–to keep me from getting through it…

Since I’ve had some real life inspiration this week (that I won’t go into), I’ll share 7 tips that I use to keep my inbox under control, or to (ahem) regain control.

Keeping our house in order is important for a peaceful home life, but it’s easy to ignore digital messes that need cleaning up. Just like letting the dishes or laundry pile up, failure to attend to ever-multiplying emails can quickly become a real-life problem.

But for me, sometimes (okay, a lot of times) major and minor crises happen that derail me from keeping up. And suddenly, catching up seems like a big, ugly, tedious, insurmountable task.

So do you ever have trouble staying ahead of your inbox? Do you get enticed into receiving free, often valuable information in trade for your email address? Perhaps you’ve also shared it everywhere you shop? (It’s okay to decline to share your email with every shop-clerk that asks for it, by the way.)

And all that wonderful email marketing gets mixed up with bills, personal correspondence, and other pressing notifications. Then when the inbox is overfull, it’s easy to start missing important information. At least that’s what I’ve heard…

Avoid E-mail Overwhelm

Reaching the 100-200 email mark starts to make me feel overwhelmed, but in truth is still fairly easy to get back down to a manageable level using the 7 tips I describe below. However, my low-tech approach should be sufficient to keep things under control even if you’ve let yours mount up into the quadruple digits or more, if you just do a little each day, or spend a couple of longer sessions when you have time.

While my preference is to only have as many emails as will fit on one screen without scrolling (around 10-12 for me), I still usually have 15-30 emails hanging around in my inbox on a GOOD day. This is MY ideal, remember. Yours may be different.

Some experts advocate for “inbox zero” by means of immediately filing all emails which can’t be deleted. But this method has never really worked for me. The “out of sight, out of mind” rule usually takes over, and those emails are at once forgotten. 

Even though I know I’m breaking the rules of lots of productivity gurus, I leave any emails on which I need to take action in my inbox until said action is completed. Then I delete or file as needed. 

Follow a plan that works for YOU to get Email under control.

I’m not saying this is the BEST way to manage your inbox—there’s rarely one best way for EVERYONE to do anything. So pick and choose as you like.

But as a visual, non-digital-native with some organizational savvy, I take a similar approach in decluttering my inbox to the way I clean out a physical closet or cupboard. Here’s how:

1. Unsubscribe

Unsubscribe, unsubscribe, unsubscribe. Same concept as stemming the tide of clutter coming into your house. It sounds so simple, yet FOMO is strong. I can delete what seems like one thousand emails from the same source before realizing the need to unsubscribe. It helps me to get very frank and ask myself the following: Do I need, use, or love the emails enough to keep up the routine of sorting and pressing delete day after day? OR, how long have I been receiving emails from a particular source and never once used any of the information? 

Sometimes if I don’t want to remove the email source from my radar entirely (say, some of the info may be useful in an upcoming project), there’s often the option of reducing email frequency. If you face ongoing email overwhelm, making a regular habit of unsubscribing from one or two senders each day will make things more manageable over time (unless you subscribe to new ones at the same rate, of course…)

2. Reorder the List

Similar to pulling items out of a closet and putting “like with like,” this strategy works wonders for me.  I usually switch from “date” order to “from” order. That way I can see all the emails from one source grouped all together. I’m usually surprised to find lots of duplicate information. I’m able to almost immediately delete many emails this way without any hardcore decision-making. It’s the “low hanging fruit,” which can make a big difference in a hurry. Often this step gives me the momentum I need to move on to dealing with emails that take a little more consideration.

3. Use a Filing System

Also just like in organizing physical items, everything has a home. I often have emails that I don’t need to take action on. But I need to retain the information they contain. I keep 10-15 different files to store these emails for easy future reference. Categories include emails from homeschool entities, online and regular retail e-receipts, e-receipts needed for tax records, personal correspondence, etc. It may sound like a lot of files, but I use them all. From time to time, it’s a good idea, however, to make sure that you actually do refer to the info in the files you keep. Otherwise delete them. And most files need to be purged periodically, for instance at the beginning of a new tax or school year.

4. Attack It Daily

Just like physical “snail” mail, email mounts up daily, even weekends and holidays. It’s a good idea to have regular appointments to deal with it. Like with your morning coffee. Just don’t be like me and sometimes let it derail your morning. If you find yourself whiling away an hour or so, postpone checking email until a focused time sometime during mid-morning or after lunch. And even then it may pay to use a timer. Only allow yourself fifteen or thirty minutes. I often set a goal of reducing the number in my inbox by a specific amount while I’m there. 

5. Redeem Waiting Time

Use waiting time when you’re out and about to delete “no-brainer” emails from your phone. Just like using small pockets of time to knock out small clean-up jobs around the house has a big impact, so can this habit. I really do hate reading email from a tiny screen. But if there are items that I can take a quick read and then delete–or better yet just delete after looking at the subject line–the tiny phone screen is sufficient. This is not the time for any deep work for me, as I’m easily distracted. Neither do I like to forego interacting with people if I have the chance. But if you just have down time that is otherwise wasted, chipping away at the inbox redeems some of the time. 

6. Check for Expiration

Check the date. Lots of offers and emails are time-sensitive. If the relevant dates (sometimes only found in the body of the email) have passed, it’s an easy deletion. AFTER rearranging to “from” order, sometimes returning to “date” order helps me in this area. Just like cleaning out your pantry, checking expiration dates eliminates lots of items without a lot of thought. But you can also sometimes see you’ve had items for a long time that you’re obviously not going to consume. Likewise, when I go to the very bottom of the list, I can see that something I’ve not addressed in a month or two is likely not that urgent or worth my consideration.

7. Tackle the To-Do List

Actually break down and read and respond to what’s important to you. You have day-to-day routines that are separate from your to-do list. In the same way, you have emails that aren’t just routine, but require action. This is generally the most time-consuming part of emails—actually taking the action required or crafting responses. But these are always the smallest category in my inbox. By tackling the handful of this type email that arrives each day, even actionable emails can remain manageable. And the good news is these emails are the most satisfying to delete once you’re done!

I hope these 7 tips for keeping your inbox under control help you in some way. What about you? What is your best technique for keeping the raging inbox at bay?