Email overwhelm is a huge drain on time and energy. Fortunately, a few simple routines can help keep it under control and prevent you from being a slave to your inbox.
Get emails out of the inbox.
Nothing makes your email more overwhelming than having an overloaded inbox. It makes it more difficult to find the priority emails; more difficult to retrieve specific emails; and it just makes it harder to look at when you’re overwhelmed. The easiest way to keep the inbox clean is to use one of both of these tools:
Rules are your friend: Use rules (or filters) to move emails out of the inbox on receipt. If there are emails you need or want to keep, but don’t necessarily need to read immediately, set a rule to mark it unread and move it into another folder.
Flags, not just for semaphore: Use flags (or stars) to note emails that require a quick followup. You can also use flags to set reminders for emails that need to be dealt with at some later time or date.
Don’t have an infinite “to do” pile.
It’s so easy to end up with a lovely clean inbox, and an overcrowded, overwhelming “to do” folder. Moving the problem to a different folder doesn’t solve anything. To avoid email overwhelm you need to actually get the emails under control. Two easy ways to do that are:
If you don’t read it, unsubscribe: How many emails do you get per week that are newsletters you don’t read? How many would you rather not be getting, but you just can’t be bothered clicking on the “unsubscribe” link? Make a point today to unsubscribe from any newsletters that come through that you don’t read. It only takes a second.
If it needs action – action it: Sometimes it’s more complicated than that right? But most of the time it’s not. So if you need to reply, send a reply now. If you need to look at something, do it now. If it’s a meeting request, accept it now. The more you get used to dealing with things immediately, the less overwhelming you’ll find your email.
Set aside one or two times per day to deal with email.
Email is one of the greatest time thieves in your day. But only you can decide how much you let it rule your day. A few ways to keep it from intruding all day are:
Check emails less regularly: Set your email program to check for new mail less often, hourly or every 2 hours
Shut it down altogether: If you really can’t stop yourself from checking emails, shut down your email program and only open it during your “dealing with email” times
Don’t get distracted waiting for something important: Set a rule to play a loud noise when emails received from certain clients, or to display notes on screen, or to highlight them in red in your email box. Whatever works to stop you from feeling the need to check your email every 10 minutes to see if that important email arrived.
Commit: Commit to the time to actually handle your emails. If you’re busy it will be far too easy to decide to leave the email for another time. You’ll only end up digging yourself into a deep, deep hole
How to do it?
Just in case you need a little extra help to avoid email overwhelm. Or if you need a little refresher on your email tool of choice. Here are a couple of links to places with information and tutorials on Gmail and Outlook:
Gmail How To’s
- G Suite Learning Centre: What can you do with Gmail
- Learn How to Use Gmail
- Master Gmail With These Tips, Tricks and Tutorials
Outlook How To’s
