Managing Your Inbox

Sometimes managing my personal inbox as well as my work inbox seems like a full time job. Every morning looking at my inbox seems like an overwhelming task. It is hard to find the right balance and prevent your e-mail from monopolizing all of your time. 

Manage Your Notifications

I am guilty of loving a good sale, so I never want to miss out on any e-mail notifications. A lot of larger companies have different subscription options. I try to opt in to getting only one e-mail notification a week, or only receive e-mails when there is a special promotion or sale. I spent the last week trying to unsubscribe to the millions of subscriptions I accumulated over the years. 

Know Your Priorities 

Flagging e-mails you want to go back to is a good way to organize your inbox. Bills have the highest priority, so I can attend to them before they are due. The rest of my e-mails, I save for my down time; Greatist, Brit+Co and PopSugar send me daily e-mails that I enjoy but I usually skim through them and then flag the e-mail if there are any articles that I may want to read later.

Use Folders

An empty inbox is a clean inbox, so make folders your friend, think of it as an online filing system. For both my professional and private inbox I create folders. Even though there is a search function, it feels so good to clean out my inbox. Once I have completed the task, I move the e-mail to the corresponding folder.

Make a Call

Sometimes going back and forth on e-mail can be a waste a time, especially when I need answers right away, it is best to just pick up the phone. A quick telephone conversation is more efficient than communicating by e-mail.