Do you feel like you’re drowning in emails, never getting to what’s important?
Email is an excellent tool for communicating with your team and clients, but it can be overwhelming if not managed correctly. Many of us have unread messages in our inbox (and let’s face it that may never even get opened), while others are read, but you have yet to respond to, or emails that are several years old. That’s because emails have a tendency to quickly become overwhelming and out of control if boundaries are not set to make sure they are organized.
Below are our tips and recommendations for tackling your inbox decluttering this spring.
Create folders to help organize your emails by project, topic, or person.
Organize your emails by project, topic, or person by creating folders. Name each folder a keyword that makes sense to you so you can quickly find what you need. Then drag emails into this new folder as you receive them! This makes it easier to move a folder that was maybe a seasonal event or client you no longer work with to an archived folder or to be deleted. You can also more quickly search for relevant topics or subjects of older emails with this system.
Delete all old emails irrelevant to you.
When you’re ready to clean out your inbox, delete all old emails no longer relevant to you. Many people struggle with letting go of emails, but if you do not have unlimited email storage space for emails, it is necessary to get rid of emails that will no longer be needed. Here are some emails you should delete.
- Delete all emails that have no action items. If they don’t require a response from you or someone from your organization has been delegated this email, this email can be deleted.
- Delete all emails without attachments. If there is no attachment and the email is no longer needed these are emails to consider deleting. Likewise, if an email did have attachments that have been securely downloaded and stored somewhere else, these emails should be considered to delete.
- Delete emails that are months/years old that are no longer relevant & will not need to be referenced later.
- Delete emails that were resolved by other team members and you didn’t even need to be included on.
Archive emails instead of deleting them permanently from your computer system.
If you have messages that are too valuable to delete permanently, archive them instead of deleting them from your computer system.
Archiving emails is a great way to keep important information on hand without cluttering up your inbox with hundreds of emails that are no longer relevant but might come in handy later. When you archive an email, it’s still stored on the server and can be retrieved at any time by clicking on an archived message in the list view (instead of searching for it). This saves both space and time because there will be no delay when searching through all those old messages.
Work on your morning email reading routine.
Most people start the day in their inbox. Create a routine of tackling emails right away in your day. Flag any emails that need to be dealt with later at this time. Forward emails that others need to see and move emails to trash. Make sure to not use your email as a to-do list for your day but rather as a means of communication. This helps from the feelings of overwhelm with your inbox.
Unsubscribe from unwanted newsletters.
If you have an inbox overflowing with email newsletters you delete before you even read the body text, you should take time to unsubscribe from these emails. All of these emails should have the option to “unsubscribe” at the bottom of the newsletter when opened. This is a quick step to help make your inbox less cluttered moving forward.
And for newsletters you still want to be subscribed to or reference later, just move those emails to a folder for reading later.
You can also drag spammy, or unwanted newsletters to the “Spam” folder. This will ensure that future messages from that sender will go to that folder moving forward.
Set a goal to clean out your inbox every day or two, or three times a week.
To keep your email box clean and organized, set a 15-minute reminder for yourself a few times a week. Use this time to go through emails. Delete the ones you no longer need, archive ones that could be required later, and move the emails to the folder they need to be in.
Try to get through your inbox before you leave the office so that any new emails don’t build up during the weekend, adding more stress to your Monday morning. By setting up increments of time to tackle this task, you can keep your emails organized and tidy moving forward.
Start spring cleaning your inbox today.
There is no day like the present to tackle stressors that weigh down your productivity. A clean email inbox will allow you to reference and respond to emails in your inbox more quickly. It also helps with feeling more productive because now you don’t have dozens of emails cluttering your inbox anymore!