Did you know that the average person roughly spends 28 percent of their time—that’s 13 hours in an average workweek—reading and responding to emails? That adds up to several months of your life every year…yikes!
Want to reallocate a few of those hours to doing just about anything else and reach ‘inbox zero’ in the process? We thought so. Ahead, find six clever tricks that will help you organise your inbox in no time.
Allocate time
If you’re easily distracted by emails during the day, schedule time slots to respond, delete and sort through your inbox.
Send less
It goes without saying that the less you email, the less you will receive. So, always keep your responses short and concise, and address everything you need to in one go.
Create folders
Folders will instantly make your inbox so much more organised. Start by siphoning off emails into different folders labelled by subject, sender or deadline.
Archive
If you want to keep an email but don’t want it gathering dust in your inbox, archiving is a great solution. Essentially, you’re untagging emails from your inbox, but you can still search for it if you need to find it later.
Create templates
Do you find yourself always sending the same emails over and over again? Create templates so you don’t have to write an entirely new email each time. This will leave more time for important matters (like actually getting work done).
Unsubscribe
Subscriptions can be one of the biggest causes of clutter in your inbox. But, if you still want to be notified of the Sephora VIB sale we suggest setting up an alternate email account dedicated to e-newsletters. Then, use a service like Unroll Me to unsubscribe from the subscriptions linked to your current account.