Hit Reply, Send, and Declutter!

If you are like the rest of the working population, email overload is a serious problem. And chances are, when you look at the amount of emails yet to be addressed, you immediately feel stressed and anxious – who has all the time to hit, reply, and send in a timely fashion!

You, that’s who. Because you see, your goal for 2024 is to take control of your emails. No way in chance you'll be that person with email after email in your inbox that’s a mix of work, conversation threads, emails you subscribe to, junk, etc – the list can really go on and on when it comes to your email inbox.

Why is it a problem? Simply because it adds to your already packed workload! Every email unread and unanswered is time (whether seconds or minutes) that you need to spend to address. Now, if you’ve got 50 of those emails, all that time you need to allocate can really add up. Plus, it can really sap you of your energy – leave one unanswered and you think, no problem, I’ll get to it soon. Leave 50 unanswered and you don’t even know where to begin, making you dread (and sad!) about the entire process.

Did you know there’s an actual term for this feeling? It’s email fatigue, where all that email coming into your inbox makes you feel tired, burnout, and just ready to call it quits.

Here’s how you can handle email overload:

#1 Set designated times during your workday to really focus on your emails
Schedule several 30-minute time blocks on your 9-to-5. Use this time to check emails, delete what’s not important, and reply to what's necessary. Research shows that when you check your email a few times a day instead of constantly monitoring your inbox, you feel less stressed and more focused on your work.

#2 Clear your inbox
Read it? Replied it? Then get rid of it. A full inbox will only make you feel anxious – it’s basically clutter and we all know the effect of clutter on our mental health. So do the same as you would to other forms of clutter, remove the emails you’re done with! Still think it’s important to have some of these emails? Get used to creating folders or archiving what’s important.

#3 Hit unsubscribe
Are you a newsletter addict? Be honest– how many of those newsletters you subscribe to actually come in handy? How many do you actually read? A bulk of our email inbox comes from newsletters and promotions. These can quickly overwhelm your inbox and bury important messages. The simplest way to get rid of them is to unsubscribe. Another option is to set up a personal email just for this purpose so you don’t get these newsletters coming into your work email inbox.

#4 Be really ok with the delete function!
We often think an email is important when it’s really not. And our inbox is filled with these kinds of emails. So be clear with what needs to remain in your inbox… and what needs to go. Remove things like calendar invites, reminders, advertisements. They deserve to be in another inbox altogether – the delete inbox!

#5 Don’t wait, do it now
If you can respond to an email in a few minutes or less, do it. The longer you wait, the more things accumulate. Plus, if you put it off, you lose time trying to find it or remembering what you wanted to say.

#6 Use other means of communicating
Not everything needs to be an email. There are so many other forms of communicating – instant messaging to get quick responses, or a phone call to get more details. Try it before you compose that email!

Photo by Stephen Phillips - Hostreviews.co.uk on Unsplash.