Manager your Inbox – Better!

Many of our customers seem to struggle with managing their emails, and their inboxes are filled with thousands of messages. Other clients have dozens or hundreds of folders, subfolders, and sub-subfolders, spending a significant portion of their working time sorting emails. The time spent organizing emails is time that could be used for productive work.

There is no one-size-fits-all recommendation for handling emails. I can only share my method, which is simple yet effective for me:

1. Three Main Folders: I use just three main folders, which I name “Archive,” “Clutter,” and “CC.”
• Archive: Every email that has been replied to or contains information I want to keep gets moved into the “Archive” folder. Note that many email services already have a standard “Archive” folder, so you might not need to create it.
2. Two Rules/Filters:
• Rule 1: Filter all emails where I am in the “CC” line and move them to a folder named “CC”. If I’m just CC’d, I don’t prioritize these emails since the main recipient is someone else. I read them when I have time.
• Rule 2: Filter all emails that don’t have me in the “To” or “CC” fields and move them to a folder called “Clutter”. I rarely check this folder as it’s mostly advertising, newsletters, etc.

And that’s pretty much it. Everything that remains in my inbox are emails directly addressed to me. Rather than spending time sorting emails into folders, I use the search function when I need to find something specific.