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One of the most frequently asked questions is “How do you organize yourself? all the different aspects of your life?”And let’s face it, between work, family, friends, and personal projects, we all have a lot of balls in the air these days. Often, I’m the one who asks: I like to let people who seem to be “doing everything” really know the secrets and systems behind doing everything. And when you dig a little deeper, one of the questions I get curious about is, “How do you organize your email inbox? ”
Our inboxes are a place for productivity and an endless hyperloop of communications that demand our attention. When you reply to the emails in your list, you are satisfied for about 30 seconds before you start receiving replies, and the process will start again. However, I have learned from experience that email does not have to be a source of joy or a source for my day. endless distraction. Instead of another long list of productivity tips, what we really need is a system. One that can be bent and flexible depending on our personal needs and the time of our lives, and one that allows us to stay on top of email without becoming their server. When we spend less time on email, we have more time for all the things we really have want doing.
So today I’m sharing the proven system I use to regulate my inbox. When I fully implemented these steps, I was reduced by half the amount of time I spent on email every day. Go to my list, and I’d love to hear in the comments to share your email hacks.
First, be aware of your email habits
I was one of those people who was constantly monitoring my inbox. My notifications were turned on, and when I heard that familiar “ding” (which is both exciting and stressful at the same time), I immediately ran my finger over it to see what had landed. The result? I was never completely present with the people I was with. When my kids were little, they often had to repeat themselves once or twice before they got out of their thoughts. And I hate to admit that, but for the most part it had less to do with my dreams and more to do with the email I just read and was reflecting on my response.
I realized that I was letting email get into other parts of my life, that I was missing out on those small but important moments with the people I was with, and that paying close attention to how much I value them. So I set out on a mission to find a way out of my inbox at the time of return.
Set up your inbox to work for you
Here’s what I’ll personally share exactly what works for me, because there are so many ways to set up your inbox, and I’m sure many of them are great, but I can only do my system check. As an Apple user, I use the Mail app for my business email (Gmail) and my personal email (iCloud). That way, I have the flexibility to only see email at work (which I often do). on weekdays) or just my personal email (like on holiday), or I can filter them all in one inbox to see them together.
I then sort the messages in my inbox so that I can take action at the appropriate time.
This is about setting boundaries: If you reply directly to each email, you might Appear to be very effective (hello inbox zero!) however, I have learned from experience that it is an easy way to fall into the trap of meeting the needs of others without ever traction on your top priorities.
So instead of replying to everything right away, I use my Mail app’s flag system to mark what messages to reply to and when.
Here’s how it works:
- Each email that requires a reply or action item (for example, bill payment) is marked.
- Red flags mark an email I need to reply to that day. At the end of the day, I can scan my inbox and make sure my red flags are removed.
- Yellow flags mark an email I need to reply to, but that’s not very time sensitive.
- Green flags mark accounting-related emails: an invoice I need to pay or send, a vendor I need to set up, etc. The reason for this is that I collect all of my accounting duties by Friday, so I basically set aside all my green flags during the week. , and then go through them on Friday when I’m inside Quickbook.
- Purple flags mark the things I want to read. This is my “fun thing”: the thoughtful newsletters I want to immerse myself in, the interesting articles, the inspirational quotes I’ve emailed myself. When I have some time to slow down and absorb something new, I go straight to my purple flags.
The beauty of this system is that I never worry about forgetting to reply to an important email, but I also allow myself time to view an email, leave and marinate, and return to respond at the right time.
Become an active unsubscribe user
Raise your hand, instead of unsubscribing all promotional messages that you don’t really want to be in, if you’re scrolling through (or deleting) messages faster at this point? That was me, but I was preparing for it a couple of years ago a two-week trip to Italy and I knew I didn’t want to go back to the thousands of spam messages I would literally have to sort. So I took it proactive.
First, I used it desegin.ni my Gmail account was there to extract all the lists, even though I didn’t know many of them. Then I went through the simple process of unsubscribing from everything I didn’t want to be. Simple: It may have taken me 20 minutes to get started be I really wanted to receive emails on every list. I like, Camille Styles newsletters, for example. ⁇
This worked very well for my Gmail account, but then I realized that unroll.me doesn’t support iCloud mail. So I went a little deeper, and found a similar service called Cleanfox that took all my subscriptions to my iOS device. Personally, I prefer the unroll.me interface, but Cleanfox was also fine and did the job.
Now it’s all emails in my inbox I’m really interested. It feels revolutionary, right? It’s also nice not to wake up in the morning with a bunch of emails that I really need to read.
Batch how to time email
I have written complete messages the art of the time lot– for me the game has changed – and there would be no discussion about systematizing your email without touching on that concept. So what exactly is it?
The timeline is a productivity strategy where you set your own schedule so that you can do only one activity that is focused on each moment.
If you’re writing, you just have to write. If you’re playing with your kids, you don’t even have to check your phone. Emails are grouped in blocks of the day so that you can look at them from time to time and pay attention throughout the day. It’s not easy, but trust me when I say that when I get to do that it’s revolutionary.
The set of time is based on research that shows that multi-tasking is one of the worst things we can really do, both for productivity and for creating great work. Here are my time-consuming and non-email services:
- I do turn off my notifications. If you’re a chronic email checker, every time you have a free moment, turning off your notifications is a great way to help shorten that circuit and help you get more into your habits. You can also go one step further by burying your email app in another folder on your phone, so it takes a real effort and intent to check your email throughout the day.
- I do not have check email early in the morning. This is intentional how I spend those first moments of my day, and I have learned the hard way that when I check my email right away, I am dragged into details that can easily be waited for later.
- I do check my email around 9am before immersing yourself in meetings or projects. I try to spend about 30 minutes replying to previous day / night emails, and it allows me to clear my mind when I don’t think about how I work my day should answering someone.
- I do set a couple of other times throughout the day to dive into my inbox, usually after lunch, and again at the end of the workday. I like an end-of-day inbox cleaning session to get rid of emails that only need a short response, and then I’m not tempted to deal with emails from bed that night.
- I do not have reply to each email within 24 hours. Some email activities include time on a specific day of the week. As I mentioned earlier, I do accounting on Fridays, so emails related to billing, payment, or my bank accounts receive the green flag, and I’m free to cancel until Friday.
- I do Try to respond to emails that require a quick response; not only does it clear my mental space, it shows that I value the recipient enough to guide my two-sentence response. .
For me, my email delivery time is more proactive than reactive. I’m wondering, “What’s the best use of my time right now?” and then do that thing and only one thing.
Your only task is to email
This is closely related to the timeline, but the opposite is true: In the same way that we don’t want to get blood into every other part of our lives, we don’t want to be distracted from getting blood into our email time. I set limits to protect this time so that I can be thoughtful and effective with my communication. When I read or write emails, I close my office door, turn off social media, and close my browser, not being distracted by a nice video or notification. In addition to better email quality, removing distractions allows me to browse my inbox faster than I ever thought possible.
Remember your why
As with any “productivity hack,” remember that the ultimate goal is not to be more efficient or just produce more. In fact, I think our productivity culture is a trap that has taught many of us, and when we buy that, we are like hamsters on a wheel of efficiency that we can’t take away.
For me, governing my email inbox is freeing up my time, energy, and mental space for what is really important to creating a place in my life. I’m releasing the stress of feeling “I can never do everything,” and instead allowing me to live in the present and enjoy exactly what I’m doing at that moment.
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