From Inbox Zero To Inbox Hero: Mastering Email Like A Boss
We’ve all been there: your email inbox is full of hundreds of of unread emails and it gets to the point where you just want to give up and start again. But what if there was another way?
It’s been a while since we’ve covered email in general and we haven’t covered how to manage your inbox for quite some time now so I thought it would be a good idea to revisit the topic as it’s all something we have to deal with whether we like it or not.
Email is a vital business tool but unfortunately it can get a bit out of had if we let it. I’m sure we’ve all seen the screenshots of people with a 30,000+ icon on their iPhone email notification or heard of someone just giving up and deleting everything to start over again – a tactic known as “declaring email bankruptcy“.
The problem is, just leaving your emails unread or deleting them all and starting over isn’t going to solve the problem.
If you ignore them, the emails will still be there.
If you delete them, the chances are they will build back up and you’ll be in the same position somewhere down the road.
I’ve written before about 8 techniques you can use to help you achieve inbox zerobut I
figured we could simply this even further so here are 4 tips – yes, just FOUR! – that will help you clear out your inbox and keep your emails a saner place.
Your Inbox Isn’t Your To-Do List
I see so many people who say “I need that email there to remind me to do XYZ”.
How can you remember to do XYZ when it’s buried under 100 new emails with more coming in?
Emails should be dealt with and then binned or filed. If there’s something you need to action then add it to your to-do list and pop the email into a “Pending Action” folder, they should not be in your inbox once they’ve been read.
If you’re running on Exchange or similar systems, you should be able to assign the email to a task and then move it into a Client/Project folder and get it out of your inbox that way.
If you leave something that needs to be actioned just sitting in your inbox then you’ll struggle to remember what was important, who needed what and when, what is just something you need to quickly reply to and what is junk.
You inbox is NOT your to-do list.
If It’s Information, File It
Sometimes you get an important piece of information you might need later but it’s not relevant now. While it might be tempting to keep it in your inbox so you can “find it later”, it’s just going to get buried under all the new emails coming in.
Set up a system of folders that will enable you to organise emails in a way that makes sense to you.
You might have a general “Info” folder for company/department information you need to access every now and again. You might then set up a structure like:
Client > Project > Info
Or just
Client > Info
To keep track of client data you need to be able to access in the future.
With the way email search now works, and the ability to tag and flag emails there’s no need to keep that “info” email or “receipt” in your inbox.
If you need to keep it then find a home for it.
If It’s Marketing, Remove It
I’ve taken to signing up for marketing emails with a completely separate email that I can ignore until I feel like looking at it, but if you’re in an industry where you need to get marketing or PR emails, they might not necessarily need to hit your inbox directly.
Firstly, evaluate whether you still want to receive these emails. If you don’t unsubscribe and potentially block the sender if you don’t think they’ll fully remove your email data.
Secondly, if you do want to keep it remove it from your inbox and set a filter up to automatically send it to a general “Newsletter” folder or a “PR” folder for each customer.
This will greatly reduce the number of emails hitting your mail inbox and you’ll be able to go through the marketing stuff when you have the time and the bandwidth.
Filter, Folders & Fling
Sticking with Filtering, see if you can set up filters for other types of mail too.
You might want to filter all emails from client ABC into their client folder, perhaps you want to filter messages into a folder based on subject, email content – the possibilities are almost endless with modern email solutions allowing you to fine tune where an email goes once it’s received by your address.
Ensure you have a folder structure that makes sense to you and the way you work.
As mentioned above, you could break everything down based on client and project, you could categories things by task/action type or you could just have a few main folders like “To Reply”, “To Read”, “For Info” and “Archive”.
Choose whatever structure makes sense to you and the way you work, just as long as it allows you get the majority of emails out of your main inbox.
Finally, don’t be afraid to “Fling” those emails.
You could create a “Fling” folder that auto deletes emails after 30 days and route every email you’re CC’d in on into that folder – if you’ve not looked for it in a month the chances are that’s it’s not that important. And if it is? It can always be resent.
Delete (fling) things that don’t need a response and aren’t information that you think you’ll need in the future.
Fling marketing you don’t want, won’t or have read but for some reason never delete.
If you think something might come in handy, file it. Don’t leave it languishing at the bottom of your inbox for 6 months where it’s not doing anything or helping anyone.
Be ruthless.
Over To You
What do you think?
Do we place too much emphasis on keeping the number of emails in our inboxes low?
Do you thrive better in the chaos of a busy inbox?
Let me know in the comments below what your inbox style is and how you manage your emails.
Superhero cartoon figure by macrovector on Freepik.com