55 thoughts on “Let’s talk about emails. I’m drowning, not waving.”
Ha ha. So cute!
I am the type that reads/replies/files (or deletes) emails as they come in (or in batches when busy). That way the only messages left in my inbox are ones that I have read and need to do somethign with (an invitation with details, a project, favour for somene etc). That way it is not overwhelming.
If it does get overwhelming I make a list so that I can get those messages outta the inbox.
Another key thing for me is that I unsubscribed from ALL the mailing lists that were sending me junk. I really believe that the email notification continally going off causes stress/tension (ah – must reply). I wanted to stop getting all the ‘junk’ (sale! coupon! new product!) emails that I was getting. Good luck! 🙂
Hope that helps!
I can’t stand having unread mails in my inbox so I have none at the moment. But saying that, I probably get one or two emails that actually need action from me a week in my personal inbox. Work is a different story! I think I left my inbox tonight with about fifteen emails needing a response!
Well I certainly don’t get THAT many emails but I usually do a fairly good job of keeping mine in order. I have both addresses to to my macbook Mail program and I generally respond pretty quickly. Once I have, I file the email or delete it so that it’s out of my inbox. If it’s something I can’t do right away or I need to think about it a bit more, I’ll flag it and leave it in my inbox so I don’t forget about it.
329. That’s just in one of them.
Ha ha! I can beat ya — mine’s currently standing at 16912 unread. 🙂 I haven’t dared ask it how many messages are in there in total. It’s a lot! (And NONE of those are spam — I have a VERY good spam and junk filter that throws those away unseen.)
I have 844 unread emails sitting in my inbox and that is with me making a conscious effort to unsubscribe, delete new and old emails at least once a week. The task is so daunting!!! Let me know when you find a solution to get to 0, I’m trying to get there. 🙂
I’m going to answer real quick because as of opening your email subscription I. have. ZERO. But this morning I had over 300 which I’m sure is nothing compared to what you get!!! Hugs! Oh and … delete, delete, delete!
I have 3. I have four email address that only average maybe 30 every morning. So honestly, it doesn’t take me that long to plow through them first thing (I work a night job at the moment.) Then as the day progresses, I deal with any new messages pretty much as soon as I get them. Most of them only take either a moment to read or respond, so I find dealing with them immediately doesn’t distract too much from whatever I was doing before it interrupted. I know others may not find this to be the case. And in the rare occasions that an email does require more time/action than I’m ready to give at that time, I make great use of the tag system in Thunderbird. I often have several emails tagged as “to do” or “important” for future reference. These are dealt with when I have a bigger chunk of time to dedicate.
I suggest setting rules, so they auto sort in folders. Then you can answer most important first. I read-respond-delete or move to folder.
14 for work, 7 for personal (all my personal/blog accounts get forwarded to one address). For work, I leave things unread if I haven’t done it yet. I also use the Google Tasks function to make a to-do/to-respond list. For personal, I just go through it a couple times a week (at work, naughty naughty) and clear it out/respond. I went through awhile back and did a huge unsubscribe purge that helps with the daily email count, but a lot of it is just diligence.
Hire an assistant. I’m currently unemployed and I love emails. (Hint!) 😉 Mine are down to about 3 at the moment across all my accounts. I find that filters for mail that comes in from various places really helps me keep on top of things.
My husband teases me because I have 5227 unread emails in my inbox. Now I can tell him I’m an amateur! Thanks!!
The Tooheys Draft! The Winnie Reds! That is my childhood, right there as well.
The email thing can drive one crazy. I tend to put some time aside and then sort it by sender, so I can delete all the twitter and Facebook notifications and reader comments that disquss sends me. Next, delete all stuff from family and friends which I would have actioned straight away. Then I delete all the troll stuff and have a bit of a laugh.
This sets me up to tackle the stuff that needs addressing.
Failing that, I delete the lot and promise myself that I will action each piece of mail that comes in on the spot. And this lasts a day.
Have fun with your Mum! xxx
I use MS office and I have set up automatic categories for some things but each morning I go through them and tick whether they are today or can wait to the end of the week emails.. Then I use my task list to keep on top of what to do. Not sure of that will work for you but it helps me keep on top and I usually leave with <10 emails in my inbox by Friday…
I am on an ‘unsubscribe’ path at the moment with retail store emails. There are two unread messages in my inbox. I check it twice or three times a day, read what I want to, delete what I don’t, and file those that need keeping. But I certainly don’t get anywhere the number of daily emails and have only one account.
