How many times did your eyes land on your emails today?

Email Clutter: How to Get Your Inbox Under Control

1. Email inbox clutter can be a huge headache.
2. An email inbox is a pain point for most.
3. Avoid inbox overflow and reclaim your life.

They say an average employee checks their email between 50 – 90 times a day.

Is there anything more uninspiring than that? Probably not. It is hard to find the motivation to do this routine task.

For many of us, it is one of the most dreaded tasks to do daily. If you are very busy, knowing how to manage your time for even the most mundane tasks can help.

Managing your email inbox does not only mean keeping it clean. Effective inbox management goes a lot deeper than that. It is about improving quality and focusing on delivering real, personalised communications.

Time is the one thing we can never get back. How do you recover that seemingly lost time to complete the most mundane tasks such as checking emails?

Sometimes it is tricky to find important emails amongst the mass of spam, promotional offers and other unwanted messages.

So, when you finally remember that invoice you need to pay, which is now three months old, chances are it has already been deleted by your company’s spam filter or cluttering up your junk folder.

It is no surprise that email is the most dominant form of internet communication. However, most people struggle to manage it effectively.  

They might know that they should be more effective but do not know what they should do to improve.

Mastering your email inbox means taking control with a clear plan to tame the flood of messages.

Inbox Zero means your emails are under control!

If you want to improve productivity, having an organised inbox is a non-negotiable.

It is like having an organised filing cabinet or bookshelf in your office. It makes it easier for you to search for important documents or data that you may need in your work. Estienne de Beer #EstienneDeBeer

Carve out time to tame your email inbox like a pro. Getting in the habit of it now will spare you headaches down the road.

Email inbox management is like saving for retirement. When you do it in small chunks and make it a habit, it gets more fluent each day.

• An inbox is like a black hole for online life. And, like any other system, you must set up rules and limits to organising this flow of information. If not, you will be “drowning” and feel overwhelmed. 
• Decide whether it will be best for you (or not) to set specific times to read emails daily. Find your email sweet spot.
• Curate your incoming e-mails based on senders. An email from the boss is surely more important than that of a colleague in the cubicle next to you.
• Create subject folders for different topics or responsibilities.
• Create automatic filters, diverting emails into respective folders and not pooling in the “Primary” inbox. Email rules are a great way to automate your email inbox and save yourself time. When you receive an email, it automatically diverts to a specific folder. The program files it for you! Meerkat Motivational Speaker

• Segmenting and labelling your emails will help you keep track of them and know when to work on them. 
• Schedule some time every day to check emails.
• Colour-coding your messages can help you organise information by grouping related items.
• Block spammers and divert their emails to the Spam Folder.
• Separate work and personal emails and addresses. Never receive personal emails at work.
• Do not procrastinate and always try to respond as quickly as possible.
• Know your priorities, compose fewer emails and be brief.
• Do not be afraid to unsubscribe from what does not add value.
• Delete or archive old messages.