Saving time with your email inbox

November 8, 2023

How to save time with your emails

In today’s fast-paced world, our inboxes have become the digital equivalent of our front doors. Each time we share our email addresses, we invite a parade of messages that can either save or steal our time. This holds true for students, professionals, business owners, and anyone with an email address.

Time wasted:

Picture this: every email notification is a knock on the door. And some apps, particularly social media, are masters at inviting you in and making you stay. A quick glance at your phone can lead to minutes, even hours, of distraction. It’s as if you checked the time on your watch and forgot why you looked in the first place.

How much time can you save?

While avoiding a quick check of your phone might seem to save only a few seconds, it’s the subsequent dive into your device that adds up rapidly. Every time you minimize the urge to peek at your phone, you save more time than you think. Unsubscribing from emails might spare you mere seconds per message, but it can spare you minutes or even hours of phone time.

Efficiency isn’t just about avoiding the pull of the screen; it’s also about finding what you need swiftly within your email.

Methods for simplifying your emails:

Unsubscribing from irrelevant emails, implementing inbox management tools, and creating organized folders can save you not just seconds, but minutes and hours in the long run. Let’s delve into these methods and make your email experience more efficient.

Unsubscribing from old newsletters:

• Dedicate 10 minutes to clean your inbox by unsubscribing from newsletters that no longer interest you.
• Its good to do this every few months as the email spam builds up again.

Inbox management features:

• Modern email systems offer tools for efficient inbox management:
  • Focused Inbox in Microsoft Outlook
  • Priority Inbox in Gmail

Creating folders for email organization:

• Organize your inbox with folders for specific senders or categories:
  • Gmail: Utilize labels and filters to categorize and sort incoming emails automatically.
  • Outlook: Create folders for different projects, clients, or senders, and use rules to move emails.
  • Apple Mail: Sort emails into mailboxes using rules.
  • Other Email Clients: Most email clients offer similar features for folders and filters.

By implementing these strategies, you can reclaim some of your time and focus on what truly matters. It is time to take control of your email and make it work for you, not the other way around. I hope this can prove useful for you.