More Inbox help

Battling the deluge of emails that one receives daily poses an extreme challenge for most people. As if work email wasn't enough, marketers are constantly spamming the masses at their private email addresses. My husband's marketing email got so frequent that he ended up setting up a new address just for that category of correspondence, complete with "junk" in the name.

I've embraced a slightly different email management tactic that's working well for me. I wanted to share two tips to manage your mail: the coupon label and Unroll.Me.

It's easy to filter the marketing messages I want to receive, like CVS 20% off coupons and offers from Loft and The Vintage Pearl, into a folder that I can check on my own terms. When the offending email enters my Gmail inbox, I set up a filter.

Then I redirect this message into a folder (I know, Gmail calls it a label, it's a glorified folder).

Now I can search or check my coupons on my own terms without them landing in my inbox.

Another cool email management system is Unroll.Me. This tool scans your inbox for mailings that you might want to read (for instance, newsletters from The Brookline Booksmith, Goodreads, or Bella Luna) but not want to read every day. You can also include LinkedIn and Facebook notifications. You'll get a digest of all of this content once a day, which you can also check any time at Unroll.Me.

Did any of this tips get you to the elusive Inbox 0? Let me know in the comments!

What's In Your Inbox?

Are you an empty inboxer? If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you're probably not. I am, and always have been, someone who loves to prune away at her inbox. It's more satisfying to me than pruning hedges or weeding. My goal, which happens infrequently I'll admit, is to have 0 messages in both my personal and my work inbox. Getting to 0 means I have no more obligations or action items, at least as far as my mail is concerned. I love the clean appearance of 0 unread and read messages in my inbox. Nothing to do! It's an illusion, of course, but a welcome one.

I am a compulsive filer of emails. I have 55 labels in Gmail, and 47 folders in Outlook. I was surprised that the number is so similar. I guess my life, both personally and professionally, conveniently breaks down into approximately 50 categories.

I've collected email management tips over the years the way a hobbyist might collect stamps or baseball cards. Beyond the standard folders labeled by subject or product, I use 2 awesome folders. One of my favorites is the Pending Follow Up folder. This is for the email that you can take no further action upon, but that you can't forget about. It might be something that you'll need to remind a person about a few times before they reply. Ultimately, it's something you'll be held responsible for, even if it's someone else who drops the ball, so it's in your best interest to keep track of it. But, it's sitting there cluttering your inbox! Move it to the Pending Follow Up folder, and your problem is solved.

My other favorite email folder is Thank You. Any time a colleague notes something I did well, it goes here. I save up all of this feedback, both verbal (which I save in Excel) and the emails, and track it on a weekly basis. Or monthly when things are too busy. This evidence of my performance comes in handy for quarterly reviews and self assessments at the end of the year. Also, this is a great folder to peruse if you're having a difficult day, to remind you how much of a difference you make.

When's the last time your inbox got to 0? In a stroke of fortuitousness worthy of a blue moon, I'm anticipating that today I'll make it to 0 in both my Outlook and Gmail! Right now I have just 2 mails in each, respectively. I will savor the moment of getting to zero, transient as it might be.