We’ve all been there, drowning in a sea of emails without the time to go through and decide which ones are important and which ones are not. If you have hit this point, don’t despair, you can clean up your inbox without hitting select all and hitting delete.
While deleting all your emails all at once will clean out your inbox, it is the equivalent of lighting a match and burning down your house in lieu of cleaning. It is not recommended, even though we have all probably done it at least once in our lives. However, most people do not have the time to go through thousands of emails in a sitting. When I cleaned up my email, it would have taken 93 hours if every one of my emails took one minute to open. However, I came up with a long term plan that immediately let me start anew while creating new habits so I did not get in this situation again. How did I do this?
Start fresh
Select all the emails in your junk file and delete them. Odds are you will not delete anything important. If you are worried you may, scan through the emails and see if there are any from anyone you know. This should not take more than a minute or so. Then hit delete. As 99.9% of the emails in this folder is spam, this is easy and probably something you do occasionally already.
Next create a new folder and name it “Old Emails.” Then move ALL your emails into this folder, including your inbox, sent, and all emails in folders. When I did this, I removed all my emails in sub-folders and put them in one giant file. When I was done, I had more than 5600 emails in one file. (Don't worry; there are search and sort options if you really need to find an email fast. It’s not a problem.) This is easier done for personal email, than work, but it can be done for both.
This does a number of things. First, you’ll no longer have an overwhelming list of emails and folders staring at you when you log into your email. You’ll have one folder (in addition to the default files). ONE. I used to over organize my emails into hundreds of files and sub-folders. The problem with this method is eventually there are so many files that it too becomes overwhelming. Plus there are those folders that cause you dread just by looking them. They are the projects you never started or the things you “should” do, and they have sat there for years waiting for you to start working on them. By combining these emails with others, they lose that psychological grip over you. They move to the same level of the thousands of emails that need to be removed from your inbox. I found when I did this I had emails hidden in folders that were more than five years old. Obviously, if I had not started these projects in five years I was never going to start them.
If you are having anxiety about moving all your emails into a singular file, think about re-organizing a room. The most efficient way to organize a room is to remove everything from the room, then sort those items into things that need to be returned to the room in a more organized manner, those that need to go into storage or other rooms, and those that need to be tossed. Email is no different. By removing emails from their “rooms,” in other words, folders, they are now ready to be re-organized and purged.
Look at this new folder as a storage unit where you’ve moved all your belongings. You can put a lock on it and drive away for now. All your emails are still there. They just are not starting at you in the face, and your inbox is EMPTY! There is no stress as they have been removed from your working area, and you can deal with them on your terms over time. It also gives you a clean slate. How to purge this new folder is discussed below.
Create new habits
Now that there are no emails your inbox you can take a new approach as new ones appear. Deal with them immediately as they come in. Does that email require an action? Then act. Now. Does the sender need a response? Then respond. Now. Is there an important date in it? Then transfer that information to your calendar. Now. Is there a bill that needs to be paid? Pay it. Now. Does it need to be deleted? Then delete it. Now. Do you need to download an attachment? Then download it. Now. Complete the action as soon as possible.
Most emails are informational only. When one pops in your inbox, read it, and then make a quick decision if you will need that information later. If you do not, delete it. Now. If it is important to keep the information, create another folder and name it “Keep.” Only move the email to this file once you have completed the action required in the email. This will become your second storage unit for emails. However, use this sparingly. Do not move every email into this folder, only the ones you believe you will need to look at again. There is no need to keep every email you receive. Also, do not move anything over to this file until you have completed the action required in the email. How to maintain this file is also described below.
Do not go to bed with emails in your inbox
Every night before you go to bed, make sure you have an empty in and sent box. Leaving a couple in your inbox will eventually lead up to the thousand email fiasco you most likely are in if you are reading this. If you do not have time to read the link in the email blast you just received, delete it. You will not have the time tomorrow to read it either, and there will only be more emails clogging up your inbox then.
