Easy Summer Tip: How To Simplify Your Email Inbox
I am not a naturally organized person. I have had to learn to create systems and processes for both my business and my personal life to at least somewhat stay on track.
Whether it’s digital, physical, or mental clutter - having less of all of it and learning to let go helps keep things simple and easy.
As our kids move through school ages and my business gets more streamlined, one of my priorities is to spend less time with one-eye on my digital life (i.e. email checking habits).
And I know that I tend to over-organize instead of getting rid of stuff.
You might be an over-organizer if you buy lots of containers and boxes to hide and organize your stuff, instead of decluttering and simplifying.
“Clutter is not just physical stuff. It’s old ideas, toxic relationships, and bad habits. Clutter is anything that does not support your better self.”
My email inbox was one of the main ways I over-organized and it was a disaster. At one point I had somewhere around 50 labels and sub-labels to file away emails just in case.
When I finally decided to take action to turn it all around, it freed up so much time that I didn’t know I was wasting with digital clutter.
Whether you’d like to disconnect more this summer, or not come back from a vacation to an overwhelming email inbox, use this process to simplify and declutter your email.
Step 1: Create 6 labels
Although I used to think I was super organized by having a complex system of labels and sub-labels, the system quickly got out of control and unmanageable.
For example, if I bought a course, I might label the confirmation email with “receipts”, “courses”, “to-do”, and “login info”.
I had a label for everything that could possibly apply to any email I might receiving - the problem was that I began to forget what labels I had and what I had used to label previous similar emails.
It was crazy.
I began my de-cluttering by going into my Gmail settings and creating 6 labels to use for the entirety of my system.
Accounting
CCHQ LLC
Clients
Education|Courses
Kudos File
Tools|Sites
Accounting: Anything that has to do with financials and taxes for my business.
CCHQ LLC: Anything that has to do with the admin of my business (i.e. business registration or domain info).
Clients: Pretty self-explanatory! Any emails relating to client work.
Education|Courses: Any information relating to courses I’ve bought and/or self-education.
Kudos File: This has been a handy one! When I request a testimonial from a client or student, I always do it via email so that I can easily label and grab it later when I need it.
Tools|Sites: Anything to do with apps/software/tools that I use for my business.
That’s it! NO OTHER LABELS.
Step 2: Get rid of any other labels
The next step was to go into my extensive list of labels in my Gmail settings and ruthlessly start moving and deleting.
As soon as I either 1) re-labeled or 2) deleted/archived from an old label, I’d then delete the old label.
I’m not gonna lie - this took a while.
Probably because I had saved EVERYTHING and I wanted to be thorough with simplifying.
I’d estimate it took me about 6-8 hours over the course of a couple of weeks (remember, I had at least 50 labels to go through).
And while you might feel like “yeah, there’s no way I can carve out that time” — I promise you investing the time to simplify pays huge dividends in the future.
Step 3: Maintain
Now that I have 6 labels - and only 6 labels - for any email that comes into my inbox, the system is SO EASY TO MAINTAIN!
At the end of the day (or sometimes once a week during my planning sesh on Fridays) I go through and quickly label, then archive or delete all emails.
If an item doesn’t fall into a label category but I think I might need to save it, I’ll archive it (the beauty of searching in Gmail).
If I had an email that was hanging around in my inbox that didn’t fit a label but I didn’t want to get rid of (usually it’s something I want to read or check out), I give it a week or so. If I still haven’t gotten to it, I delete it - it wasn’t that important!
Getting this all straightened out going into summer or any vacation/time off is going to take a load off your mind, let me tell ya.
Not having digital clutter (at least in your inbox) hanging over your head as you’re navigating many, many other things during the summer is huge.
Want even more email-simplifying hacks to help you be more focused and less distracted in life and work?
Download the Distraction-Free Living eBook and learn how to beat common distractions (like your phone, computer, and email) — and be more present with your life and work.
