Living in the digital age means we are constantly sifting through notifications – emails, reminders, lists, messages, tasks, late night emails from coworkers about something they need first thing tomorrow. Keeping on top of your work, let alone just your email inbox, can easily get out of hand if you don’t have a system in place to manage it. If you’re anything like me, the unread notifications number that shows up on your email app on your phone must be cleared daily to reduce the anxiety and overwhelm of everything that’s on your plate right now. I see some people's notifications reach over 500 and I swear it gives me an instant heart attack!
In this blog, I’ll walk you through the 5 hacks I take to avoid the “heart attack” and stay on top of my inbox. Essentially, what we are aiming for here is a clean, simple and manageable inbox. The 5 hacks I use are:
After implementing these hacks, your emails will feel cleaner, more manageable and you’ll instil some healthy inbox habits in no time.
Hack #1 - Tags
My grandmother always used to say to me “don’t put it down, put it away”. While she was referencing the items all over the floor of my room as a child, her words have resonated with me for years and are surprisingly relevant when it comes to keeping your email inbox under control.
For anyone who isn’t using Gmail, tags are basically the same as folders.
Everything you do in your email inbox should have a tag that you can allocate any related emails to. This serves two purposes:
It’s a legacy bonus - all the required information about that one topic or category is easily located in one place and easily accessible. It can be used for archiving and historical purposes, so you don’t lose track of past communications or actions.
It’s put in its place - it’s clean, simple and manageable.
Once you have your tags set up, you can implement the “don’t put it down, put it away” mentality by adding new emails to the specified tags and putting them in their place.
Spend some time thinking about how you want to set up your tags in a way that suits your workflow and the type of email inbox you're managing. You want the system to work for you, not have you working for the system. It’s also important to remember that you can have sub tags under your main tags as well.
As an example, here’s how I’ve set up my tagging system, including sub tags.
Projects - under this tag I have a sub tag for all current projects on my plate.
Operations - this tag operates as a single tag that gets renamed to include the year at the EOFY.
Marketing - this tag operates as a single tag that gets renamed to include the year at the EOFY.
Admin - this tag operates as a single tag that gets renamed to include the year at the EOFY.
Development - under this tag I have sub tags for different types of development
Finance - under this tag I have sub tags for the different types of finances e.g. invoicing, receipts.
Other - try to avoid this as much as possible so you don’t dilute the purpose of this inbox.
Archive - this is a tag I’ve set up to separate my archived folders from Google’s archive function.
When an email pops into my inbox, I will read it, figure out what needs to be done with it, then immediately add it to a relevant tag. For example, is it information, does it require follow up, does it require action etc?
If it does require follow up or action, hack #3 and #4 will show you the steps to ensure you don’t miss it, while still being able to add it into a relevant tag.
Hack #2 - Naming Conventions
Naming conventions are something I am a stickler for. Without clear, consistent naming conventions, things get messy and harder to stay on top of. The naming conventions I use in my Gmail are the same naming conventions I use in my Google Drive, in my Google Calendar and on my computer. This ensures no matter what system I am using, or where I am, when I need to find something I know exactly where to go. It’s easy, it’s manageable and most importantly, it’s quick.
In this instance, my naming conventions apply to my tags. If a project is named #1000 - project name on my Google Drive then in my email tags, under the main project tag, I am also going to have a sub tag named #1000 - project name.
Check it out!
Naming conventions are important, because they are clean, simple and manageable. The bonus is that they are something you can use across systems!
Hack #3 - Stars
Stars are great to help you manage emails that require follow up. Say you’ve received an email about a task that is due in a few days, or where someone has said in the email that they’ll have the deliverable to you by X-date, and you want to be ready to follow up.
It flows like this:
If you’re working in Gmail, you have the ability to choose different coloured stars. I find using coloured stars makes it easier and cleaner, but even just a generic star, or a flag if you’re operating in a different platform works great as well.
The purpose here is to keep your follow up section easily accessible and not flooded with other things that can distract you.
Hack #4 - Tasks
Tasks are excellent for emails that require action. Say it’s Wednesday and you receive an email where someone asks you to send through an updated file by Friday. You know you’re going to need a day to get the file ready and can’t send it through straight away so you’re going to add a task for the actionable step.
It flows like this:
Now I like being on one platform, so when it comes to emails I use Google Tasks because it’s all there available to me in one place, and it syncs with my calendar too. If you’re not using Google, you can use an external task management system, or even a note - but in this case, I would suggest starring the email too. With Google Tasks, when I select the add task function from the email, it attaches the email to the task and makes it nice and easy to bring it back up.
The purpose here is to keep your action items easily accessible and to ensure you meet that deadline.
Hot Tip: If you’re looking to increase your productivity and time management when it comes to taking action, check out Getting Things Done by David Allen.
Hack #5 - Archiving
This archiving hack is two fold and aims to declutter your inbox. The first part is to manually update tags that require archiving. The second part uses the built in archive feature.
Manual Archiving This is where I use my ‘8. Archive’ tag. I mentioned earlier that I use my projects tag for all current projects - once a project is completed I move it into my archived projects tag. Again these hacks are all aimed at keeping my inbox clean, simple and manageable. Once something is complete, I don’t need to see it everyday, but I want to put it somewhere where I can easily go back and check it out if I need to.
Built In Archive
This is essentially for everything else that doesn’t fit into the above. You keep it for historical purposes, but the likelihood that you’ll need to reference it again is very slim. I use the built in archiving system in Google for emails where people have accepted calendar invites, shared documents, or general day to day things that don’t fit into the important category.
Conclusion
There you have it, 5 hacks that will completely transform your inbox into something clean, simple and manageable. No more notification numbers reaching 500+, no more missed deadlines or forgotten emails. Everything has a place and follows a clean process using these 5 easy hacks:
Tag it
Name it
Star it
Task it
Archive it
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