Try it – Organizing your life…starting with your inbox

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Try It

Do you often complain about never being able to catch up, being stressed out at work or feeling unorganized? While some organization tips may serve you well, you might also want to take as look at your email situtaition. A full inbox often means unopened messages, backlogged responses, and unnecessary stress. Here are three ways to clear your inbox and your mind:

1. Read email in batches. Don’t scan your email for urgent messages and leave everything else for later; that’s how you begin to get buried. Check your email at set times during the day and immediately file messages into one of three folders: follow-up, hold, or archive.

2. Use the “two-minute rule.” If an email will take less than two minutes to respond to (and many should), respond right away and get rid of it. Letting those easy-to-respond-to messages pile up can wreak havoc on your inbox.

3. Unsubscribe! Are you getting email alerts from companies or organizations that overload your inbox and don’t offer any value? Don’t you realize you can STOP them?! Think about which lists you enjoy being a part of and unsubscribe from the rest

Are you an inbox neat freak or a clutter bug? Have any other tips to share?

15 Responses to “Try it – Organizing your life…starting with your inbox”

  1. Anna @ Newlywed, Newly Veg said:

    Argh– I have so many things that I need to unsubscribe to! But I’m a total e-mail lazy bones :-)

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  2. Ash @ Good Taste. Healthy Me said:

    Total inbox neat freak. I delete anything I can immediately.

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  3. Sophie @ yumventures said:

    Gmail is a life saver!!! I put labels on incoming mail such from things such as my bank or blog, and have them automatically go into their own folder so they don’t get lost! I also use Gmails multi star system so I can star things in different ways. Makes all the difference =)

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  4. Michelle said:

    I needed this post, my inbox is a huge mess. I almost don’t ever want to go look at my email anymore because there are so many things I need to just unsubscribe from

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  5. Heather (Where's the Beach) said:

    I’m a big fan of inbox organizing!

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  6. Rose said:

    I really liked this post! Those are things that I sometime do, but sometimes don’t. Thanks for the reminder!

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  7. EE said:

    I love my tagging system. You’re so right — email can be Clutter City!

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  8. La said:

    this is such a good idea! my life feels soooo cluttered and interrupted by emails…i need to unsubscribe and probably ascribe to the two-minute rule.

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  9. Katie @ Health for the Whole Self said:

    Thanks for these tips – my inbox is currently an absolute mess, and it definitely adds a level of unnecessary stress!

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  10. Jessica@Healthy Exposures said:

    my goodness – my inbox has grown to be a mess! I keep up with deleting junk now, but for a while let it pile up. And up. And up!!
    The two-minute rule is GREAT – sometimes I put off shooting back a simple reply for no reason other than “I’ll get to it later.” Well – I know me, and it’s now or never! haha.
    Great tips :)

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  11. K said:

    I’m a neat freak! My personal email’s inbox has to be empty before I can go to bed. I can’t stand emails that just sit there.

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  12. jaclyn@todayslady said:

    Thanks for visiting my blog :) I’d call myself more of an inbox neat freak. I delete old messages and check my new ones daily, although it’s a bit of a mess right now. This was a great reminder!!

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  13. Jenny said:

    These are great tips! I am an inbox neat freak, I delete things immediately if they aren’t important or are junk. But sometimes I’m bad about responding in a timely manner if I get a lot of things at once…

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  14. shelly said:

    I delete everything once I have dealt with it. Dh on the other hand creates folders to keep every email he has ever received… itd kind of funny actually.

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  15. Tiffany said:

    My work inbox usually flutters between 200 to 300 emails a day so I know all about this. The first thing I do when I get in is delete all the ones that don’t apply to me, put the ones that need to be answered that day but arent urgent in a special “To Do” folder then get to the rest of them at the time they are received. I definitely agree about the 2 min rule!!

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