The Ultimate Email Organization System: How To Enjoy Zero Inbox Every Day

The myth of “the zero inbox” is usually promoted by productivity gurus, high-level managers with assistants, and unicorns. Well, maybe not every high-level manager can enjoy the “zero inbox” miracle daily, but the other two claim they do!

So, how do you and I – mere mortals with lives, families, and anxiety – elevate ourselves to that godly level of productivity where we don’t have a secret folder with over a thousand emails we know aren’t essential, but it’s nice to have them wait for us? It helps the anxiety part, and that’s something we can’t seem to let go of. 

I will share with you the simplest, most effective system I use daily to keep my inbox free of clutter and my mind free to ponder over something else equally stressful. 

I will list the steps the way I do them, but you can mix and match until you create your own system that makes sense to you. 

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you sign up or make a purchase I might get a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my business. See full disclosure.

Mastering the Art of Zero Inbox: A Step-by-Step Guide

Create Folders

Imagine you need to sort 100 crayons (if you have kids, you probably know exactly how to imagine this). How would you do it? Would you sort them in piles by color? Would you decide to separate them by brand? You might want to use up the tiny ones, so you dedicate a separate pile for those…

Dealing with emails is very similar. You want to decide what piles you need. The emails are your crayons. We know there will be plenty that need to go to the Trash folder, but that’s not all. You would also need to create different folders to hold any email you don’t delete immediately. 

Yes, essentially, the zero inbox means you hide those emails in other folders, but that’s a very narrow way to look at it. The idea behind sorting emails into folders is to dedicate 5 seconds to each email and deal with it. This saves you from missed deadlines, miscommunication, and forgotten to-dos.

>>> Recommended Read: 160 Lists To Make To Become Hyper-Organized

Sample Folders Ideas

I hate writing vaguely about stuff, so I have created a comprehensive list of folder ideas. They might give you answers to questions you didn’t know you had or could spark new ideas for you. 

Personal Email Sorting Folders:

• To-Do folder – for emails that contain tasks you need to act upon;
• Tenancy – for emails related to your tenancy;
• Mortgage – keeping all communication and important updates on your mortgage is important, so you want a folder for that as well;
• Finance – bills, receipts, financial statements, transactions, and more. You can also have separate folders for each of those;
• Shopping Discounts—If you shop online, you are probably showered with discount codes you forget to use. Create a separate folder for those emails and let them rot there instead of your inbox (yes, you will forget to use them again, but in a productive way).
• Health—If you have a medical condition and you always search for information or receive treatments, a dedicated folder would make things so much easier to manage. A Medical Planner helps, too, and I’ve created one people seem to love, so click here to check it out.
• Health & Fitness – gym memberships, health insurance, general doctor appointments, and more;
• Travel Destination – if you plan a holiday, you know you have tons of important info you need to have quick access to. Create a folder for that holiday;
• Subscriptions;
• Family & Friends – a separate folder for each of your children and a folder for emails from friends and family would make your life easier;
• Events – invitations for events and webinars go here;
• Hobbies & Interests—This is where you can put all other junk that doesn’t deserve an immediate trip to the Trash folder.

Work Email Sorting Folders

• Reference – for storing work-related emails that have been dealt with but you might need them for reference later;
• Action required – this is a come-and-go type of folder where you send emails that need to be dealt with in the near future (but not before lunch break);
• Meetings & Calendar – for emails related to meeting invites, calendar appointments, and reminders;
• Projects – each project should have its own folder so you don’t mix them up;
• Clients – alternatively, you can create a folder for each client you work with (assuming you have not more than ten clients to work with (it can get messy if you have too many folders);
• Team communication – for emails related to internal communications, discussions, and announcements you don’t want to lose;
• Reports & Analytics – all data goes in here;
• Trainings;
• HR/Administration – all policies, payroll, administrative tasks, and changes “from above” go in here;
• IT&Tech – for emails related to IT issues, tech support requests, and software updates (assuming you want to keep them).

>>> Recommended Read: 10 Systems To Use To Organize Your Life Once and For All

Set Up Filters and Labels

If you aren’t a control freak like me, this is the moment you set up filters and labels for your emails. Once an email arrives in your inbox, it will be automatically sent to its dedicated folder, where it will wait for your attention. This will happen based on the sender, subject, or keywords you set up in the filters of your email. 

That would mean you only have to make decisions for the ones that don’t match the filters and end up in your actual inbox. 

I do not set up filters and labels because I receive no more than 5-10 emails a day; half of them are spam, so it’s easy to ignore them blissfully. 

Use the 4 Ds

Yes, your emails landed in their separate folders, but they still need your attention. Start by skimming each folder and follow the 4 Ds system:

• Do – if you can respond to that email in two minutes or less, do it now;
• Delegate – if you can give the task to someone else, do it;
• Defer – if you need more time and effort to deal with the email, add it as a task to your to-do list;
• Delete – spam and irrelevant emails go to the Trash immediately.

>>> Recommended Read: 70 (Almost) Effortless Ways To Get Your Life Together

Additional Tips To Help You Zero Your Inbox

These are just a few additional tips that can help you stay focused and productive when zeroing out your inbox.

• Unsubscribe from newsletters you keep deleting without even reading (but subscribe to mine if you find this post to be useful);
• Archive regularly;
• Dedicate time slots to your email – instead of checking every email as it arrives, dedicate a few slots of time throughout the day for it (for example, check only three times a day or only in the morning and evening)
• Create templates – if you frequently have to answer the same questions over and over again, create templates with ready-to-grab text.
• Create autoresponders – These aren’t for the holiday season only. You can do one informing people you are currently only checking your email at “such and such” timeslots, and if it’s something important, they should contact you via phone call.

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