Email Tranquility - Strategies to Find Your Inbox Happy Place

How many emails do you have in your inbox? If your answer ends in "thousand," you might want to sit down because I'm going to tell you how many I have in mine: FIVE. You read that right, I have 5 emails in my inbox right now. In fact, I have a 10 emails or less rule in my inbox. So how (and WHY?!) do I do it?

Before we begin, I want to assuage your fears that I can't possibly get as many emails as you do each day. Perhaps not, but I do get over 100 emails some days and still follow this system.

Clear It Out

The first step to email tranquility is to clear out enough that you have a manageable amount to sort. I've sat next to people in meetings and noticed that they have thousands of unread emails. How do they find anything?! If this describes you, sort your emails by date and delete anything over a year old.

​If you just can't click the trigger, your email may have an archive function, where the email is taken out of your inbox but is not deleted. If your email system does not have an archive function, you could create a folder for each school year to get those emails out of your inbox. 

You may decide that you still have too many emails to handle one by one. Do you have unread emails that are more than a week old? Delete them. Do you have spam emails from advertisers? Delete them. You can delete whole batches of emails by using the sort features within your inbox. 

One by One

Now that you've slimmed down your inbox, it's time to make some choices. I use 4 different actions for email management: 

• Delete It
• File It
• Save It
• Do It

These actions will apply to new emails when they come in, but, for now, we're trying to get your current inbox under control. Open up the oldest email in your now slimmer inbox and quickly decide on one of these four actions. Depending on the number of emails, you may need to set aside chunks of time to complete this task. I highly recommend the Pomodoro Technique for productive time management. 

Delete It

Marketing, old memos, emails you were copied on for some unknown reason, notices about copiers that have long been fixed, we could go on and on with emails you don't need. Don't need it? Delete it?

File It

But what if you might need it? File or archive it. If you use gmail or other more modern email systems, you can easily search for emails so archiving might be the best solution. In my district, we use a not-so-modern version of email where the search function is very difficult to use. I created folders for typical topics: 

• Staff Info: schedules, updates, links for PD, etc.
• Parent Communication: emails from parents or from teachers about parents 
• Intervention Team, Leadership, etc: folders for each team or committee that I am a part of
• Central Office: emails sent from central office that has information I may need again

​You create the folders that work for you!

Save It

Does the email have an attachment you will need in the future? Go ahead and save it so that you can delete the email. Hunting in your inbox is not an effective way to find documents, future you will thank you. 

If you have a not-so-modern email system (like me!), you may fill up your allotted data space. If this happens, you need to save old emails so that you can delete from your email server. My email system has a "Save as PDF" function and I will save that in my dropbox so that I can reference the information easily. Occasionally, I will save a PDF version of an email that includes information I know I will need frequently.

Do It

Many emails contain an action needed on your part. These are the only emails that stay in my inbox. In that way, my inbox is like a "to-do" list. In the 5 emails I have in my inbox right now I need to:

1. check access in a system my district uses
2. follow up with someone about scheduling PD
3. receive a reply from someone and don't want to forget about it
4. add information on a collaborative document
5. follow up about running a particular report on our information system

Five emails = 5 to do items. Once I complete the item, I either delete it, file it, or save it depending on whether I will need that information in the future. Some people use flags, stars, and other strategies to differentiate items in their inbox. This might help you as you are starting on the journey to 10 or less emails. Since I have so few emails in my inbox, I don't use this strategy often for myself.

You did it! You whittled your number of emails down to just your to-do list. Have more than 10? Get working on those to-do's! The next step is the most important, keep doing it! You must delete it, file it, save it, or do it every single day. When I have more than 10 emails in my inbox, I know I need to spend some time organizing my email so it doesn't get out of control. The best thing about this process is that it takes LESS time to manage your email and you are MORE on top of follow up, replies, and to-do list items. 

So fill us in - how many emails are in your inbox right now??? Can you get to 10 or less? I challenge you to change.