Four steps to a more manageable inbox

Well, 2020 has certainly been a roller coaster of a year for most of us. Is it the reduced travelling and more screen time, I wonder, that has exposed me to so many more emails, subscriptions, webinars, newsletters and podcasts? At times, I’ve found the onslaught of material aimed at supporting my wellbeing and development overwhelming and a little stressful. Somewhat contradictory, I know. As a keen learner, I initially wanted to embrace it all. And I found a lot of it valuable. Some of it less so.

It’s taken me a while to realise that I need to be more selective and organised if my inbox was to retain any sense of order. I routinely go through my wardrobe in spring and summer, to put away out-of-season clothes and pass on the unworn items. And I know how good this decluttering feels afterwards. So, I thought I’d try a decluttering of my inbox.

If you’re struggling to manage the volume of yours but fearful of FOMO (fear of missing out) if you mass unsubscribe, here are my tips for four steps that helped me to get control of things:

1. See what you’re getting – sounds obvious but you may be surprised how many different sources you’re receiving information from. Change your inbox to sort by ‘from’. If you haven’t had a tidy up for a while, you’ll see which are the most frequent mailings from this too. Identify any that you’re really not getting any value from and unsubscribe without giving this too much thought.

2. Create rules – You probably already know that Outlook will kindly direct content to folders you’ve set up if you ask it to. (If you don’t know how to do this, feel free to message me and I’ll happily talk you through it.) Set up folders for the regular emails you get and then set aside time once a week to go through the folder, only keeping anything that you definitely think you’d like to look at. Just look at the title, not the content and be fairly ruthless. Too much deliberation risks spoiling the process.

3. Create a content library – Copy links to all the things you’d like to go back to in one document. Keep the document somewhere handy. I tend to keep mine in my iCloud rather than my desktop, because then I can access it on my phone and iPad too. When you’ve done this, delete the emails.

4. Diarise reading/watching/listening time – I know I am a devil for distraction. And suddenly, that ‘quick article’ has stolen an hour of my time. If you’re going to spend time looking at things you’ve been sent, better to plan for that time. Think about theming your content, so that you look at things on the same topic together. For example, you might theme all the content that helps you keep control and manage your work (hello!). That way, you’ll benefit from different views on a topic so that you can choose your own. Delete the links as you read them and file the content if you want to keep it for later reference.

Key throughout the sorting process is not to delve into any content. Make a decision based on the heading whether you’re going to keep or ditch. If you use your sorting time to just take a quick peek at the content, frankly you’re doomed. I speak from experience. Suddenly, you’re three links away from the original source and engrossed in something that is not going to help you get organised. (Unless you got here that way of course.)

Good luck with your decluttering. Let me know how you get on.