There’s not much worse in business than arriving at the office each day, turning on your computer, only to be greeted by a full inbox! If instead, you left the office each day with an empty inbox, you would feel much more motivated when starting work the next day, and you would achieve so much more – but how can you reach inbox zero every day?
If your inbox is currently overflowing, I’ll be honest, it’s going to take some time to get yourself organised, but I promise you, with a great system in place to manage your email you will be so much more productive.
Let’s break it down: why not schedule in an hour every day, or even 30 minutes, however much time you can spare over the next week or so, and tackle one task at a time. For example, one day unsubscribe from all those newsletters and other messages that you don’t read, another day block any junk or spam and delete irrelevant nonsense. Finally (this is the most time-consuming bit) decide on a folder or label structure that works for you and get organised.
When your email is organised and filed where it belongs, you can then focus on what you’re supposed to be doing and take action on the things that are important.
Top Tip: If you’re subscribed to lots of newsletters you don’t read, use Unroll.me to do a bulk unsubscribe. It’s quick and easy to use, and what’s more, it’s free.
A lot of your email is probably social media notifications which duplicate the alerts on your phone and the red notifications on your social media platforms… do you need that email notification too? I think that notification emails for social media are unnecessary, so why not get rid of them? Let’s clear out your inbox!
Once your inbox is down to zero, let’s look at some ways to maintain inbox zero every day:
- Set up filters or rules so that your email goes straight into the right folder, or are even deleted automatically; this will make them easier to manage and will keep your inbox tidy.
- On checking each email decide how long the required action will take. If it’s an invite to a meeting or event that needs a Yes or No response, make that quick-thinking decision now. If it is a quick email then get it out of the way, otherwise, move it to a ‘To Do’ folder (or better still your task management system) and deal with it later.
- When you open each email, read it and take action – either respond and then file it, move it to a ‘To Do’ folder to return to later, or unsubscribe and delete it (or archive if you’re too nervous to permanently delete).
Reaching and maintaining inbox zero is a process just like any other business process; once it is defined and followed you will reap the benefits, and you don’t need to constantly monitor it. In fact, I would recommend that you only check your inbox 2-3 times a day. To utilise your time efficiently, you need to be okay with NOT checking your inbox every time a notification pops up and get over your Fear of Missing Out (or FOMO). FOMO is an even bigger problem with social media, and it seriously sucks the time out of your day. If you only take one thing from this blog then this is it – get over your FOMO!
Time is short – do not spend it living in your inbox. Take these steps today:
- Turn off your email notifications. By having that little notification pop up at the bottom of your screen, you are immediately distracted and will lose focus on what you are doing. This wastes so much time! You will check your email and then have to refocus on what you were doing before the email came in.
- Allocate time to check your emails. I check mine first thing in the morning, around lunchtime and towards the end of the day when I give them my full attention and action them appropriately. The world will not come to an end if you do not respond to an email for 3 hours instead of 3 minutes; if the matter is urgent, the person will call you.
If you need help managing your email and would like to get more organised, then get in touch with 350VA services, I would be happy to help you put systems in place to reach and maintain inbox zero so that you can focus your time on more urgent tasks.