616…
One mailbox has about 600 unread, another about 200, and another 0. I have no idea how many “read” ones there are, LOL! I regularly go through and delete, but they still build up. I action those that require a response pretty much straight away, otherwise they get lost! How important are they to you, Chantelle? If they’re important, perhaps schedule a time each day to manage the day’s email, and create folders for filing into categories so that you can prioritise the work. If they’re not important, delete the lot and start afresh, and accept the number will build up again. 😉
Your photos are so cute! I’m glad you found some childhood photos.
218 unread. Stuff. Decided wasn’t I portent enough to read (ie take up my time). I should’ve deleted them, but plan to unsubscribe to a lot of those. Auto sort into folders is helpful.
OMG i am in the same boat as yours regarding emails!! I have just over 300 unread emails that need attention but with all the other tasks running a business needs ARGH can’t wait to see the comments!
Maybe 12? Those 12 would have come in since I logged off at 8pm last night though.
I have an email address system. I have one email address that is for personal use (friends and family). I have another that is for junk mail (store clubs, shopping sites, discount sites etc). I have another for my blog.
The personal account is checked numerous times a day, and replied to at the time of reading. The blog account is checked once a day (generally it doesn’t get much mail) and is dealt with reasonably quickly. The junk mail account I skim and if nothing grabs me I delete straight away. If something grabs me I leave it in the inbox.
I couldn’t cope with that many unread emails!
I love the way you work. x
I control my e-mails – they don’t control me. I have a gmail account which is where all my subscriptions go – if i sign up to anything online that is the one I use – I check that maybe once a week. For my personal emails at home (and my work ones too) I set up rules and folders – one for each of my yahoo groups – ones from my blog – one from my family members – jokes and so on – the family members get read first and respond or delete – then Yahoo groups – and so on down the line. Facebook, goodreads and twitter emails stay in the inbox and they get deleted straight away as I have notifications alert me when I hit the webpages. Right now I have no unread emails at home – and there are a few sitting here waiting for me at work this morning so I will work on them.
Can you tell me more about rules? Is this on Mac? Sounds impressive!
I have a MacBook air – I use the mail program that comes with it and with the apple iCloud the rule transfers to my iPhone mail and iPad mail.
First create the mailboxes you want eg Mum; school; etc then click on an email you want to set a rule up for (don’t have to open it – just highlight it) then click on Mail – Preferences – Rules.
A box will pop up and will have something like rule 1 in a field – call the rule whatever you want eg mum then use the drop down boxes to set your rule – eg from mum@home.com move to mum box then save – cant remember if it then gives you the option to run the rule on all in your inbox straight away – or just starts from the next one.
if you type mail rules in the help section it may explain it better – maybe try setting up one and see how it goes.
Hope this helps
Fabulous photos!! So cute.
On the email thing – I also receive a lot. A LOT. So I’ve, regrettably, taken to hitting the delete button, but only on obvious spam or mail that is not personally addressed to me. I then make sure I block that address so they can’t keep at it.
The rest of it, I answer straight away OR:
– send a generic ‘thanks but no thanks’ email I have in my draft folder
– unsubscribe or politely request unsubscription from those who’ve decided to add me to something; yes, even friends
– if there’s something I can’t respond to now, I flag it for later – then once a week I check the flags
– colour-coding priorities or subject matter is a great idea (you can do this in Outlook)
– some people do auto archive but I don’t because you can miss stuff
Every month, I set aside time to sort emails according to sender, then I scroll through and delete anything that’s not really relevant. I then ‘archive’ anything I want to keep.
I’ve also recently made the decision to keep emails really short and sweet wherever possible. If I don’t, I could spend 20 hours a day on emailing alone.
