Avoid Inbox Overwhelm: 5 Tips To Organise Your Inbox For Maximum Efficiency

If there is one thing that can cause a rising sense of loss of control, it’s seeing your ‘unread email’ notifications going up and up and up…

Your inbox might feel like a never-ending ‘To Do’ list, but mastering the art of organising your emails can be the difference between missing that important update that a deadline has been brought forward and impressing your boss by pulling it all together with time to spare. But when you receive goodness-knows how many emails every day, where do you start?!

Read on for our top 5 tips on how to become the master of your inbox.

1. The Once-And-Done Rule

Every time you first read a new email, ask yourself, “Can this be dealt with right now so that I don’t need to open it again?”. If so, don’t put it off until later; act on it immediately and remove it from your workload. If you will need to return to it, deal with it correctly according to your system (see tip #2 below).

2. Use The Folder Or Label Function

Once you have read an email, allocate it to a relevant folder or attach the appropriate label. The exact method you use will depend on your email provider. If we look at two of the biggest market leaders, Gmail and Outlook. While Outlook opts for folders (here’s how to create and organise folders for your Outlook emails), Gmail takes a labelling approach to inbox organisation instead (here’s how to use labels to organise your emails in Gmail).

Although your specific organisation process will depend on the nature of your work and the types of emails you receive, here are some ideas of labels or folders you could use to organise your emails most efficiently:

• By urgency: (e.g. High, Medium, Low)
• By deadline (e.g. a label or folder for each month)
• By project
• By client

3. Clear Your Inbox Before You Finish Work Every Day

Warning: clearing your ‘Unread’ notifications can lead to severe feelings of smugness.
Aside from the joyous satisfaction of seeing your inbox at zero, leaving with a clear inbox at the end of the day also helps you relax and switch off after work, which benefits your wellbeing and can help prevent burnout.

4. Archive Or Delete Emails You No Longer Need

If you know you won’t need an email again, don’t hang on to it; it just adds to the noise in your inbox. Instead, delete emails you are confident you can get rid of and archive ones you don’t need but might need again one day. Most email providers have a grace period, where you can recover deleted emails for a specific time after pushing delete. Deleted emails are recoverable for 30 days in both Gmail and Outlook. Archived emails stay put unless you actively delete them.

5. Protect Your Inbox: Think Before Signing Up

If you are someone who can become overwhelmed easily by a bulging inbox, protect it at all costs. Think twice before signing up for everything you see online in exchange for your email address to avoid feeling bombarded by marketing emails.

When you do receive emails from companies you are no longer interested in, invest the few seconds it takes to unsubscribe at the bottom of the email – you’ll thank yourself for it later. Some email providers offer you an option to unsubscribe from a sender directly from your inbox without even having to open the email (Gmail is particularly good at this; you may see a little ‘Unsubscribe’ tab appear next to some email subject lines).

Final Thoughts

We suggest setting aside some time to work through these tips one by one. However, adopting just one or two can make a huge difference in how you manage your emails and help you avoid the overwhelming hassle of a messy email account.

As well as helping you keep on top of important information and communications you need to do your job well, an organised inbox can also help you feel calmer and more in control of your day-to-day work.