Unsubscribe, unsubscribe, unsubscribe
We are all on email lists. If you never open the emails from certain senders, they provide no value to you. In fact, all they are doing is creating clutter in your inbox and wasting your time. Unsubscribe. It does take a minute or two to take the effort to unsubscribe, but you will be glad once you have. I am on as few email lists as possible, and it has greatly reduced the amount of emails in my inbox.
Use alternative methods of communication
Think twice before sending an email. Once you hit the send button, you now have the burden of storing or removing the email and handling the response. Can you communicate with the recipient in person, by phone, or by text? If you do not need an electronic trail, try an alternative form of communicating that does not create digital clutter.
Divide and conquer
Remember how I said I had more than 5600 personal emails in my “Old Emails” file? How did I go through them all without spending days sitting at a computer reading them all? I divided and conquered. Every day for a year I sorted the emails by date and read those that were written the same day from the year (or years) before. (For example, if today is January 1, remove all the emails from January 1 from last year and years previous.)
You may be thinking, "A year? Come on." The point here is not to remove all your emails and then amass thousands more. The goal is to change your habits to prevent this in the future. It is like going on a crash diet and losing 30 pounds in 30 days. Most people who lose weight quickly will gain it back almost overnight as they did not change their habits. They did something drastic to create quick change instead of changing their habits over time. Going through my old emails took less than five minutes a day as I was only reading about fifteen emails daily. Since they were so old, I could look at the subject line and delete them immediately without opening them knowing they were obsolete. If there was any information I felt necessary to keep, I either downloaded attachments from these emails or saved them to a new folder. However, I kept very few emails. No, I didn’t clean out my emails overnight. It took a year, but at the end of the year all 5600 emails were gone, and I did not have another 5600 replacing them. If I needed to go back and find information from the more recent emails, they were easily accessible. This method can be also used to clean out the “Keep” files. Once a day see if there are any emails older than a year in the “Keep” file and discard them. Once maintaining your emails becomes a daily habit, this will become a quick routine.
If this method is done correctly, you will end up with only six folders: Inbox, Sent, Trash, Junk, Old Emails (which will disappear after a year), and Keep (which will be maintained continuously throughout the year). You will also end up spending considerably less time organizing your emails.
While deleting all your emails all at once will clean out your inbox, it is the equivalent of lighting a match and burning down your house in lieu of cleaning. It is not recommended, even though we have all probably done it at least once in our lives. However, most people do not have the time to go through thousands of emails in a sitting. When I cleaned up my email, it would have taken 93 hours if every one of my emails took one minute to open. However, I came up with a long term plan that immediately let me start anew while creating new habits so I did not get in this situation again. How did I do this?
Start fresh
Select all the emails in your junk file and delete them. Odds are you will not delete anything important. If you are worried you may, scan through the emails and see if there are any from anyone you know. This should not take more than a minute or so. Then hit delete. As 99.9% of the emails in this folder is spam, this is easy and probably something you do occasionally already.
Next create a new folder and name it “Old Emails.” Then move ALL your emails into this folder, including your inbox, sent, and all emails in folders. When I did this, I removed all my emails in sub-folders and put them in one giant file. When I was done, I had more than 5600 emails in one file. (Don't worry; there are search and sort options if you really need to find an email fast. It’s not a problem.) This is easier done for personal email, than work, but it can be done for both.
This does a number of things. First, you’ll no longer have an overwhelming list of emails and folders staring at you when you log into your email. You’ll have one folder (in addition to the default files). ONE. I used to over organize my emails into hundreds of files and sub-folders. The problem with this method is eventually there are so many files that it too becomes overwhelming. Plus there are those folders that cause you dread just by looking them. They are the projects you never started or the things you “should” do, and they have sat there for years waiting for you to start working on them. By combining these emails with others, they lose that psychological grip over you. They move to the same level of the thousands of emails that need to be removed from your inbox. I found when I did this I had emails hidden in folders that were more than five years old. Obviously, if I had not started these projects in five years I was never going to start them.