Good luck, sweet one!
x
I loathe emails in my inbox and cannot bear unread emails so I have learned to scan and determine immediately (like as soon as it drops in my inbox) what kind of action it will require. I bet the bulk of your emails are PR things related to your blog C so can you develop a standard response:
1. Delete anything that is not addressed to you personally
2. Send your media kit to all the rest with a standard message
Then for the ‘questions’ type emails, or the seekings advice type emails, can you do what Nicole Avery does and take the ‘no more than 3 lines’ approach? I bet most questions can be answered by something you or someone else has already written in a blog post somewhere. So polite greeting followed by ‘here’s a great blog post on the topic here’
Also, I only subscribe to two blogs via email and have unsubscribed from every newsletter and other unnecessary mailing that I may have inadvertently subscribed for 🙂
And finally, because I use my inbox as my to do list, if there are several emails in there related to one job, I file all but one of those emails. So long as there is one in my inbox, I know whee the others are when I need to refer to them 🙂
I won’t tell you how many emails are in my inbox but it’s less than 20
I can really recommend the book ‘Getting Things Done (David Allen)’ that uses a zero Inbox policy. It gets you to look at your Inbox as the place of unsorted stuff, then teaches you how to review each day & week to keep it at zero.
Oh goodness, I love the pictures! 🙂
With emails I tend to organise a series of folders and then when I’ve responded or read them I pop them away. This then leaves me with a clear inbox of to dos and helps me feel a bit more on top of things. Simple to do and once you have done it you will feel ahmazing!
I recently cleaned out my inbox of thousands of emails. It took some time and some sweat and tears, but it is done and I can’t believe what a burden has lifted. That was A LOT of excess baggage weighing me down and I didn’t even know it until it was gone.
Deleting emails as I go really isn’t an option (I just know myself too well) so I don’t put that undue pressure on myself. But a couple of times a week (you know the times, when you’ve checked all your mail, caught up on your blog reading/writing, checked all your favorite social networking sites blah, blah, blah… but you’re not ready to peel yourself away from the computer yet) I just delete emails. If I need to keep them (say, until an event happens or a product arrives) I don’t stress about it. I just delete it the next week (or whenever). If it is an email I need on an ongoing basis (like, information about my son’s scouting projects) I create a folder for such things. Then I immediately drag and drop that email into said folder. If I wait, chances are it won’t ever make it in, and then I’ll have to search for it – if I even remember I have it at all.
Certainly this system would make any truly organized person cringe, but it works for me. And I have a “New Year’s Resolution” (even though it’s September) to be better. So far it has been a month and I’m not great at it, but I’m better (and hey, that was my goal, right?)
Having that red number so low is motivating to keep it that way, so it makes me reply to emails quicker than I might otherwise would as well.
Such good photos! Have never seen the top one before. Mum is so skinny…must be the ciggies and the tooheys can! So I have the worlds neatest inbox. Tips are 1. create folders such as receipts, keep-sake, general etc, then 2. each day or two as you read them either file them into your folders or DELETE! 3. Unsubscribe to whatever you don’t need. 4. Cancel as many accounts as you can by contacting important contacts like phone network, ATO and telling them your most used email account, lastly 5. If you have a bill to pay for example, and are not ready to pay it yet and therefore neither file or delete applies, then mark it as unread until you have paid it = neat inbox. Ps Ask your lil sister nicely and she may just do it for you xx Jen
I just set up a heap of folders so I can find things easily, separating work projects, family and friends. Then I just sort my emails into “from” and then delete in huge chunks the junky emails, if I am no longer interested in getting specific offers I unsubscribe from them first. then I just drag a drop batches into folders, it is surprisingly quick and you’ll be surprised how many emails you just delete, don’t stress about doing it in one hit, just go back to it a couple of times 🙂
I love having pretty empty inbox and I can easily find emails again by searching int he right folder or if you think it could be in a couple of places then you can just search the main folder and it will search all the sub folders 🙂
I use gmails tags/folders. Once you set up folders/tags for different themes [i.e. work, family, friends, blog, etc.] if you assign each one a color scheme you have the option of leaving an email in your inbox with a tag or moving it to the folder. When I check my email I instantly tag everything with where it belongs & delete the junk. Then, I read things based on the tags. Once read, I move emails that I want to keep to their respective folders. Typically if something needs further attention I will leave it in the inbox, but it will be tagged and marked as read so I will not stress about it. Every couple of weeks I will look through the tagged emails in the inbox and decided if they still require some attention…in a way it works as a sort of to-do list! Good luck 🙂
Great advice. Thank you. x
Apologies for my responsibility for at least 10 of those 13607 and mine were hefty with attachments!!! Sorry!
