safe bet that for many their email hosting inbox is getting a bit unruly. Tons of unread messages or half read messages that should receive more attention but can't due to the pressures of modern life, all stack up to make things difficult for those with an inbox. But a few simple tricks and the resolve to use them can all add up to some pretty significant benefits in the New Year.

A recent trick emerged from Lifehacker, showing how to turn that email hosting platform into a much more hospitable environment for users, specifically by setting up Apple (News - Alert) Mail to hide read messages. This puts a little extra psychological impetus into dealing with email, specifically knowing that once a message is read it must be either addressed promptly or deleted as the read message will be hidden and becomes a lot harder to get to. That puts something of a premium on addressing mail, and in turn, makes it more likely to reduce the clutter in the inbox. Outlook and other mail systems have a way of doing this as well.

However, there's even a way to work around this in both programs. There's a way to convert a read message to an unread message by selecting the "mark as unread" function, which converts it to an unread message, not subject to the "hide all read messages rule".

Email itself is still a very popular way of doing most forms of business. It's preferred by a wide margin over social media for a variety of business-related tasks, including arranging meetings, requesting information, sharing opinions, and more. Email makes up roughly half the day in several information-related fields, so it's clear that having a worthwhile way to manage e-mail would be a vital function to have on hand. Moreover, recently unearthed plans that Best Buy (News - Alert) was looking to scuttle its e-mail hosting functions are being met with some outcry, thanks to the sheer ubiquity and wide use of email, so that's an encouraging point in the favor of the sheer longevity of the service.

Email is one of the most important things we handle every day, so having a way to better manage the inbox is no less important. This year, a good resolution might be to find a better way of taming the chaos of a cluttered email inbox.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO Miami 2013, Jan 29- Feb. 1 in Miami, Florida.  Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO (News - Alert). Follow us on Twitter.