For example, you may want to use the “From” box to filter all e-mails from a certain person or you could even use the “Subject” box if you want to group e-mails that all contain a specific subject.
In my own inbox clean-up, I will sort by people and then I’ll typically sort by familiar subject lines.
For example, all of the receipt notifications I receive from my shopping cart, when someone makes a purchase, all have the same subject line. By filtering all of those out at the same time, I can easily label them (see the section on that below) and then archive them out of my inbox so they don’t take up valuable, actionable space.
Once you’ve set your parameters, click “Create filter with this search.”
Now, you can choose what you want to do with those e-mails.
You can mark them as read, apply a label, delete it, etc. Plus, you can click the box next to “Also apply filter to matching conversations” to quickly and effortlessly perform a bulk action on all of the e-mail of that type.
Remember, any filters you create will be applied to all future e-mail as they arrive in your inbox so choose carefully.
If you want to create filters just for the clean-up process, that is okay, too! Set them up and run them and then, when you are all done and your inbox is clean, delete the filters. Keep any filters in place that you wish to auto-run whenever you receive new e-mail.
Review What’s Left
Now that you’ve archived, deleted and filtered your e-mail, you should be left with only the e-mails that need processing. For this, we’re going to move on to Step #3 – Processing Your Inbox.
This step can be used immediately after the initial clean-up to further reduce your e-mail and then it can be used as a daily / twice daily procedure on an on-going basis to help keep you at inbox zero.
Step #3 – Processing Your Inbox
Now that you’ve got your inbox cleaned up, it’s now time to put a daily processing system in place and process any remaining e-mails from your clean-up. Below, you’ll find some of the tips that have helped me to achieve inbox zero each day.
I’d encourage you to add what works to your own flow and of course, modify it to suit your needs. Leave a comment below if there’s anything you do on the processing side that others might find useful.
The 2-Minute or Less Rule
David Allen, author of the very popular book Getting Things Done, wrote a productivity rule in his book that I have never forgotten. His idea was simple: if you can do the to-do / e-mail / whatever it is in two minutes or less, do it right away without moving it to another system (ie: a to-do list) or leaving it sit idle without action.
I use this rule all the time for my e-mail inbox. As I’m reading through my e-mail, I will reply instantly to any e-mail that requires a two-minute or less reply. This does two really important things for me:
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Creates momentum – when I’m getting smaller things done, I begin to feel that amazing feeling of accomplishment, which bleeds over into the other aspects of my day.
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Clears out the easy clutter – getting rid of the e-mail that is easy to reply reduces any overwhelm that I might feel when I look at my e-mail inbox. This makes me feel less apt to avoid my e-mail altogether.
Go through your inbox a few times per day and reply to any e-mails that will take you two minutes or less to craft your response. Once done, archive it out of your inbox and don’t look back.
Move Your E-mail to To-Do Lists
Once you’ve cleared out all of the easy-to-reply-to e-mails, the next processing phase is to scan your e-mail and move whatever you can to a to-do list. I use Monday.com to track my to-dos but you can use whatever tool is the easiest for you and compliments your workflow.
In my own inbox, I receive a lot of e-mail from Monday, our company’s project management tool. Typically, these e-mails are simply a mirror of a message or a to-do that exists in Monday already. Getting the e-mail is simply a notification / alert that it’s inside of the tool and more often than not, they require action on my part.
When I receive e-mail like this, e-mail that is simply an action that exists in another tool, I don’t really need to keep the e-mail in my inbox. Instead, I can pop into Monday.com when I get an e-mail from the tool, add a due date and other pertinent details and archive the e-mail.