Google has a Report which says that many Gmail users don't archive their email. I think many Gmail users don't know What is the use of Archive button in Gmail. Here is a short description of Archive in Gmail.
Archiving moves messages out of your inbox and into All Mail, letting you tidy up your inbox without deleting anything. Messages you archive can be found in All Mail, in any labels you've applied, and by searching Gmail. When someone responds to a message you've archived, the conversation containing that message will reappear in your inbox.
Here are 9 Reasons you should use Archive in Gmail.
9. Phone numbers and addresses
You never know when you'll need a phone number someone emailed you or an address that was in a signature.
8. Procrastination
Sometimes you want to get a message out of your inbox, but you don't want to deal with organization, and you don't want to trash it.
7. Posterity
Just because you’re not famous now doesn’t mean that in forty years (or fifteen minutes) you won’t want to write your memoir.
6. Winning arguments
“But on May 5, 2005 at 8:43pm EDT you said….”
5. Mailing lists
Do you really need to know what Clintobamccain is doing every day? Auto-archive* their messages until you want to donate again.
4. Birthdays
Search for “grandma birthday” and voila, find the message you sent her last April. Aren't you glad you archived instead of deleted?
3. That guy
Remember that guy you thought you’d never need to get in touch with ever again?
2. Because you can
May as well use the free storage space. Plus, clean inbox = clean mind.
1. Fate-tempting is bad. You just never know
Thirty-one days after you send that message to the Trash and it gets permanently deleted, you're going to need it. Don't tempt the fates.
Impressed? Want to start using Archive feature.
To Archive your email select the email and click on Archive button.
To move your email back from Archive click and go to All Mail, select the email and click Move to Inbox.
All reasons are provided by Official Gmail Blog.
Also Read: 9 reasons not to archive messages
Reason nr. 10: Google has already kept a copy of an email for the NSA, so you might as well keep one for yourself as well. ;)
How about a discussion around why NOT to archive your email...
I don't get it.
What is the downside of not archiving?! Aren't the mails equaly searchable when they just stay in the inbox? I don't *CARE* if my inbox is tidy or not, I simply look at the top mails only anyway.
It is almost implied that mails get deteled if you don't archive them, but that's not the case. ... Right? ^^
@vaibhav
It sounds good as every coin has two faces. There may be some good reasons why not to archive your emails.
@jamesr404
As much as I know, most people only care about the unread mails in Inbox. They just put their imp mails in any folder or label them in Gmail and forget it.