I’m hopeless with email sorting etc but my hub is a guru. He deletes things he doesn’t need straight away and has things automatically filed in different folders. I have almost every email I’ve ever sent or received!!! No wonder our computer has no space….. 😉
You and I are alike! And your emails are always welcome in my inbox. Thanks. xx
PS you are sooooo cute!!!! Love the dress!xo
Thank you!
I don’t freakin’ know but I want to know. I hate, hate, hate the email chain. Hello. I am in the room. Please don’t email me your question, get up and walk over and tell me, or hey, if you can’t leave YouTube or Facebook, then pick up the phone. Why don’t people phone more – quick conversation can be so much quicker. Hey, email me and I’ll give you my number. Tee hee.
I couldn’t understand that about working in a company either. Weirdness.
I was sitting here thinking “I don’t have many. What are these women on about…” then I checked my outlook. I have 3237… Guess what I am doing now?
I have ZERO emails in my inbox. I read then delete. If I need to keep it, I slip it in another folder. I cannot stand having anything in my inbox. It makes me twitchy.
Wow! If I had 13607 emails in my inbox, I probably wouldn’t read them either! My inbox has 5 unread emails…although I haven’t checked my second email tonight…but it never has more than 150 if I leave it for a couple of days!
I have a lot of folders in both my work and personal emails and once I have read the email, I either file it into the appropriate folder or delete it. If something does require further attention (like a bill!), I mark it as unread until I have actioned it.
Good luck with your emails!!
….maybe a bit rash…but maybe just delete all of those emails and start afresh?!?!
I have 918 emails right now. I use gmail and put things I want to keep or keep track of in folders. The stuff that is marked unread are emails of blog posts I get that I don’t have time to read or flyers from stores promoting sales that I wish I had time to browse. Occasionally if something is important I mark it unread to keep it fresh on my mind but I get so many junk emails that they end up getting lost in the sauce.
I use the gmail system.. it seems to work for me. I have all the important stuff tagged and put in folders. Also another thing I do is I have my phone alert me when I get an email so i then take a quick look and if its important i keep it but if its a sales flyer or some stupid chain letter i delete on the spot. Not sure if that will work for you since you have so many people emailing you all the time. But hey its a thought.
When mine build up I sort them according to ‘sender’ and collapse (instead of expand) the list so I can just press DELETE and a bunch are gone all at once.
I have three unread emails in my personal email, and I have 198 in my work email – mainly because I accidentally clicked that ‘mark all as unread’ button this morning and now I’m not sure what I’ve done or haven’t done so have to go through them all again.
I was on maternity leave for 6 weeks, and during that time all of my e-mails just sat there! I’m down to 72 in my work inbox, but my blogging inbox has 1,270 and my personal inbox has 2,066!
I was actually starting to go through them when your post made me laugh since I’m in the same position!
I glance through the inbox quickly every morning to look for any new ones that may be important… then about once or twice a week I give it a good cleaning! I open the inbox, pinterest, and get my pdf printer ready! One by one, I’ll either delete, pin for later, or print to a file that goes in a folder. Nice and organized 🙂
I’m no expert at this but one thing I do that works well for me is that I have a folder called Awaiting Delivery. So if I order something online and get emails relating to that, I move the emails into the Awaiting Delivery folder – then they’re out of my inbox and I can keep track of any outstanding deliveries by just going to that inbox. Then I can delete the emails from that folder once the stuff has been delivered.
So cute! Anyway about the emails. I suggest you try unroll.me. “Unroll.me is the free and easy way to end unwanted subscriptions and rollup the rest into an organized overview made just for you.”
Thank you!
I have no e-mails in my inbox. I don’t know if that means I’m organised or just unpopular
Organised!
Don’t you wonder what would happen if you just deleted them all? I do. I have thousands too, thanks to a new bub and no time to deal with anything but the super urgent!
Yes, I do. But then I’d be forever thinking about the things I had ignored {which I do anyway!} x
I came here to see what tips you had to get rid of email! I’ve got to do a purge because I’m drowning too. So instead of reading your posts I’ll get on with clearing that gubbins out.
