Organizing Your Inbox for Success
Organization gets me REALLY excited. I love anything that makes me feel more productive, and an overflowing inbox isn’t one of those things. For years, I've been using my inbox as a sort of "to do list" and it's helped me to stay organized, and keep track of my projects, my clients, and my life! For me, “inbox zero” isn’t what I’m striving for, but I make sure my inbox always has less than 20 items in it. I’e created a strict system in place to help me get closer to inbox zero daily.
I use gmail, but any email app will do.
Here’s how I do it:
Every morning I go through and delete any spam, duplicates, and unsubscribe to anything that I no longer want to pop into my inbox. See ya later mindless shopping! Unsubscribing from coupon emails has helped me with my budgeting, avoiding impulse purchases, and give me more headspace too. I use the honey app to look for coupons when I have something I’d like to purchase. That way once the clutter is gone, I can see how many emails I really have to pay attention to, and don't feel so overwhelmed.
I read everything that's left, and see where my priorities fall. Is anything urgent? How long will each request take? That helps me figure out how to plan my day.
Onto replying! If it's a message that doesn't need replying, let's say the person wrote back "okay cool, thanks!" then that thread is "finished", there's nothing required on my end, I'll archive it by putting it into a folder I use for each project and client.
Time for the action items. Some people start with the biggest tasks first, and some work on the quickest. Find which one works best for you. If you read a message, but aren’t working on it yet - mark it “unread” as a reminder to come back to it. I typically take action immediately if it’s a task that’ll take 10 minutes or less, because then I feel less overwhelmed when I go to work on a longer item. This way there’s less on my list, allowing me to focus more without worrying about the other projects looming over my head. It’s tempting to mark them all unread, but I find the notification adds a little pressure, which helps! If I leave it as “read” I find it looses urgency. If I've already taken care of it, it doesn't need to clutter my inbox, and when someone writes back (if needed), it'll pop back into my inbox.
I create a folder for every client or project. That way, if I need to go back and revisit a previous email from a client, I know exactly where to look. I have a main folder called "clients" and then within that, there are subfolders with my clients names. If it's a client with a wide range of projects, I might create a unique folder with the project name, if I expect multiple email threads (different e-courses from the same client is a good example). I do my best to keep my emails to one thread per project - that way I can search within a thread, and don't get overwhelmed by 12 threads to search through when I need to find something. I also use slack with a few teams I'm on, which is awesome to keep track of regular conversations, and while it's another app, I can easily turn it off, and I'll get a quick email (which i delete after reading) that let's me know there's something waiting for me in a specific channel. I have about 4 groups I'm in, so it's nice that all of them are in one place.
I create folders for basically everything. I have one with recipes people have sent me, workouts and meal plans from my trainer (i've also organized them into docs in google drive). I have a folder for quotes I've gotten from printers (so I can compare or remember how much I paid), and my favorite folder is one called "Wise Words". This is where I keep really great conversations I've had with fellow creatives, friends, family, or clients. These are the "testimonial" worthy emails, or the emails that I like to revisit when I'm feeling down.
Throughout the day, when I visit my inbox, it's a clear, concise to do list for me. Of course, not every to do list item comes through email (pick up dog food for example), so I also keep a running list on my phone that I can add to at any time, but don't worry - I have a system for that one too.
I hope these tips help you feel a little less overwhelmed by your inbox. The more you stick to it, the easier it’ll feel! I’d love to hear which of these tips resonated with you, and if you have any other’s that help you stay on top of it!