Email can be stressful, especially when you’re a busy person. Mail is always coming in, people expect responses, you get more and more every hour, you have other things to accomplish, you get spam, the list goes on. It’s easy to feel like there’s no way to ever overcome this mammoth stress factor that is your mailbox, but it is possible. These 5 ways will have you beating that mailbox into submission in no time.
Read Immediately
If you’re checking your email, don’t just click on the ones that interest you, really go through and read them all. If you keep putting off reading them they’ll go down the list as you get more incoming ones and before you know it, you’ll have an email with thousands of unread messages going back pages and pages and eventually you’ll just leave it there. And this is how you get an email inbox that is stressful and unmanageable.
By reading emails first, you’re taking the first step to managing your inbox in a non-stressful manner.
Make A Decision Immediately After Reading
If you read an email and you want to respond to it later, star it. If you feel it needs a response and you’ve got the time, do it! If it’s not important to you, delete it. Don’t let junk that you don’t need just sit there clogging your mailbox. Instead, if it’s done with, get rid of it, and especially if it’s junk, get rid of it.
By cleaning up everything and making a decision right after reading it, you decrease the chances of having a mailbox that has way too many emails so you can’t find anything and also decrease the chance of missing something important.
Establish a Routine
It’s hard to get anything done if you don’t have a routine. Get into the habit of checking your email and dealing with your email at certain times of the day, and no other time. If you’re constantly checking, you’re going to feel like it owns you and that is not the way to manage it. Only look at it when you have the time to deal with it, otherwise it will only further stress you out.
Organization is Key
There’s a reason that folders exist on email. Use them! Filter your stuff so it’s easy to find at a later date. The best part about this is that you can organize it exactly how you like and what makes sense to you since no one else will ever have to deal with it.
Touch It Once
A good rule of thumb for email is the touch it once principal that says you should never have to go back to an email later. While this isn’t always the case, it’s a good rule to live by. Don’t check you’re email when you can’t respond, take in all the necessary details of the email right off the bat and then be done with it.
Managing your mailbox doesn’t have to be stress inducing and cringe worthy. By implementing these 5 tips you’ll be on your way to beating your mailbox into submission.
