10 Tips on How to Clean Your Email Inbox

Written by Dimitri McKay

Each year, it’s important to take a few moments to clean your email inbox. It’s happened to the best of us…looking at your inbox and see there’s a few hundred or maybe even thousands of emails that have gone unread. These tips will assist you with cleaning up your inbox and to have a little organization. The truth is, a cluttered email inbox equals a cluttered mind! Let’s clean your inbox in 2019.

Group “Like” with “Like” - Arranging emails by topics allows you to move through your inbox quicker. Almost every email system allows clients to organize messages. Clients can use tags to label emails or create folders for sorting. Some email clients also have a system in place that can automatically sort emails as they come in.

Become A Search Pro - Be able to easily locate the emails that you need and don’t need in your inbox.

Shut Off Notifications - Turn off push notifications for emails. Only check your email twice a day. An hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon.

Snooze Emails - If you find your email cluttered, schedule them to be redelivered at a more convenient time for you. Some systems allow emails to come in at certain times.

Review Subscriptions - The iOS app Unroll.me allows you to review your inbox’s email subscriptions and sort whether you want to roll multiple emails into one message or even unsubscribe from annoying subscriptions.

Filter Based on Priority - Use automated filters and hashtags to filter emails. Email clients now allow you to sort emails through hashtags just like social media!

Send and Archive - Start sorting out messages in your inbox that you have already read. Once you are finished with a conversation use the “send and archive” button to put the email away. You can also filter your “read” emails in a specific folder, in case you need them for later use.

Put Email on to-do List - Start using a workflow management tool to keep your projects organized. Some systems will allow you to move emails out of your inbox and into the workflow task list. This is a big key to email organization and management.

Take Immediate Action - Don’t wait to take action on your emails. Quickly decide on what you want to do with your emails as soon as you have read them. Whether you delete them, reply to them, or even sort them into another folder, take action on them immediately so your emails won’t pile up. Once emails have piled up, it can be overwhelming to keep up with them.

Be Brief - When replying to emails, limit your responses to a few short sentences. Obviously, some emails require long lengthy responses and that is okay. By keeping your responses to a few sentences, this can cut down on the time it takes you to navigate through a crowded inbox.