A method throttles display of electronic messages. The process displays a list of entries in an email application. The list of entries includes a first electronic message, a first message cluster, and a second message cluster. The process detects the occurrence of a cluster display trigger event for the first message cluster. The trigger event is one of: detection of passage of a predetermined amount of time since refreshing display of the first message cluster, an occurrence of a particular time of day, an occurrence of a predetermined date, or receipt by the first message cluster of a predefined number of new electronic messages since previously refreshing the display of the list. In response to the detected trigger event, the process refreshes the display of the list of entries, including re-ranking the first message cluster within the list of entries. This changes the relative position of the first message cluster.