This Gmail trick helped me eliminate 80% of the spam in my inbox

Later, I'll take a few paragraphs to talk about those other options, as well as general anti-spam tactics. If you approach things properly, you may be able to win the battle for inbox zero before you even launch Gmail. That goal might be a long shot, but it's still worth striving for.

Your best weapon: Gmail's Manage Subscriptions tool

Taking advantage of some behind-the-scenes wizardry

Typically, a lot of spam comes from bulk mailing lists. We're constantly being coaxed into signing up for newsletters and marketing emails, sometimes with the promise of a reward if our name is picked in a contest. Finally, it's easy to forget that we signed up for any of this voluntarily, and it's faster in the short term to just trash unwanted messages rather than take the time to click a web link and unsubscribe. You end up paying for this in the long run, mostly if you waste any time opening spam.

Sometimes we're put on mailing lists against our will. It certainly happens to me -- I'm on a lot of PR contact lists, which is why I get those unsolicited pitches. It can happen to the average person too, though, since less scrupulous companies may take an email you submitted in one place and sign you up for other mailings you weren't aware you were agreeing to. Assuming they even bother with the pretense of consent, that is.

For a while now, Gmail has been able to detect cues inside bulk emails to offer an Unsubscribe button, saving you the trouble of visiting an outside webpage. The newer culmination of this is its Manage Subscriptions menu, which identifies all the bulk content you're receiving, and lets you unsubscribe to most or all of it in seconds.

In the Gmail app for iPhone, iPad, or Android, follow these steps to use it:

1. Tap the triple-line icon near the top of the screen, or in the upper-left if you're on a tablet.
2. Swipe through the sidebar menu and tap on Manage subscriptions.
3. Scroll through the list of subscription sources, and tap the envelope with a minus icon for anything you want to unsubscribe from.
4. In each pop-up, tap the Unsubscribe button to confirm your choice.

On the Gmail website:

1. Click More in the sidebar menu.
2. Select Manage subscriptions.
3. Click the Unsubscribe button next to any subscriptions you want to stop.

Google offers a couple of cautions here, the first being that the feature is still rolling out gradually -- so you might not have access yet. If so, check again every week or two, since Google sometimes flips the switch on new features without warning. Keep your mobile apps up-to-date using the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

The other is that even once you've hit Unsubscribe, it may take a few days for a sender to stop pushing emails. Realistically, Google is giving itself a safety window, but it's also true that you're not actually blocking a sender when you use this tool, just unsubscribing from a specific list. I'll say more below.

Are there any downsides to the feature?

Plus, some general anti-spam tips

Yes. Above all, Google's detection algorithms cast a pretty wide net -- they can't distinguish the importance of different senders or what's being sent. If you were to simply unsubscribe from everything in the Manage Subscription tab, you'd probably break some vital notification functions for everything from Reddit and Uber to work emails and the airlines you fly with. Pay attention not just to the names of senders, but to their associated email addresses.

As I mentioned, the tool won't block an address. That means that if a sender wants to deliver you a message that isn't associated with a mailing list, they can do it. Conceivably, you could end up on a new list too, and forced to unsubscribe again. If you want to end all contact with a sender, you should use both Manage Subscriptions and direct blocking. To block a sender, open a message from them, then tap or click the triple-dot menu on the same line as their name. Select Block [name].

Manage Subscriptions also won't prevent any spam that lacks an unsubscribe option. In that case, you'll need to block each sender, and/or use Gmail's handy Report spam button. When looking at an email, you'll find the latter in the top-most triple-dot menu in the mobile app, or at the top of a message on the web. This boots the message to your Spam folder -- where anything older than 30 days is scrubbed -- while forwarding a copy to Google to improve automatic filtering. The more spam you report, the better Gmail tends to be, although it does go overboard sometimes. I check my own Spam folder at least once or twice a week, since I've occasionally caught semi-important materials in there.

Ultimately, the best way of reducing spam is to reduce the exposure of your email address. Avoid sharing it with a company unless it's necessary to track orders, receive support, or manage your account -- don't succumb to the temptation to win free things. When you do share an address, be on the lookout for any checkboxes that might sign you up for marketing. Usually, you can un-check these and proceed anyway.

Remember to conceal or remove your address if it's linked to social media sites, since spammers can scrape profiles to find new targets. Indeed, it's worth going a step further by outright deleting accounts for services you no longer use, whether on social media or elsewhere. Businesses switch ownership or strategies on a regular basis, and your inbox could become a casualty. Moreover, there's always the risk of a security breach -- so the fewer servers your address is on, the better.