How I got control of my Inbox (finally)

I just read another post about how to organize email, and decided to share with you my story, in case it helps you—or helps you help a client who might be like me.

I was the person who kept everything in my Inbox because I hated to file. I hated taking the time to figure out where something should go, and in truth, I never found an email filing system that really worked for me. I’d tried filing by name, by project, by keyword, by client—sometimes putting things in multiple places, just in case I couldn’t remember where I’d put it. I even tried creating filters that would automatically file things for me. That ended up being a nightmare as my life got more complex and I became a filter-creating freak!

Ultimately, the Inbox seemed like just as good a place to stash stuff as any.

I remember doing a work weekend with Dawn, who hates having stuff in her Inbox. She likes it to be all cleaned out, as, in part, it lets her know that nothing’s outstanding. I remember thinking that my inbox with thousands and thousands of things in it would have put her right round the bend.

I wanted control of my email, too, but simply wasn’t finding a way to achieve that. I assume many people stuggle with this—because if they didn’t, no one would still be writing about it.

And then I bought a fabulous book that I simply can’t recommend highly enough, called Upgrade Your Life. It’s a compilation of efficiency tips from the oh-so popular Lifehacker blog. 

Tip # 1 made the purchase price of the book all worth it for me. The upshot of it, for me, was this:

Don’t file your email. Just archive it. Get it out of your inbox so it doesn’t take up mental space, but just throw it all together in one big archive. Then, when you need something, search for it, and it will be there.

Omgosh…it was like someone had handed me the simplest, most elegant solution to my email challenge. Just archive it? Really?

So I did. And in one fell swoop, went from 5,000+ pieces of email in my Inbox to zero. I remember looking at the empty inbox and feeling a tad uncomfy with that too, but I gotta tell you—I got over it pretty quickly.

That was a couple of years ago, and like any system that gets tweeked to the individual using it, this one is tweeked to me.

I now have a one/two punch for email. I look at new mail, delete any I know I don’t care to read, and then read what’s left, one at a time—afterwards taking whatever appropriate action needs taking (replying, forwarding, etc.), and then either leave it in my Inbox (I use my Inbox to hold anything I need to do. I could have created folders for stuff to be done, stuff awaiting reply, etc., but I keep the number of things in my Inbox so low, that keeping them right in front of my face is just as easy for me), delete it, or archive it.

I originally started creating the occasional folder for things I needed to collect—like registrations for teleclasses. And then I realized that Search would gather them all up for me, anyway, and I stopped.

So email comes in, and gets dealt with and moved out of my way. It really is that simple—and that easy!

Bit O’Moxie: I’m asked every day about my systems, as well as systems I know about for any number of things that need to get done. And while I know a whole bunch of systems, what I know for sure is that what works for one person may not work for another. There is no magic bullet (not even this ultra-simple email system will work for everyone!). What ultimately matters most is that your systems work for you. Keep looking at other systems, but when you find something that works for you, and works well (my definition of that is that it’s intuitive for you, not time or brain consuming, and easily repeated—every time) stop looking for something bigger or better. Be happy with what works—too few people ever really find something like that, and spend countless amounts of energy in pursuit of the perfect system. Sometimes good enough is actually so!

Comments

[Merri Taylor, Here2Assist]

I sooo needed this tip! Current email count for work inbox = 5922. Current email count at home is probably triple that! I've set up catagories of file folders and found that many email topics fit across several and when a filing system becomes too complex, I don't use it. It doesn't get much simpler than putting everything that no longer requires action in the archive folder. Thanks Stacy! Now I'm off to do something about my 89 saved voice mail messages. :)

[Valerie Crowley]

I just started doing this, too. What a relief. I've also bypassed any email client and simply use Gmail which allows me to add labels before I archive.