

Use Email Management Apps and PluginsĮmail management apps and plug-ins can help you organize your emails in simpler, easier-to-use ways. Try to also give yourself an hour over the weekend, if possible, to clear out any emails you didn’t read during the week and prepare for the week ahead. If desired, set up an automated response to let senders know you won’t reply to their message immediately. Ideally, these would include one time in the morning after you complete your most important task for the day and another in the evening before you end your workday. Unless your work requires you to act on all emails immediately, set two fixed time slots in the day to check email. Some people love checking email throughout the day, but this can distract you from your work and significantly reduce your productivity.
Best way to clean email inbox how to#
If you need more time to decide how to respond to an email, move it into a folder for items that still require action. This will help ensure you remember to reply to important emails while reducing wasted time spent rereading emails. If you need less than two minutes to reply to an email, do it and then either delete the email or move it into an appropriate folder.

You can apply this same rule to your email inbox. If a task requires more time, it recommends you put it on your to-do list so you can revisit it later. If a task takes less than two minutes to complete, this rule suggests you do it right away. There’s a reason the two-minute rule proves so effective when it comes to organizing your life. You might create separate folders, for example, for family, receipts, travel, departments, articles you want to read later, and more. This approach keeps your main inbox clean while making it easier for you to find a particular email later. Create multiple folders for specific categories and then sort your emails into them. Your main email inbox should serve as just an initial landing place for incoming messages. If you still receive group emails from your old apartment community, for example, ask them to remove you from the distribution list. Do you still receive promotional emails from random websites to which you subscribed ages ago, maybe just to read an article or earn a coupon? Are they still relevant? If you no longer have an interest in a specific website, unsubscribe from its mailing list. Now that you have a clean - or nearly clean - inbox, let’s keep it that way. In future, consider using a separate email address when you subscribe to online magazines, blogs, and newsletters. Next, delete any unread newsletters still languishing in your inbox after a week.
Best way to clean email inbox archive#
If you have any emails you may need later, archive them instead of deleting them or leaving them in your main inbox. If you still receive spam emails, now is the time to report them to your email provider. Start by deleting all the emails you know you no longer need.

These eight tips can help you better control your email inbox so you can use it to boost - not hinder - your productivity. Yet, this communication technology also can quickly take over your day and cause you undue stress and anxiety. When used correctly, email can help make your life easier. Do you ever feel like your unread emails multiply exponentially the minute you turn your back on them?
