After years, I finally decided to sort out my personal emails. I’d never really monitored them before since creating the email address.
I had thousands of emails in my inbox and I started to realize it made me feel like I was out of control of my life every time I opened my inbox. And I probably opened my inbox about 4 times a day.
It won’t be a 15-minute job, but once you’ve done it once, it’s easy to maintain and you will be free of that guilt or that overwhelmed feeling every time you open your inbox.
Be realistic about how long it will take to organise your emails
Please don’t plan to do this in one sitting if you’ve got more than 500 emails. I took it in 2 hour chunks over Saturdays until I was done.
It’s a very tedious job, so be kind to yourself. Do a bit here and there, and when you’re not sure it’s worth it, remember once you’ve finished this, you’ll never have to do it again as long as you monitor them going forward.
Be sentimental, don’t just delete your whole inbox
The fastest way to do this is to delete everything. But there are probably going to be emails in your inbox that you’ll want to keep. And others that you probably need to keep. So make a few folders and file as you go through. I try to keep them fairly generic so I only have a few folders (less than 10).
I found some gems when I was doing this task. Like the email from my dad as a follow-up to my husband after he gave him permission to propose (my husband shared it with me) – I’d forgotten about it but it’s such a precious email. And now I know exactly where it’s filed.
Once it’s organised, remember you will be able to find find your email in two ways:
- Search bar
- Folders
All major email providers have powerful folder systems and search tools, so even if you can only remember one or two words or who it was from, it will almost certainly be possible to find the email you’re looking for within seconds.
Be smart, think about how to reduce the number of emails coming in
Modern marketing fights for mental availability inside our heads and sending us emails to remind us of their products is one of their favourite tricks.
Unless you really benefit from subscribing to something, hit the unsubscribe button so you’re not fighting a losing battle with more emails coming in faster than you can delete them. You’re more likely to save money as well because you’ll be less tempted to buy what you don’t need in a sale.
Be sensible and keep on top of your inbox with just 5 minutes a day
Once you’ve done this task – well done. Now it will only take you 5 minutes a day tops keeping on top of your inbox. Decide a system that works well for you to keep emails to a minimum. I currently have 4 emails in my inbox.
My rule is:
- If I need to keep it: file it straight away (unless there’s an outstanding action I need to do, or it’s a confirmation for an online order)
- If I don’t need to: delete it straight away
That way I can use my inbox as my to do list, and if you log in and keep seeing the same email you’re probably more likely to do the action because it’s annoying you more. I keep order confirmations in because I like to keep track until they arrive.
I did my husband’s inbox (that was a huge job with over 10,000 emails) and now he rarely has more than 2 emails ever in his inbox.
Be smug, you’ll be organised and in control
When you’ve done it, it will feel so good. As I said, you’ll feel more in control, you’ll feel less stressed and you’ll generally have better awareness of what’s on your to do list. I definitely had more headspace since doing this, and in this crazy frantic world, more headspace is a gift.