Ha ha. So cute!
I am the type that reads/replies/files (or deletes) emails as they come in (or in batches when busy). That way the only messages left in my inbox are ones that I have read and need to do somethign with (an invitation with details, a project, favour for somene etc). That way it is not overwhelming.
If it does get overwhelming I make a list so that I can get those messages outta the inbox.
Another key thing for me is that I unsubscribed from ALL the mailing lists that were sending me junk. I really believe that the email notification continally going off causes stress/tension (ah – must reply). I wanted to stop getting all the ‘junk’ (sale! coupon! new product!) emails that I was getting. Good luck! 🙂
Hope that helps!
I can’t stand having unread mails in my inbox so I have none at the moment. But saying that, I probably get one or two emails that actually need action from me a week in my personal inbox. Work is a different story! I think I left my inbox tonight with about fifteen emails needing a response!
Well I certainly don’t get THAT many emails but I usually do a fairly good job of keeping mine in order. I have both addresses to to my macbook Mail program and I generally respond pretty quickly. Once I have, I file the email or delete it so that it’s out of my inbox. If it’s something I can’t do right away or I need to think about it a bit more, I’ll flag it and leave it in my inbox so I don’t forget about it.
329. That’s just in one of them.
Ha ha! I can beat ya — mine’s currently standing at 16912 unread. 🙂 I haven’t dared ask it how many messages are in there in total. It’s a lot! (And NONE of those are spam — I have a VERY good spam and junk filter that throws those away unseen.)
I have 844 unread emails sitting in my inbox and that is with me making a conscious effort to unsubscribe, delete new and old emails at least once a week. The task is so daunting!!! Let me know when you find a solution to get to 0, I’m trying to get there. 🙂
I’m going to answer real quick because as of opening your email subscription I. have. ZERO. But this morning I had over 300 which I’m sure is nothing compared to what you get!!! Hugs! Oh and … delete, delete, delete!
I have 3. I have four email address that only average maybe 30 every morning. So honestly, it doesn’t take me that long to plow through them first thing (I work a night job at the moment.) Then as the day progresses, I deal with any new messages pretty much as soon as I get them. Most of them only take either a moment to read or respond, so I find dealing with them immediately doesn’t distract too much from whatever I was doing before it interrupted. I know others may not find this to be the case. And in the rare occasions that an email does require more time/action than I’m ready to give at that time, I make great use of the tag system in Thunderbird. I often have several emails tagged as “to do” or “important” for future reference. These are dealt with when I have a bigger chunk of time to dedicate.
I suggest setting rules, so they auto sort in folders. Then you can answer most important first. I read-respond-delete or move to folder.
14 for work, 7 for personal (all my personal/blog accounts get forwarded to one address). For work, I leave things unread if I haven’t done it yet. I also use the Google Tasks function to make a to-do/to-respond list. For personal, I just go through it a couple times a week (at work, naughty naughty) and clear it out/respond. I went through awhile back and did a huge unsubscribe purge that helps with the daily email count, but a lot of it is just diligence.
Hire an assistant. I’m currently unemployed and I love emails. (Hint!) 😉 Mine are down to about 3 at the moment across all my accounts. I find that filters for mail that comes in from various places really helps me keep on top of things.
My husband teases me because I have 5227 unread emails in my inbox. Now I can tell him I’m an amateur! Thanks!!
The Tooheys Draft! The Winnie Reds! That is my childhood, right there as well.
The email thing can drive one crazy. I tend to put some time aside and then sort it by sender, so I can delete all the twitter and Facebook notifications and reader comments that disquss sends me. Next, delete all stuff from family and friends which I would have actioned straight away. Then I delete all the troll stuff and have a bit of a laugh.
This sets me up to tackle the stuff that needs addressing.
Failing that, I delete the lot and promise myself that I will action each piece of mail that comes in on the spot. And this lasts a day.
Have fun with your Mum! xxx
I use MS office and I have set up automatic categories for some things but each morning I go through them and tick whether they are today or can wait to the end of the week emails.. Then I use my task list to keep on top of what to do. Not sure of that will work for you but it helps me keep on top and I usually leave with <10 emails in my inbox by Friday…
I am on an ‘unsubscribe’ path at the moment with retail store emails. There are two unread messages in my inbox. I check it twice or three times a day, read what I want to, delete what I don’t, and file those that need keeping. But I certainly don’t get anywhere the number of daily emails and have only one account.
