Getting to Inbox Zero
I did it. I achieved the unachievable: I got to Inbox ZERO! It was a journey (I had over 2,000 emails in my inbox), but after about two hours of slugging away, I achieved that beautiful milestone. To help you reach your Inbox Zero (whether literally or metaphorically), here are some quick tips so you can achieve email serenity.
1. Set up rules in Gmail
Want to sort through your email quickly? Create some rules! Gmail is smart enough to create filters for your emails as long as you set some parameters like who is the sender, the subject, keywords, etc. It’s an easy way to say, “Hey, even though I unsubscribed from those marketing emails, I’m still getting them. Instead of ripping your hair out, just add a simple rule where, whenever an email from that company lands in your inbox, it immediately goes to the trash folder.
Additionally, you can create filters that will add labels, categories or send things to delete with one click of the button. If you don’t want to delete the emails, you can choose to “Skip the Inbox” and go straight to Archives. I would suggest that if you do this, create labels for everything and then instead of your emails going to the nebulous of your Gmail, they’ll land nicely in a place where all the other emails with those same labels live. It’s an easy way to know you’re getting those emails, but they’re not cluttering up your inbox.
2. Know who’s important and who can be ignored
No Facebook, I don’t want to be notified every time someone likes my photos. I turned off the push notifications on my phone for the very same reason. Look, your email should be a place where you can get things done. Your high priority emails, such as ticket confirmations, receipts and flights should all have their own little bins to be stored. That way, you can easily find them later when you have to print them out. Having to sort through hundreds of emails is a major pain, especially when a lot of those emails are just marketing ones trying to get you to use a product. So, do yourself a favor and FILTER out the stuff in your life that doesn’t need to be there. You’ll thank me later.
3. Be okay with a little bit of chaos
If this is your first go-around with Gmail and creating rules, be aware that things can start to get very complicated very fast. Even though my Inbox is essentially “empty,” I have thousands of stored emails within the label categories. And I have at least twenty to thirty different labels. Each of the labels try to serve a purpose: sort out the noise so I can still receive theSkimm every Monday — Friday at 6 AM. Again, if you’re like me, sorting through over 2,000 emails seems like complete chaos.
Believe me, when I went through my inbox, I realized that I hadn’t even bothered to add labels to certain things. My first bout of inbox spring cleaning happened about three years ago when I realized that you could apply labels to specific emails. I wasn’t as savvy back then and ended up giving some things incorrect labeling (my scope was too broad), but I’ve been able to precisely pinpoint the emails that I want to be considered a specific category and so on. Inbox cleaning is one part coding and two parts patience.
Pain points
Last thing, really briefly. Outlook has rules, as well! You can create rules that help sort your inbox all nice and neat. One thing that Outlook offers (which Gmail should really look into adding) is the ability to keep the first instance of a certain email (the latest) in your inbox and then send all the rest of them to specific folders. I like this because it means that you’re constantly cleaning your inbox, but you don’t feel like you’re going to accidentally miss the latest emails that come into your inbox. Gmail doesn’t have that option, but if they did, I would ditch my Outlook in a heartbeat (it’s really hard to search your inbox on Outlook or filter).
All in all, inbox zero is a feeling of pride. I’ve never spent this long staring at a computer screen and after a couple of hours feel completely satisfied with the work I’ve done. What can I say; I’m a perfectionist. Cheers to an inbox zero-filled life!
