If you’re working in an office and collaborating on projects, or have an active department, then you are intimately familiar with the onslaught of emails that bombards your inbox day in and day out.
You definitely don’t want to check your email to eat more time out of your workday than it needs to. This means changing your attitude towards your inbox and taking systematic actions towards decluttering.
Receiving numerous emails can be overwhelming
I’m a person whose heart rate increases based on the number of unread emails that pile up in my inbox. I’m quite certain that others might have similar experiences. The stress associated with all the unread emails can be quite debilitating.
You lose time trying to find the right email. Go through the search bar trying for keywords or files or senders. That’s time wasted and focus disrupted. Don’t let your email hold you hostage. There are ways to get to inbox zero.
One that doesn’t involve mass-deleting your inbox and starting over.
How to declutter your inbox and manage your inbox?
Create labels
The very first thing I like to do is put a label system in place. Group similar emails by type into the same label – the label, especially colored, gives you a clear visual indication about what it’s about and it makes it easy to locate things. Depending on the volume and types of emails you receive I suggest you create general categories.
Although being specific is helpful you want to avoid using too many labels, which might blur the lines eventually. You definitely don’t want to forget how you’ve labeled an email. So keep them as simple and straightforward as possible. This will also restrict color-coding. Once you mark incoming emails accordingly, move them to their designated folder.
Delete & Archive Liberally
You might have a good labeling and sorting system in place, but if you have too many emails to go through in order to find the one that you need then it’s not really working. After a certain time, you don’t need some emails now, because they’re old, or altogether, because they’ve done their job. That’s why you need to become quite comfortable with the archive and delete functions.
Memos, reminders, invitations for meetings are relevant only for a short period of time. After they have done their job you should delete them rather than keep them around. That’s one of the things many people don’t do. ‘You never know when you’re going to need an email in the future’ – that’s a common sentiment. If that’s the case, then archive them.
It’s a good idea to archive emails every once in a while. Especially when a new year rolls around. Emails older than six months are usually good to go. The great part is that they’re always there waiting for you when you need them.
Use RSS feed reader
RSS feed readers are excellent for decluttering because they’re designed to keep your reading of articles, magazines, and newspapers . If you’re anything like me, you like to subscribe to a magazine’s newsletter, which in most cases is just a selection of their latest articles. That’s something that doesn’t need to clog your inbox.
Rather than receive them in your email, add these RSS feeds to your subscriptions and receive the latest headlines in your dashboard. With the correct RSS reader, you can detect RSS feeds directly on the site via a browser extension and subscribe with a single click. That’s all it takes and you’re still getting the content without having the extra clutter.
RSS feed readers also support newsletters with content you can’t receive anywhere else but in your inbox like subscriptions to a Substack account. All RSS feed readers have built-in support for newsletters, but sometimes there’s a limit to how many newsletters you can add to your account. In those cases, you will want to convert the newsletter feed into a classic RSS feed. This is easily done with Kill the Newsletter.
Unsubscribe to newsletters
Honestly, sometimes the best strategy is to directly unsubscribe. How often do you really read the newsletters that come your way? We’ve all been there where we get optimistic and determined to keep up with a newsletter only to see unread emails pile up.
That’s when you have to take stock and purge a little. If you think you’ve made a mistake, you can always add it back, but in my experience, you will most likely forget it. What’s never missed was truly never useful in the first place.
Use filters
Now filters are the most advanced tool in your arsenal to declutter your inbox and bring you one step close to that coveted inbox zero achievements. Gmail has a neat filter feature that’s very easy to use to a powerful result. You can distribute incoming emails by the sender, subject, keywords, or file size to their appropriate folders and leave only the most important, time-sensitive emails in your inbox. That’s how you never miss out on a critical email.
Of course, this means that you will have to go through lower priority labels to skim through the unread emails, but that’s a small adjustment to make.
Can all of these save your time?
Yes. You have to spend time creating these systems first before you can reap their benefits in the future. That’s how it works. An empty inbox is the most liberating sensation in the world.
You’ll have the ability to react instantly when a new email pops up. They’ll never sink into the sea of unread headers. This leads to less time spent in your inbox and more time on your work tasks. No more rush. No more pressure. Even better, you free up some time to take breaks.
Productivity should make your time at work pleasant. Resting is an integral part of maintaining your focus and motivation.