De-cluttering isn’t just about having less physical stuff. It’s about releasing ANYTHING that doesn’t serve you, by being in your physical space and/or in your head space.
Email is one of those intangible things that can cause quite a lot of anxiety, and it’s one of those things like washing up that continually regenerates – annoying. If you’re one of the people who can exist happily with 3465673 emails in your inbox and you don’t worry about a single one of them, then this post is probably not of any use to you, but if the number of emails gives you palpitations or you find yourself avoiding dealing with any of them because of the sheer quantity – read on.
As well as personal anxiety, emails are a significant generator of greenhouse gasses – A new study published at the end of last year estimates “that if every adult in the UK cut back on ‘thank you’ emails, it could save 16,433 tonnes of carbon per year” (more information on that here) Companies like Microsoft are apparently continuously improving the carbon footprint of their online storage but less is always better!
These are some things that I have found helpful in managing my inboxes. Sharing in case these things might help you too.
Get Ready, preparation is key…
- As well as an email account you will also need a way of scheduling any actions that might arise from your emails – phone apps are good – ToDoist is my list of choice but there are plenty of others or you might prefer an actual diary or bullet journalling. Once you’ve put the action in your list you can delete the email – no need to keep it as a reminder.
- Consider having more than one email address – this might sound like I’m just adding to the problem, but I work from home so my work email and my home/personal emails can quickly become entangled. I have one address for work contacts and one for all the useful stuff I buy online and the occasional personal correspondence. Keep it simple though, 2 or 3 is probably ample.
- Prioritise – I check and process my work email more regularly than the personal one.
- Decide how often you want/can review your emails – use your “out of office” function to let your emailers know your timescales. If you’re worried about missing something actually important on the days when you’re not checking – include a contact phone number with instructions to call you if they’re not happy with a response in the timescales you’ve put down. Do this, no-one will call you, you therefore know that none of your emails are life-changingly urgent.
- Set up a recurring action in your to-do list to process your emails and set a timer when you do it. Weekly works for me, although I often put it off a few days if I’m not in the mood, there are hardly any things that can’t wait a week, and if there are, then the person will call you or contact you in the way you’ve suggested to them in your “out of office” text. Weekly also leaves me with a manageable number of emails to go through – in the 10’s rather than the hundreds, and even then most of them are a quick delete.
- Turn off the little email notification thingy on your phone, especially if it pings or flashes across your screen. You do not need this level of notification.
- Set your emails to list oldest first. Every time you log in, you see the messages you’ve left, once you’re in control it’s easy enough to scroll down to the newest ones, but having them there in your view, reminds you to do something with them, even if it’s only to delete them.
So you’ve decided what, where, when and how – now it’s time to take action
- If you’re starting with an inbox of thousands. No judgement- set a timer on your phone for 30 minutes say – and just eat that electronic elephant one bite at a time.
- Delete everything over 12 months old, as a start, if you find that easy, then try 6 months, 5 months, 4 months etc. If any of that starts to make you feel a bit panicky, pick your date and start there. Take it a step at a time, but delete delete delete.
- Report junk emails as junk, but remember to empty your junk file every now and then.
- Unsubscribe – you don’t need to do this every time, the delete button is very cathartic if you’re in a bit of a rush, but if you find yourself with a bit more head space, take a few seconds to find the unsubscribe link and then click on it. As a by note – always check the text in the “do you want us to contact you” sections on websites and the like. 9 times out of 10 it should be a no shouldn’t it? You do not need any marketing emails from organisations selling you stuff. If you actually need a thing, you’ll go and find it, you don’t need to keep those dubious discount emails just in case. We are bombarded with marketing gumpf on every internet forum we visit, be selective about the ones you keep in your inbox. Newsletters from lovely doulas might stay for example!
- Delete all the emails you don’t need any more, including ones you’ve sent.
- If you order things online. Delete the dispatch, confirmation etc emails when the thing has arrived. That information is on the originating website anyway. – eg amazon notifications that an item has been ordered, dispatched, with the courier, on the way, delivered. If you really want to know your item’s progress get the store app on your phone and set the notifications on there – they flash up and then they’re gone, you know what’s up, and there’s nothing left to action. I know this works with Amazon – I’m sure there are others that do this too.
- You have given yourself some time to do this email malarchy – see point 4. So sit down and do the things that need doing. Then delete the email that’s finished with. In rare instances if you don’t quite have everything you need to complete a task, use the flag option and keep that email there to revisit next time you log in.
- Organise – personally I find folders in my email accounts turn in to a big black hole, I have a few – things like “actions pending” but generally I forget to check them so they languish there until I do have a look and then most things are ancient and get deleted anyway. If you’re the sort of person who likes a category though then file away, but really think before you move it. Does it need keeping? Is the information stored somewhere else? like on another person’s or organisation’s website? Can you save the information in a different way? If you have replied to an email, but you need to follow up if the person doesn’t respond back – put an action in your to do list/diary to check. Delete the email.
- If you really need to keep an email for reference eg as a receipt for tax purposes, or evidence that you’ve done something or received something, consider saving it as a file on your computer and then delete it from your email folder.
- Day to day – if you get sent emails in your day to day interaction with a website – password resets or survey verifications. Get in the habit of deleting that email as soon as you’ve done the necessary clicking and updating.
- At the end of your scheduled session – Go to your trash folder and empty it. This will permanently delete the emails where they can no longer worry you any more.
In addition – now and then, in moments of downtime, like on the train, or waiting for the kids at school, I’ll have a quick scroll through on my phone to do some more deleting – the swipe delete action is fun!
If you’re in a business where you manage a mailing list, it can also make you think hard about how many emails/newsletters you might send!
Let me know how you get on. I’d love to see your before and afters – I’m off to empty my sent items folder, I appear to have emails in there from 2015! *blush face* and unsubscribe from Amazon order updates by email.
Full disclosure – as I hit publish on this post – I have 15 emails in my “home” email inbox and 27 (too many) in my “work” one
– we’re all a work in progress…
Melanie English 