Crush Your Inbox! – How To Manage Email So It Doesn’t Waste Your Time

Answer this question honestly: Does dealing with email free up time for you, reduce your stress levels, and help you get to your goals faster? Or does it eat up your time, pile on the overwhelm and slow down your progress?

For most people, it’s definitely the latter. How can you tell which camp you’re in? Well, if you’ve got a three- or four-digit backlog of messages in your Inbox, I think you pretty much know the answer. For the average person (and especially for entrepreneurs), email can quickly become a quagmire of unprocessed messages. And bloated inboxes full of things you keep “meaning to get to” do nothing to help you become more productive.  Are you ready to crush that problem?
I’ve met very few people who consistently manage their email in a way that helps them get things done faster. And I’ll be honest – it wasn’t until recently that I became one of them – not all at once, but by implementing a few new habits in a slow and steady manner. But now that I’ve seen the light at the end of the email tunnel, there’s no going back. And now I invite you on the journey.

Over the next few posts, I’m going to step you through simple actions that will lay down the same habits I’ve used to get my inbox clean and keep it that way (and believe me, there’s a peace-of-mind feeling that comes with a clean inbox that’s worth its weight in gold). The steps are easy – but like anything else they require you to be consistent in order for you to make them work.

The Good News
The good news is that it actually takes less effort to keep your inbox empty than it does to manage a full one. Go figure. But that’s how it works. And if you’re ready to take the first step, here it is:

1. Create a new folder or label in your inbox that will rise to the top of the list of folders/labels. This will be where you quarantine your backlog of emails so you can deal with them with a clear mind. Name it something like @EMAILS or _PROCESS – it doesn’t matter what you name it, as long as it’s at the top of your list.
2. Move everything in your inbox into that folder. Every stinkin’ email, no matter what it’s about. Put it in quarantine. Now your inbox is empty.

But “Empty” Isn’t the End
Take a look at that empty inbox. It looks good, doesn’t it? Sure, you’ve still got 100 (1000?) emails to process in that new folder/label, but at least your inbox is clear, and that’s the important thing. Why? Because applying all of these new habits to your already bloated inbox would have been difficult and draining (which is why it was so backlogged to begin with).

When we’re faced with a huge number of unprocessed tasks (emails), it’s hard to know where to start, and that can either slow you down or make you numb to the inbox itself. You know the feeling that I’m talking about. You just lose the will to take action. But by shifting all of your unproccessed emails to this new “out of sight” folder/label, it’s a lot easier to get your bearings for all the incoming email that’s about to drop into your lap.

And a clear inbox also makes it easier to build these new habits consistently. If you get 50 emails a day, it’s a lot easier to learn how to process those 50 per day than it would be to try and apply some new set of habits to 1000 emails built up in your inbox. Since you have a limited number of emails coming in per day, you can focus on reaching that satisfied feeling you get when you knock them out quickly. I’d bet you that after a week of keeping that inbox clean you’ll be sold on the feeling for life.

And don’t think we’re forgetting that quarantine folder either. We’re going to get to that in it’s own good time. But there’s no need to rush it – after all, it’s been backlogged for a while.

The most effective way to handle this situation is to begin mastering these new habits with incoming email, and then picking a set number of emails in your quarantine folder to process each day.

If you have 1000 messages backlogged and you handle 25 a day, you’ll be done in around a month (though in reality, once you get used to the empty inbox, you’ll feel the desire to pick up speed).

In the next few emails I’ll step you through the rules you’ll use to process your email faster than ever and start whittling down that backlog at a rate you’ll be impressed with. Until then, take the simple approach and keep your inbox clean by deleting anything that doesn’t really need to stay, filing it immediately or responding immediately. With that backlog out of sight, it will be easier to summon the presence of mind to deal with them effectively.

Until then, enjoy your new, clean inbox and get ready to tackle that quarantine folder. And feel free to leave a comment below with any of your super ninja secrets for making that inbox your servant (and not your master). Hi-yaa!