Overwhelmed by Email? Here’s the Routine I Use To Get My Inbox Under Control
Why do routines matter? Routines are my way of using the least amount of time ⏱️, effort 💪, and brain power 🧠 on required but mundane tasks. Putting things like inbox clean-up on autopilot allows me to preserve my energy for the things that really matter: spending time with my daughter, focusing on a really important work project, or writing an article like this. This is the first segment in a series highlighting the routines that save me time.
I’ve never been an inbox zero person, but I typically keep an orderly mailbox. Responsiveness is critical in my professional role, but beyond that, I like the mental clarity that comes from knowing I am on top of my correspondence. But email can get out of hand so quickly. Last month was full: big work deadlines, family visiting, weekends packed with birthday parties and outings, and a medical procedure that required a little more recovery time than anticipated. So at the end of the month I sat staring at my inbox, and 1,726 messages stared back. The majority of these emails had been read, but could I be sure that everything that needed a response had gotten one? No.
When I need to quickly get my inbox back under control, I follow these steps. My intent is to move through this process as quickly as possible, resisting the urge to respond to the messages until I get to that part of the system. Note that these instructions are specific to the Outlook desktop app.
Step #1 - Start by running Outlook’s “Clean up folder” automation.
Go to the Folder tab and select the Clean Up Folder button.
This process deletes any redundant emails. For example, if you have a series of ten back-and-forth replies on an email thread, the final email (that includes all previous exchanges) will be preserved in your email, while the first nine messages will be deleted.
Step #2 - Deal with meeting invitations and other non-message items.
Select “Arrange by Type” on the menu in the top right of your inbox. This groups the mailbox by messages, meetings, and other items.
I skip the messages category and jump straight to meetings. I scroll through the different meeting categories and quickly accept or decline new invitations. Then I delete the responses received when someone accepts or declines my invites. I get quite a few auto acceptance messages from our conference room booking system; I also delete these in bulk. Finally, this view also gives you a category for the auto-replies you received from out-of-office colleagues. You can delete these all at once.
Step #3 - Quickly identify other groups of emails that can be deleted.
Next, I look for big batches of emails I can delete without much thought. I do this by sorting my inbox by sender. Navigate back to the “Arrange by” menu in the top right and select “Arrange by From.”
I scroll through my inbox and look for entire sets of emails that can be deleted. Think: newsletters, irrelevant, or spam notifications. Above you can see a batch of quarantined messages that I can quickly review and delete. During this step, I’m skipping messages from clients and colleagues and simply looking for things to delete. If I have a few extra minutes, I also use this as an opportunity to unsubscribe from irrelevant mail lists or emails I never signed up for.
Step #4 - Sort through the more important content. Delete, file, or flag.
At this point, I sort by “Subject” so I can see email threads in their entirety and deal with the whole conversations at once.
For each message, I take one of three actions:
- Delete emails that are unimportant and will not be needed in the future.
- File emails that do not require further action but may be referenced in the future. My inbox contains a series of folders for each of the projects I am working on, as well as general categories that relate to recurring tasks.
- Flag emails that require follow-up or a response. I do not respond to emails during my review process; I just keep sorting.
Step #5 - Review flagged emails.
Finally, I have a clear group of emails that require further attention. If I’m tight on time, I may stop at the end of step four and hold additional time on my calendar to review and respond to the flagged emails. If I can manage it all in one sitting, I finish my inbox clean-up by responding to flagged messages.
Welcome to your organized inbox! What tips do you have for efficiently managing your inbox or other mundane tasks?