616…
One mailbox has about 600 unread, another about 200, and another 0. I have no idea how many “read” ones there are, LOL! I regularly go through and delete, but they still build up. I action those that require a response pretty much straight away, otherwise they get lost! How important are they to you, Chantelle? If they’re important, perhaps schedule a time each day to manage the day’s email, and create folders for filing into categories so that you can prioritise the work. If they’re not important, delete the lot and start afresh, and accept the number will build up again. 😉
Your photos are so cute! I’m glad you found some childhood photos.
218 unread. Stuff. Decided wasn’t I portent enough to read (ie take up my time). I should’ve deleted them, but plan to unsubscribe to a lot of those. Auto sort into folders is helpful.
OMG i am in the same boat as yours regarding emails!! I have just over 300 unread emails that need attention but with all the other tasks running a business needs ARGH can’t wait to see the comments!
Maybe 12? Those 12 would have come in since I logged off at 8pm last night though.
I have an email address system. I have one email address that is for personal use (friends and family). I have another that is for junk mail (store clubs, shopping sites, discount sites etc). I have another for my blog.
The personal account is checked numerous times a day, and replied to at the time of reading. The blog account is checked once a day (generally it doesn’t get much mail) and is dealt with reasonably quickly. The junk mail account I skim and if nothing grabs me I delete straight away. If something grabs me I leave it in the inbox.
I couldn’t cope with that many unread emails!
I love the way you work. x
I control my e-mails – they don’t control me. I have a gmail account which is where all my subscriptions go – if i sign up to anything online that is the one I use – I check that maybe once a week. For my personal emails at home (and my work ones too) I set up rules and folders – one for each of my yahoo groups – ones from my blog – one from my family members – jokes and so on – the family members get read first and respond or delete – then Yahoo groups – and so on down the line. Facebook, goodreads and twitter emails stay in the inbox and they get deleted straight away as I have notifications alert me when I hit the webpages. Right now I have no unread emails at home – and there are a few sitting here waiting for me at work this morning so I will work on them.
Can you tell me more about rules? Is this on Mac? Sounds impressive!
I have a MacBook air – I use the mail program that comes with it and with the apple iCloud the rule transfers to my iPhone mail and iPad mail.
First create the mailboxes you want eg Mum; school; etc then click on an email you want to set a rule up for (don’t have to open it – just highlight it) then click on Mail – Preferences – Rules.
A box will pop up and will have something like rule 1 in a field – call the rule whatever you want eg mum then use the drop down boxes to set your rule – eg from mum@home.com move to mum box then save – cant remember if it then gives you the option to run the rule on all in your inbox straight away – or just starts from the next one.
if you type mail rules in the help section it may explain it better – maybe try setting up one and see how it goes.
Hope this helps
Fabulous photos!! So cute.
On the email thing – I also receive a lot. A LOT. So I’ve, regrettably, taken to hitting the delete button, but only on obvious spam or mail that is not personally addressed to me. I then make sure I block that address so they can’t keep at it.
The rest of it, I answer straight away OR:
– send a generic ‘thanks but no thanks’ email I have in my draft folder
– unsubscribe or politely request unsubscription from those who’ve decided to add me to something; yes, even friends
– if there’s something I can’t respond to now, I flag it for later – then once a week I check the flags
– colour-coding priorities or subject matter is a great idea (you can do this in Outlook)
– some people do auto archive but I don’t because you can miss stuff
Every month, I set aside time to sort emails according to sender, then I scroll through and delete anything that’s not really relevant. I then ‘archive’ anything I want to keep.
I’ve also recently made the decision to keep emails really short and sweet wherever possible. If I don’t, I could spend 20 hours a day on emailing alone.
