Keep in your inbox: Anything that needs a response/action performed that you haven’t dealt with yet. So grab a coffee, put some fun music on, and start sorting! Here’s some handy guidelines for the initial sorting of your inbox: But don’t worry, this will (hopefully) be the only time you need to clean out everything. If you file it too early, you may forget - and you need your lights on! Perform the Email PurgeĪfter you have your filing system in place, you’re ready for the time-consuming part. For instance, the email about your electric bill should be filed AFTER you pay it. It’s also a good idea to apply this rule to messages that you’ve filed every couple months or so, to make sure that your folders don’t get stuffed with messages that aren’t relevant anymore.Īs for when to file the email, it should be after you've performed any actions on it that needed to happen. It clearly has no importance any more, and you don’t need it. If you haven’t touched the email in more than 30 days, and it isn’t something you need to keep a record of (like a copy of a contract), delete it. Now you might be saying, “How do I know if should file or delete an email?” Step 3: Start filing emails into their appropriate folder. Step 2: Create sub-folders for these categories, if needed. It also helps to keep important emails that you're currently dealing with from being lost in the shuffle! Step 1: Quickly scan your emails and create a list of “big” categories.
#BEST WAY TO MANAGE EMAIL INBOX HOW TO#
How to Create an Email Filing SystemĪ filing system is helpful for organizing emails so that if you need to go back to something, you can quickly find it. For bigger projects that are ongoing, I keep them longer. My definition of being 'done' with an email? I've already taken an action on it: replied, accepted a meeting request, or finished a task. Once I've finished with an email, I keep it filed for about a month, in case I need to reference it later. It isn’t as difficult as it sounds, even if you’re starting from scratch. The best way to do this is to create a filing system. The first step to organizing your inbox is to have a place to put your emails once you’re 'done' with them. That way, you'll be able to stick to your goals, rather than the simple goal of a 'clean inbox.' How to Organize Email - Start Deciding Do you want to make your email more manageable? Are you losing emails and wanting a better system for finding them? When you start organizing, you should have some goals in mind. Before you get started, think about your goals. If your inbox is a mess, it's unlikely to ever be perfect, and that's ok. There are a ton of strategies, tools and apps to help you tame your inbox monster: Organize Your Mail: What You Need to Know
With email being the primary method of communication, you can become overwhelmed with the amount of “URGENT” messages flooding in. You don't need zero messages to reach organizational happiness, but you should have a place for every email that comes to you.
When your inbox is at zero, you won't have any messages that you need to read or sort through. Inbox zero is the idea that each message coming into your inbox is a new message. What is it? Why should you care about it?
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