Email Overload? Two Simple Inbox Hacks That Save Time Every Day

You can watch my video by clicking on the graphic below or read my thoughts beneath it:

In an earlier video, I had answered a question about one step you can take if you have email overload. You’re not sure how to start clearing out your inbox, and that piece of advice was sort by sender. Start there. I was asked a follow-up question, which is great. Thank you so much for posting questions in the comments.

And they asked a follow-up question, which was, okay, that’s great, you sort by sender, you go through some of those. What’s another easy way to help basically rein in the overload you’re, you’re feeling because there are still so many emails left in that inbox? Another easy sort is to look for newsletters.

So look for any kind of emails coming in from sales agencies, marketing agencies, any of those pitches selling services, any newsletters you’re not really interested in. Make sure that you unsubscribe from all of those, and those are some very quick deletes. And if you realize that you are getting multiples from these places, then you can search by that sender, or you can search by the name of the company.

You can bring up all of those emails at one time and after you hit unsubscribe in one of them, then you can just select all of those and delete with one click. Get rid of maybe a dozen, perhaps more. I know that whenever I’ve been out of the office for a few days and I see a pattern of a company sending me unwanted emails, that is one of the first things that I do.

Click on unsubscribe and then do a search for their company name and delete all those emails. So search by sender, some of the most important people you work with. That’s one way to quickly clear out a lot of emails. Another way is to look for those unwanted emails, make sure that you unsubscribe from them.

Now, if you do get a newsletter and you enjoy getting it, you just don’t have time to read it right then and there, consider creating a filter for that particular sender, and you can move newsletters that you do want to read eventually into a specific folder so they’re out of your inbox, and you can go to that folder later, perhaps when you’re procrastinating, to go read that newsletter.

If you have a question related to time management, how you can be more efficient at work, please be sure to drop that question in the comments.

For more practical strategies to reduce email overload, boost productivity, and manage your time more effectively, check out The Inefficiency Assassin: Time Management Tactics for Working Smarter, Not Longer.