Good luck, sweet one!
x
I loathe emails in my inbox and cannot bear unread emails so I have learned to scan and determine immediately (like as soon as it drops in my inbox) what kind of action it will require. I bet the bulk of your emails are PR things related to your blog C so can you develop a standard response:
1. Delete anything that is not addressed to you personally
2. Send your media kit to all the rest with a standard message
Then for the ‘questions’ type emails, or the seekings advice type emails, can you do what Nicole Avery does and take the ‘no more than 3 lines’ approach? I bet most questions can be answered by something you or someone else has already written in a blog post somewhere. So polite greeting followed by ‘here’s a great blog post on the topic here’
Also, I only subscribe to two blogs via email and have unsubscribed from every newsletter and other unnecessary mailing that I may have inadvertently subscribed for 🙂
And finally, because I use my inbox as my to do list, if there are several emails in there related to one job, I file all but one of those emails. So long as there is one in my inbox, I know whee the others are when I need to refer to them 🙂
I won’t tell you how many emails are in my inbox but it’s less than 20
I can really recommend the book ‘Getting Things Done (David Allen)’ that uses a zero Inbox policy. It gets you to look at your Inbox as the place of unsorted stuff, then teaches you how to review each day & week to keep it at zero.
Oh goodness, I love the pictures! 🙂
With emails I tend to organise a series of folders and then when I’ve responded or read them I pop them away. This then leaves me with a clear inbox of to dos and helps me feel a bit more on top of things. Simple to do and once you have done it you will feel ahmazing!
I recently cleaned out my inbox of thousands of emails. It took some time and some sweat and tears, but it is done and I can’t believe what a burden has lifted. That was A LOT of excess baggage weighing me down and I didn’t even know it until it was gone.
Deleting emails as I go really isn’t an option (I just know myself too well) so I don’t put that undue pressure on myself. But a couple of times a week (you know the times, when you’ve checked all your mail, caught up on your blog reading/writing, checked all your favorite social networking sites blah, blah, blah… but you’re not ready to peel yourself away from the computer yet) I just delete emails. If I need to keep them (say, until an event happens or a product arrives) I don’t stress about it. I just delete it the next week (or whenever). If it is an email I need on an ongoing basis (like, information about my son’s scouting projects) I create a folder for such things. Then I immediately drag and drop that email into said folder. If I wait, chances are it won’t ever make it in, and then I’ll have to search for it – if I even remember I have it at all.
Certainly this system would make any truly organized person cringe, but it works for me. And I have a “New Year’s Resolution” (even though it’s September) to be better. So far it has been a month and I’m not great at it, but I’m better (and hey, that was my goal, right?)
Having that red number so low is motivating to keep it that way, so it makes me reply to emails quicker than I might otherwise would as well.
Such good photos! Have never seen the top one before. Mum is so skinny…must be the ciggies and the tooheys can! So I have the worlds neatest inbox. Tips are 1. create folders such as receipts, keep-sake, general etc, then 2. each day or two as you read them either file them into your folders or DELETE! 3. Unsubscribe to whatever you don’t need. 4. Cancel as many accounts as you can by contacting important contacts like phone network, ATO and telling them your most used email account, lastly 5. If you have a bill to pay for example, and are not ready to pay it yet and therefore neither file or delete applies, then mark it as unread until you have paid it = neat inbox. Ps Ask your lil sister nicely and she may just do it for you xx Jen
I just set up a heap of folders so I can find things easily, separating work projects, family and friends. Then I just sort my emails into “from” and then delete in huge chunks the junky emails, if I am no longer interested in getting specific offers I unsubscribe from them first. then I just drag a drop batches into folders, it is surprisingly quick and you’ll be surprised how many emails you just delete, don’t stress about doing it in one hit, just go back to it a couple of times 🙂
I love having pretty empty inbox and I can easily find emails again by searching int he right folder or if you think it could be in a couple of places then you can just search the main folder and it will search all the sub folders 🙂
I use gmails tags/folders. Once you set up folders/tags for different themes [i.e. work, family, friends, blog, etc.] if you assign each one a color scheme you have the option of leaving an email in your inbox with a tag or moving it to the folder. When I check my email I instantly tag everything with where it belongs & delete the junk. Then, I read things based on the tags. Once read, I move emails that I want to keep to their respective folders. Typically if something needs further attention I will leave it in the inbox, but it will be tagged and marked as read so I will not stress about it. Every couple of weeks I will look through the tagged emails in the inbox and decided if they still require some attention…in a way it works as a sort of to-do list! Good luck 🙂
Great advice. Thank you. x
Apologies for my responsibility for at least 10 of those 13607 and mine were hefty with attachments!!! Sorry!