If you are having anxiety about moving all your emails into a singular file, think about re-organizing a room. The most efficient way to organize a room is to remove everything from the room, then sort those items into things that need to be returned to the room in a more organized manner, those that need to go into storage or other rooms, and those that need to be tossed. Email is no different. By removing emails from their “rooms,” in other words, folders, they are now ready to be re-organized and purged.
Look at this new folder as a storage unit where you’ve moved all your belongings. You can put a lock on it and drive away for now. All your emails are still there. They just are not starting at you in the face, and your inbox is EMPTY! There is no stress as they have been removed from your working area, and you can deal with them on your terms over time. It also gives you a clean slate. How to purge this new folder is discussed below.
Create new habits
Now that there are no emails your inbox you can take a new approach as new ones appear. Deal with them immediately as they come in. Does that email require an action? Then act. Now. Does the sender need a response? Then respond. Now. Is there an important date in it? Then transfer that information to your calendar. Now. Is there a bill that needs to be paid? Pay it. Now. Does it need to be deleted? Then delete it. Now. Do you need to download an attachment? Then download it. Now. Complete the action as soon as possible.
Most emails are informational only. When one pops in your inbox, read it, and then make a quick decision if you will need that information later. If you do not, delete it. Now. If it is important to keep the information, create another folder and name it “Keep.” Only move the email to this file once you have completed the action required in the email. This will become your second storage unit for emails. However, use this sparingly. Do not move every email into this folder, only the ones you believe you will need to look at again. There is no need to keep every email you receive. Also, do not move anything over to this file until you have completed the action required in the email. How to maintain this file is also described below.
Do not go to bed with emails in your inbox
Every night before you go to bed, make sure you have an empty in and sent box. Leaving a couple in your inbox will eventually lead up to the thousand email fiasco you most likely are in if you are reading this. If you do not have time to read the link in the email blast you just received, delete it. You will not have the time tomorrow to read it either, and there will only be more emails clogging up your inbox then.
Unsubscribe, unsubscribe, unsubscribe
We are all on email lists. If you never open the emails from certain senders, they provide no value to you. In fact, all they are doing is creating clutter in your inbox and wasting your time. Unsubscribe. It does take a minute or two to take the effort to unsubscribe, but you will be glad once you have. I am on as few email lists as possible, and it has greatly reduced the amount of emails in my inbox.
Use alternative methods of communication
Think twice before sending an email. Once you hit the send button, you now have the burden of storing or removing the email and handling the response. Can you communicate with the recipient in person, by phone, or by text? If you do not need an electronic trail, try an alternative form of communicating that does not create digital clutter.
Divide and conquer
Remember how I said I had more than 5600 personal emails in my “Old Emails” file? How did I go through them all without spending days sitting at a computer reading them all? I divided and conquered. Every day for a year I sorted the emails by date and read those that were written the same day from the year (or years) before. (For example, if today is January 1, remove all the emails from January 1 from last year and years previous.)
You may be thinking, "A year? Come on." The point here is not to remove all your emails and then amass thousands more. The goal is to change your habits to prevent this in the future. It is like going on a crash diet and losing 30 pounds in 30 days. Most people who lose weight quickly will gain it back almost overnight as they did not change their habits. They did something drastic to create quick change instead of changing their habits over time. Going through my old emails took less than five minutes a day as I was only reading about fifteen emails daily. Since they were so old, I could look at the subject line and delete them immediately without opening them knowing they were obsolete. If there was any information I felt necessary to keep, I either downloaded attachments from these emails or saved them to a new folder. However, I kept very few emails. No, I didn’t clean out my emails overnight. It took a year, but at the end of the year all 5600 emails were gone, and I did not have another 5600 replacing them. If I needed to go back and find information from the more recent emails, they were easily accessible. This method can be also used to clean out the “Keep” files. Once a day see if there are any emails older than a year in the “Keep” file and discard them. Once maintaining your emails becomes a daily habit, this will become a quick routine.
If this method is done correctly, you will end up with only six folders: Inbox, Sent, Trash, Junk, Old Emails (which will disappear after a year), and Keep (which will be maintained continuously throughout the year). You will also end up spending considerably less time organizing your emails.
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