It’s Time to Clean Your Email Inbox (2024)

Bill & Phil

OLD-FASHIONED METHODS (MANUAL CLEANUP)

There many methods for manual cleanup. It seems that, like opinions, everybody has one. The question is, though, which ones actually work? We’ll try to summarize and synthesize them here — in other words, we’ll try to “declutter” the methods for you.

The first step is to delete the items that are clearly trash at the outset. One easy way to get this done is to sort your email inbox by sender. Simply delete social media messages, retail ads, past event reminders, delivery confirmations, out-of-date newsletters, etc. Then sort again by subject line and do the same thing. In other words, delete the emails from senders or with topics whose messages are no longer important.

The next step is to clean out your oldest messages. Start with the oldest unread messages and deal with them. Then go to the oldest messages that you have already read and responded to. If they are no longer needed in your inbox, archive them and/or put them into folders by category.

Speaking of folders, the next step is to create folders and labels that apply to topics or senders that have several messages that would fall into the same category. But be careful — creating too many categories will defeat the purpose. Add “labels” or Outlook “categories” to further organize each folder. Then create an “on hold” folder for emails that you cannot decide whether to keep, act upon or file. Work on this folder when you are on a break. Do not keep the items in this folder for more than one week.

Now, you should be left with only emails that need action. If you can act on the email in two minutes, go ahead and “git ’er done.” If you need more time, add it to your to-do list and send yourself a notification to remind you to do it.

The last step is to keep the clutter from coming back. Set up filters in Gmail or Outlook to automatically sort emails into categories for response. Again, if you can respond quickly, go ahead and respond right away.

Of course, Bill insisted that we include advice from his hero, organizing consultant Marie Kondo. Her steps are as follows. First, tidy your home. This will heighten your sensitivity to joy and help you learn to choose what is valuable to you. Then start on your digital cleanup, which must be done all at once. Fully commit yourself to tidying. Then begin making decisions. First, does the email “spark joy”? If the answer is yes, put it into a “spark joy” folder. Then, create an “important documents” folder and put the emails you need to keep in that folder. Delete the rest.

Stop keeping komono — what Kondo calls items we keep “just because.” If the item is not important or doesn’t “spark joy,” thank it for its service and let it go with gratitude. Then begin to organize the rest into folders. Keep the folders simple. Kondo recommends only “saved” and “unprocessed.” Use the search function to find emails you are looking for. Delete or archive emails when you are finished with them, but, again, thank them for their service.