How do I turn off emails for items watched?

[Maxwell McKinnon]

My email is spammed with 80 tickets and updates to those tickets per day on issues that aren't that relevant to me. I only want things directly assigned to me emailed to me. Everything else can wait until I logon to JIRA. Is there a way to enable this functionality?

[Steven F Behnke]

You could just run a query on all the issues you're watching and bulk unwatch them...

[Maxwell McKinnon]

Unfortunately I'm added on as a watcher to the new tickets everyday. The items pertain to me somewhat, but if I'm not the assignee, the email notifications are a huge annoyance.

[Steve Behnke [DiscoverEquip.com]]

I would recommend looking into why you're being spammed with "Watcher" entries. Perhaps your organization should attempt to use a different user/s field to reference your user account (which you can still query on, just like Watchers), since the watcher function isn't really useful in this case.

[Steve Behnke [DiscoverEquip.com]]

I would probably leave the notification scheme as is, since removing Watchers from getting notifications would probably break that function for anyone who uses it without getting spammed like you are.

[GabrielleJ]

JIRA Emails are always controlled in the project's "Notification Scheme". Check what role you are in and the notification setting. Example, check the setting for "Issue Created" event and see where the emails will be sent (Assignee, Reporter, Watchers roles). If you are on one of this roles, you will receive the email. 

You can minimize the email by not receiving your own ticket updates, this can done in your JIRA Profile.