Email Organization

Clutter can take many forms, including electronic clutter. The more clutter around, the more your mind can get distracted and your focus moves to unimportant things. I have to admit I feel anxious when I see an inbox with thousands of emails just accumulating.  I’m sure people must eventually find things, but I find it so overwhelming to not have a process in place to keep my inbox managed.  So here are a few tips that work for me.

Tip  1. UNSUBSCRIBE

Start by thinking about how you can have less emails to begin with by unsubscribing to all the nonsense that arrives to your inbox daily.  About twice a year I take a week or so and click “unsubscribe” to all the promotional emails I receive. Yes, I know my Gmail has separate tabs for promotional and social, but I find many emails often go into the incorrect folder (particularly from my kid’s school district). So I regularly check all three gmail folders and I like to keep my inbox pretty clean with only emails requiring my response or action.

Tip 2. LABEL

Everyone knows that organizers LOVE physical labels for things you find in your medicine cabinet or food pantry, but you can use labels in your email as well.  If you use Gmail, I suggest you make labels your friend for email organization. Create a simple system for separating emails with a few main labels like Personal, Kids, Medical, etc. and then several sub-labels under each main label (i.e. Kids-Hockey). This makes it super easy to go back and find emails later if needed. If you don’t use Gmail, you can use whatever file folder storing system your email has in a similar format.

Tip 3. NO SCROLL RULE

I aim to keep my email inbox down to a short list so I don’t have to scroll through to see how many lines of emails are left. This means I only keep emails in my inbox are requiring follow up. The rest are dealt with immediately, labeled away, or deleted. The ones that remain I use the system below to indicate required next steps.

Tip 4. STARS LEAD THE WAY 

Try using the different colored stars and symbols in Gmail to help you identify action. I use red for extremely important critical items, blue for pending action required by someone else, and the purple question mark icon for items requiring more info before I can respond. You can pick from many different colors and symbols but I wouldn’t go overboard on this and try to keep it simple. This system three icon system (red star, blue star, and purple question mark) works for me. There are many ways to organize your inbox. My only suggestion for what to avoid is not having any system at all for tracking and responding.  

Tip 5. CHECK AT LEAST DAILY BUT NOT ALL DAY

Check your email on a regular cadence so you get through your inbox daily.  I don’t suggestion you check your email all day long since that is probably super unproductive to getting work accomplished, but consider having a few set times and a goal that you will review all new emails at a minimum of daily.  

Tip 6. FIRST IN IS NOT ALWAYS FIRST OUT

I do not respond to emails in chronological order. I do a quick scan and if it’s a simple quick response I take care of it immediately, then delete or file it away. Anything that appears at first glance to require more time and attention I flag to look at once I’ve gone through the rest of my current inbox. The faster you can clear out the quick ones, the more time you’ll have to dive into the ones needing more time and attention. This is a simple trick to quickly manage your inbox.

Hope these six tips help to keep your inbox a little less scary!

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hi, i'm lauren!

I help successful, high-achieving women like you implement efficient, proven and sustainable ways to prioritize your health and find your confidence again.

Hi, I'm Lauren!

I help successful, high-achieving women like you implement efficient, proven and sustainable ways to prioritize your health and find your confidence again.