How to Organize Your Chaotic Inbox in 60 Minutes or Less

If you use your email for business purpose, you want it to be in top shape. Even for personal emails, plenty of us hate the red notification button but have just given up. Let’s be honest, though, things come up and others get thrown to the wayside. Next thing you know, you have 4000 unread emails. You have spam from websites you’ve never heard of and you’re wondering how they got your email address. There is everything going on in your inbox, but business.

So we’re going to clear the clutter. The beautiful thing about email is that nothing can get lost. So even if you have neglected your emails for a long time, everything is still there. It’s just buried under tons of things you don’t need and you don’t want. So set yourself an hour and wade through the garbage for some digital spring cleaning!

Trash Anything You Don’t Need

This is probably going to be the most time-consuming thing. If your inbox is just in need of some slight dusting, then it could possibly take a few minutes. If you’ve neglected this for a while and know some deep cleaning is in order, this could take up to a half hour. If your email is a Gmail, they’ve done a lovely thing and preset promotions from regular mail. You’ll still have to double check that nothing important is in there and if not, select all and delete! If you don’t use Gmail, well, no such luck. You’ll just have to sort through the old fashioned way.

Delete these from your trash as well. When you have more time, go through promotions you don’t want as they come and unsubscribe. Then go through your spam and make sure nothing of importance is in there either. Then you set yourself up for the main event. Without promotions, they should be mostly relevant emails, but not always. You probably care a lot more about replying to a client or family member than your college’s alumni fund.

Start Making Files

Just like you would organize real paperwork, start to do so on your digital paperwork. Most emails come preset with some sort of category organization, with options to create your own categories. Make subcategories within the categories! Highlight the more important ones as being so that you’re reminded when you go through the files later. Your inbox being clear is very satisfying!

Make sure your files actually make sense to you. Some people file just to file and then the filing system is chaotic. The thing you made to get more organized has tripped you up even further. Set it up in a logical way. If you have a ton of clients make a client folder. Then put their names in alphabetical order. Perhaps you want to put them in descending order of importance so you always see the most important first. Do whatever makes sense for you and you know you can stick to!

Create Another Email

Keep business and personal emails separate. If there are a ton of emails that you want to keep getting but are clogging up this inbox, make another email. It’s totally okay that you want to know when Anthropologie is having their next sale. Or if you email your distant family and want to keep tabs on them, it’s so nice to see they’ve responded. If it is impairing your ability to work, though, it is a problem. You can fix it by creating a separate email.

I know, I know. Now you’ve just got two emails to organize. You’ve been using that other email for 15 years and that’s how everyone reaches you. I get it. You will still get emails there from people who forget. It is important to keep your two lives, personal and business, separate in every aspect. You shouldn’t be answering emails at 3 a.m. to your boss like you would a friend. So, pull it apart and forward the stragglers.

Change Your Settings and Calendar

Email accounts today are set up to make your life easier. If you have an important client, set it up so your client’s emails are flagged as important. You can even set it that if they send you a date and time, it will notify you asking if you want to add this to your calendar. Other less important emails can even set on cruise control. Even better, if someone emails you and you won’t be near that email for a while, you can send them an auto-response.

You can set up anything you want for your email and it’s amazing. Emails are set up to be user-friendly to the everyday person.

Many of them also offer support so that if you don’t know how to do something, someone is around to teach you. Most of the options your email is capable of doing, you haven’t ever tried. Most of them you may not even know about. Take advantage of every program within your email to take it easy on your inbox---and on your mind!

Sometimes it isn’t your fault that your email got so hectic. Your life can become really hectic and everything else follows. We get it! The first step is to schedule a block of time in your life where you can seriously commit to cleaning it up. You only need an hour if you utilize the right tools. Really the biggest impetus will be what it always is: finding the time to sit down!

It might take a little googling for assistance. You don’t have to be a tech-savvy person when there are articles explaining how to do everything. Many of them have pictures, too! When you're done, the relief will be enormous. Then you can stop emailing your clients two weeks later with embarrassing replies! Just make sure you keep on it. If not, you’ll be back to square one in no time. If that happens, just come back to this article.