I’m hopeless with email sorting etc but my hub is a guru. He deletes things he doesn’t need straight away and has things automatically filed in different folders. I have almost every email I’ve ever sent or received!!! No wonder our computer has no space….. 😉
You and I are alike! And your emails are always welcome in my inbox. Thanks. xx
PS you are sooooo cute!!!! Love the dress!xo
Thank you!
I don’t freakin’ know but I want to know. I hate, hate, hate the email chain. Hello. I am in the room. Please don’t email me your question, get up and walk over and tell me, or hey, if you can’t leave YouTube or Facebook, then pick up the phone. Why don’t people phone more – quick conversation can be so much quicker. Hey, email me and I’ll give you my number. Tee hee.
I couldn’t understand that about working in a company either. Weirdness.
I was sitting here thinking “I don’t have many. What are these women on about…” then I checked my outlook. I have 3237… Guess what I am doing now?
I have ZERO emails in my inbox. I read then delete. If I need to keep it, I slip it in another folder. I cannot stand having anything in my inbox. It makes me twitchy.
Wow! If I had 13607 emails in my inbox, I probably wouldn’t read them either! My inbox has 5 unread emails…although I haven’t checked my second email tonight…but it never has more than 150 if I leave it for a couple of days!
I have a lot of folders in both my work and personal emails and once I have read the email, I either file it into the appropriate folder or delete it. If something does require further attention (like a bill!), I mark it as unread until I have actioned it.
Good luck with your emails!!
….maybe a bit rash…but maybe just delete all of those emails and start afresh?!?!
I have 918 emails right now. I use gmail and put things I want to keep or keep track of in folders. The stuff that is marked unread are emails of blog posts I get that I don’t have time to read or flyers from stores promoting sales that I wish I had time to browse. Occasionally if something is important I mark it unread to keep it fresh on my mind but I get so many junk emails that they end up getting lost in the sauce.
I use the gmail system.. it seems to work for me. I have all the important stuff tagged and put in folders. Also another thing I do is I have my phone alert me when I get an email so i then take a quick look and if its important i keep it but if its a sales flyer or some stupid chain letter i delete on the spot. Not sure if that will work for you since you have so many people emailing you all the time. But hey its a thought.
When mine build up I sort them according to ‘sender’ and collapse (instead of expand) the list so I can just press DELETE and a bunch are gone all at once.
I have three unread emails in my personal email, and I have 198 in my work email – mainly because I accidentally clicked that ‘mark all as unread’ button this morning and now I’m not sure what I’ve done or haven’t done so have to go through them all again.
I was on maternity leave for 6 weeks, and during that time all of my e-mails just sat there! I’m down to 72 in my work inbox, but my blogging inbox has 1,270 and my personal inbox has 2,066!
I was actually starting to go through them when your post made me laugh since I’m in the same position!
I glance through the inbox quickly every morning to look for any new ones that may be important… then about once or twice a week I give it a good cleaning! I open the inbox, pinterest, and get my pdf printer ready! One by one, I’ll either delete, pin for later, or print to a file that goes in a folder. Nice and organized 🙂
I’m no expert at this but one thing I do that works well for me is that I have a folder called Awaiting Delivery. So if I order something online and get emails relating to that, I move the emails into the Awaiting Delivery folder – then they’re out of my inbox and I can keep track of any outstanding deliveries by just going to that inbox. Then I can delete the emails from that folder once the stuff has been delivered.
So cute! Anyway about the emails. I suggest you try unroll.me. “Unroll.me is the free and easy way to end unwanted subscriptions and rollup the rest into an organized overview made just for you.”
Thank you!
I have no e-mails in my inbox. I don’t know if that means I’m organised or just unpopular
Organised!
Don’t you wonder what would happen if you just deleted them all? I do. I have thousands too, thanks to a new bub and no time to deal with anything but the super urgent!
Yes, I do. But then I’d be forever thinking about the things I had ignored {which I do anyway!} x
I came here to see what tips you had to get rid of email! I’ve got to do a purge because I’m drowning too. So instead of reading your posts I’ll get on with clearing that gubbins out.