How to clean out your email inbox and keep it from getting cluttered again.

If you feel like you’re spending more time managing your email than managing your business, it’s time to make a change. Check out these tips to help to get the daily deluge of emails under control.

Start with a clean slate

It’s not necessary to go through messages individually to organize your inbox. Create a new folder named something like “Email Cleanup” and move all your current messages there. Just like that, you have a clean slate. Then move on to implementing the following practices to keep your inbox clean.

Automate filing for incoming messages

Set up smart folders to sort incoming messages. For example, you could have one folder for each client and one for each supplier. You can target emails by sender or key words. All new incoming emails that meet the folder’s criteria will automatically go to the assigned folder.

Unsubscribe to things you don’t read

Open your Email Cleanup folder and sort messages by sender. Identify subscriptions you don’t read, unsubscribe and then delete messages in mass.

If you’re not ready to unsubscribe to certain things, create a smart folder for subscriptions so you don’t have to wade through them each day.

Set designated times for email

One way to avoid having email take over your day is to only check messages at scheduled times throughout the day. When you do attend to email, sort as you go to keep your inbox from getting cluttered again. Respond to anything that requires immediate action. For anything that remains pending create a “waiting” folder. Another useful tool is a “delegate” folder for things you hand off to others.

If you don’t have the discipline to only check email at scheduled times, change your email settings to only send batches of emails at designated times.

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