The transition from winter to spring is a fun time of the year! We take our things from the cold, dreary winter we had, and hide them away until next year. The flowers are coming back to life and old things become new again. The sun is making a comeback and everyone seems to be in a better mood. During this transition, we always find ourselves doing some tidying and spring cleaning. While it’s a major transitional period at home, it is also a time of change at work too. It seems that we need to do some spring cleaning in every aspect of our lives. Personally, the one thing that needs tidying up the most is my email inbox. Do you feel that way? Emails remind me of laundry, if you stay on top of it every day, it’s manageable. But sometimes there are a few days where time just gets away from you, and that pile of laundry turns into Mount Everest. We can’t continue to let this happen with our emails, it destroys productivity and adds unnecessary stress to our day. We’ve outlined a few tricks of the trade for managing and cleaning out our emails!

• Folders on Folders on Folders
  • This seems to be the most simple of the tricks, but it’s fascinating how much of a difference this makes for decluttering. Did you know you can have folders inside of a folder? This blew me away. Your folders could look like this Accounting → Personal → February → Bills etc. Everything will have a place, and won’t be just hanging out in your inbox. The goal is to keep your inbox empty at all times, except for unread messages.

• Hit that Unsubscribe Button

• • Do you really need to receive Bed Bath and Beyond coupons every 2 days? Or receive emails from that blog post you subscribed to in college? Don’t be afraid to unsubscribe to everything! (except from the Coworker Corner!) You don’t need those. Cut the cord on the Academy and Hobby Lobby emails and declutter your inbox! The best part of this is that you won’t be getting notifications at all hours of the night anymore either. An email notification will mean you have something important instead of just another junk email.

• The Search Bar is Your Friend
  • Utilize the heck out of that thing! It’s there for a reason. When you’re in a hurry, and need to find an email quick, use it! Search bars aren’t the way that they used to be, you can type in the word Car and every email you’ve ever received regarding your car payment, anything from your coworker Carrie, or your Carmike movie ticket confirmation will pop up. Obviously, the more detailed you are, the better your email search will be. Use this tool, it’s there to make your life easier.
  • Did you know that you can also use the search bar to find emails by size? If you’re running out of space, delete those emails with huge attachments that aren’t important anymore.
• Add Your Inbox to Your Todo list
  • This is my personal favorite! I take an hour or so each week to organize my inbox. It is a recurring task that I do, there is always a few emails that slip through the cracks, get sorted into the wrong folder, and it isn’t always a quick task to do.
  • On the same note of adding your inbox to your todo list, you can add your todo list to your inbox! Make yourself a folder, and pin the tab to your homepage. If you don’t have time to respond to that email immediately, or you need to find the proper answers before responding, add it to your todo folder. Once you complete it, move it to the proper folder! So simple, but so efficient!

Take these tips, and turn them into habits. Email is just a form of communication, There is no reason to stress about it any longer. We are going to take this spring season, and clean up all areas of our life. Out with the old habits, in with the new!

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