Simplify your email already

Simplify your email already

I’ve got a system for managing email, its pretty simple, it doesn’t require a lot of time. It requires almost no effort and it will make your life less cluttered, hectic, and save you TIME!

The inbox email management system:

You only need the following mail folders in your life:

1. Inbox
2. Processed
3. Sent
*The image above is the default folder structure in Outlook, items like Archive, Groups are built in, but not used*

Mail clients have advanced substantially, the need to file in folders like your physical file cabinet, have long past. Stop doing activities that take time to move messages around. Use the built in search capabilities of the client to power find exactly the message you need.

How it works:

When you have read and processed the message, you either delete the message or save it to the processed folder, allowing you to work towards inbox zero.

This does two things:

  1. Reduce anxiety of having thousands of messages in your inbox.
  2. In combination with Inbox zero, forces you to address the email and move it along its life, ideally to an end as quickly as possible.

If you elect to save an email, and there are legit reasons to do so, move it to processed. Where the only time you will go looking for it is in the search box of the email client of your choice.

That’s it!! Super simple way to manage email, keep the time short and reclaim control over your inbox and your digital life.