Try these 3 simple steps to organize your email when your email inbox is starting to get a little too full. Find out how to go through all of your emails in one sitting with this 3-step process and get your digital space cleaned up without all the stress!
I’m sure you’ve struggled to keep your emails organized before. I mean, the emails come in faster than we can read them! And organizing them? No, thank you!
I hate to see other people’s emails when they have thousands of unread messages. I like mine to stay at zero more often than not.
Because of my obsessive need for simplicity and cleanliness, I desperately developed my own system of organizing.
With the system I created, I was able to keep my own email consistently clean and simple.
No more losing important emails or losing track of who you’ve responded to. No more huge numbers flashing at you, reminding you of all that is still left unfinished.
Just quick, easy email.
So if you feel like you are someone who just can’t keep on top of your emails, this organizing routine might be just what you need to get back on track!
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How to keep your emails organized in only three steps
Step 1: Open all of the email accounts you have.
Opening up every email account you can think of will ensure that no step gets forgotten at any stage. You will be able to focus your mind on one task at a time. There won’t be a need to start your steps over again every time you open up the next email.
Of course, if you actually prefer to do all the steps to organize your email inbox and then move on to the next email inbox after one of them is completely organized, that is ok, too! Try out both ways if you want and find what works for you!
Additionally, if you are the forgetful type (like I am), it would make your life a lot easier to have all of your email accounts and passwords recorded in the same place.
This way you can just pull that out every time you set out to organize your email inbox. There is no hassle trying to remember all of your information.
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Step 2: Do a quick sweep to get rid of obvious junk mail.
Once you open up your email accounts, you’re ready to take a quick look through all of your messages.
This step does not require anything in-depth. Simply take a scroll through all of the accounts and see if anything can definitely be deleted.
For me, those emails are usually from social media or updates on upcoming events I might be interested in. Another obvious one is emails that advertise for sales or events that have already passed.
Who needs that cluttering your email?
When I do this step, I usually don’t even open the emails. I just check off a bunch of them all at once and delete them altogether.
Not too much critical thinking is really required at this point.
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Step 3: Go through the rest of your emails and review them carefully.
Okay, so far it’s been a breeze, right?
But we’re getting into the nitty-gritty, and I’ll tell you now, it’s not as easy.
The steps required to organize your email inbox are not quite the same as those needed to organize a messy house. In a house, every item has an obvious place to put things away. With emails, you have to be a bit more decisive about what should be done with each email.
Some emails require a response or an action to take. You might need to record a time in your schedule. Some you will need to store so they don’t get lost in the abyss that is digital storage.
But I have made a helpful guide to make this process as quick and painless as possible. Here we go…
OK, let’s look at our first email. You need to read through the email and ask yourself some questions to figure out next steps.
Questions to Help you Organize your Email Inbox:
Question #1: Do I need to respond?
If the answer is yes, then here is the best advice I can give you: DO IT NOW!
Don’t put off something that you dread and just do it. If it is within your ability, respond to the email and delete it.
Question #2: Do I need to take action?
Similar to my previous advice, if your answer is yes and it is within your power to simply do the thing your email is reminding you to do, then just do it now and delete the email.
If the task is something big, or it requires a few more days, just write the details of what needs to get done on a to-do list or brain dump. Once you do that, delete the email and move on.
On another note, the email you are considering might not be something you have to do. It may be something that intrigued you a while ago, but you never got around to looking at.
Maybe it was a video from a friend, or an intriguing article.
Let me tell you from experience, you may want to read that article, but if it’s been sitting in your email for a month and you still haven’t gotten to it, you probably won’t ever get to it.
So here’s what I suggest: read it IMMEDIATELY or delete it.
If you don’t read it right now, you’ll just forget about it for yet another month. Besides, it’s a nice break from organizing all of those emails, right?
Question #3: Do I need to record this information somewhere?
Whatever your system is, paper or tech, you need a place to put information!
If you were keeping this email because it had a date or address you needed, record it somewhere.
Don’t just keep it floating in the middle of a random email where you might never find it.
Put it in a notebook, an agenda, or an app. Put it anywhere that you know you will be able to easily access and organize.
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Question #4: Do I even want this information?
We’ve all been there; you were scrolling on Pinterest and came across an organizational pdf you just had to have. You gave your email address and waited for the information to come flying into your inbox, and now you have an email subscription to some random website you never cared to be a part of.
If this is you, then don’t be afraid to hit “unsubscribe”.
Seriously, even if it’s this website you want to unsubscribe from, I encourage it!
Keep the things that feed you and encourage you, and cut ties with anything that no longer serves a purpose.
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Question #5: Do I need to file this information?
As much as I don’t like to keep emails looming for too long, I understand that there are always some emails that just need to be kept.
For me, those emails are usually records for school or other programs and sometimes tax-related items. For some people, it might be something sentimental, and all of these things are ok!
If the decision is that yes, you need to keep this email, you could do one of two things:
First, you could print the email and file it away in a paper system that you already have. If paper is not your thing, create a file within your email to safely store it until it is no longer needed.
I would recommend making a file name according to the activity that the email is related to.
For example, if you have credit card information you like to keep track of, just have a file titled “Credit Card Bills” or some such thing.
Just make sure it is a title that is clear to you so that you can easily find it when you need it.
These files might not be kept forever, but as long as you need it, at least it is organized and stored in a place where you likely won’ t accidentally delete it. And your main page will look so much better for it!
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Step 4: Go through your filing system.
This last step is usually a pretty easy one because you only touch your filing system when you add to it manually. Chances are that it looks exactly the same as the last time you organized it.
Basically, just decide if these files require action or are no longer needed.
So just go through the list of questions in Step 3. If these emails need only to remain safe and contained, leave them alone for another month.
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And that’s it! You know how to organize your email inbox!
I won’t lie, this process takes a while, but it feels so good when you’re finished.
The first time you do this, you may notice that this process doesn’t involve the email itself much at all. By the end of this time, you may have spent a substantial amount of it recording things in your agenda, reading articles, and even watching fun videos!
I’ve never minded the length of time it takes to go through emails this way. In fact, it doesn’t feel much like a chore at all. It feels much more like an opportunity to finally do some things that I had been wanting to do but just hadn’t had any time to do it.
Try these three steps to organize your email inbox this month and see how it changes things for you!
Do you have any tricks to keep your email organized?
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