Organize + Energize: Declutter Your Email Inbox in 5 Steps

Organize + Energize: Declutter Your Email Inbox in 5 Steps

I’ve been speaking with many people lately who are stressed and overwhelmed with the amount of emails they receive. Their inboxes are as cluttered as their desks. Most emails get deleted, including important ones that were just overlooked. Think of your email like your physical desk. How do you feel when your desk is cluttered with paper, some of it is junk, some is important and other items get lost? It’s time to get a handle on your emails and make a plan to declutter and organize your email in box.

Here are 5 easy steps to push you in the right direction:

1. Create a working organized system. If you are struggling with paper management and systems in your office, the first thing you should do is physically get organized. Tackle your inbox just like you would tackle paper that arrives in your office. Have a procedure and a working system to process every email that arrives in your inbox. Look at it, touch it and take care of it.

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2. Unsubscribe. You know you have to do this. There are emails you consistently receive that you are not interested in, but choose to still have them arrive in your inbox. Starting today, any emails that you receive that are no longer useful to you, instead of deleting them, open them and click unsubscribe.

3. Delete. If the email isn’t useful to you and you don’t need to refer to it again, don’t let it clog up your inbox. Delete it immediately. If you know it’s an email that you never want to receive again, refer to the above and hit unsubscribe.

4. Utilize folders. You have files in your file drawers and working systems for the drawers. Create the same filing system in your inbox. Create folders for projects you are working on, vacations you may be taking, upcoming presentations, etc.  Once a year, make a plan to purge these folders.

5. File. Just as you would file a piece of paper that arrives on your desk, do the same with the email.  If you don’t have time to read an email, but you want to get to it at a later date, utilize the folders I discussed above and file it away. Don’t leave it hanging around in your in box. When you have time, go to your file and refer to it.

You are now organized with your emails, but what about sending emails? If you are hitting “reply all” to an email that nobody else cares about except the person you are sending it to, think before you hit “reply all.”

Sometimes it’s easier to pick up the phone instead of going back and forth with the person with multiple emails.  Pick up the phone, talk and be done with the conversation instead of sending multiple emails back and forth.

A disorganized email inbox will affect you the same way your physical clutter and disorganization will affect you.  I hear too many people voicing their opinion about how their emails stress them out. Make a plan today, tackle it and free yourself from the stress.  

Kristin Carcieri-MacRae, the founder and owner of Organizing in RI, has always enjoyed finding creative ways to streamline the environment around her. She has appeared on air on Patricia Raskin's Positive Business Radio and her articles have been published in the Rhode Island Small Business Journal and New England Home Life. Kristin's CD, Organizing Basics, is a 1-hour guide for the person who wants to get organized but doesn't know where to start. She is also available for organizing workshops. Tune into her weekly radio show, Organize, Energize! on Mondays at 8:30am on http://www.talkstreamradio.com.