Want a tidier inbox? Start using email aliases. Here's how

A little extra planning makes organizing your inbox a lot easier.

- JARED NEWMAN

From the department of Things I Should Have Started Doing Sooner, I have finally discovered the magic of email aliases.

Aliases are kind of like alternative email addresses, except that when email is sent to an alias, it still arrives in your main inbox. Use them in conjunction with filters and folders, and you've got a powerful way to organize incoming messages.

While email aliases aren't a new concept, I've been leaning into them lately as I experiment with migrating from Gmail to a new email provider. Now I wish I'd been doing it sooner. Here's why.

EMAIL ALIASES, EXPLAINED

If you're using Gmail, iCloud.com, or Outlook.com, creating an alias is easy. Whenever you're inputting your email address into a form, enter it like usual but add a plus sign (+) and some extra text before the at sign (@).

For example, instead of [e-mail], you could use [e-mail] for work-related purchases, or [e-mail] when signing up for newsletters. The +expenses and +newsletters terms are aliases for your actual address.

When emails are sent to those aliased addresses, they'll still end up in your regular inbox like normal, but the To: field will be addressed to the alias. If you then set up custom filters for those aliased To: addresses, you can automatically sort new emails as they arrive.