{"id":21366,"date":"2019-08-09T09:07:43","date_gmt":"2019-08-09T09:07:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/?p=21366"},"modified":"2019-08-09T09:07:43","modified_gmt":"2019-08-09T09:07:43","slug":"four-key-steps-to-help-you-achieve-inbox-zero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/four-key-steps-to-help-you-achieve-inbox-zero\/","title":{"rendered":"Four key steps to help you achieve inbox zero"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you ever wondered how much time you spend a day on email? 30 minutes? An hour? Two?<\/p>\n

According to a research study by Adobe, we spend on average 2.5 hours a day dealing with personal email and 3.1 hours dealing with work email<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Modern inboxes are noisy, crowded, and time-consuming. So of course it\u2019s almost impossible to stay sane, let alone productive, when you\u2019re constantly having to deal with a never-ending stream of emails flooding our inbox – from clients, employees, partners, media, family and friends.<\/p>\n

How do you navigate this battlefield of pending messages and get your valuable time (and mental energy) back? Is the dream of \u2018inbox zero\u2019 just a myth or is it achievable?<\/p>\n

The short answer? It\u2019s achievable.<\/p>\n

Whether you\u2019re aiming for inbox zero or just looking to get a reasonable handle on your email overload, the right set of rules can go a long way in helping you to stay organised and to avoid unnecessary time wasting and frustration.<\/p>\n

Read on as we walk you through four key steps to follow to get your inbox in order and keep it that way.<\/p>\n

But first\u2026<\/p>\n

What is inbox zero?<\/h2>\n

The term and philosophy of \u2018Inbox Zero\u2019 was originally coined by Merlin Mann, the founder and writer of\u00a043 Folders, a blog about \u201cfinding the time and attention to do your best creative work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea behind it is to have a system in place where you label, triage and organise your emails so that you not only reach inbox zero but also maintain it and ensure you never again have a giant list of emails awaiting reply in your inbox.<\/p>\n

So next we\u2019ll look at how you can do that and achieve inbox zero.<\/p>\n

Step 1: Schedule email time into your day<\/h2>\n

No matter how many projects you’re working on or how many client emails demand your attention, leaving your email programme open at all times, having notifications enabled or checking your inbox every other minute to see if anything new has arrived is counterproductive.<\/p>\n

Not only will this easily distract you from important work that needs to get done but it’ll also make it more difficult to get back to the tasks you were previously working on.<\/p>\n

The solution to breaking this habit is simple: pick a handful of designated times throughout the day to deal with email. For example, you can set aside 15 to 30 minutes at the beginning, middle and end of each day to open, read and reply to emails.<\/p>\n

If you need to check your inbox more often, feel free to schedule it into your day as you see fit. Just don’t make it an around-the-clock chore if you want to stay productive.<\/p>\n

Step 2: Clean and declutter<\/h2>\n

The second step to getting your inbox in order is to get rid of all those unnecessary newsletters, subscriptions, social media alerts and junk mail that are adding to the clutter and eating up your day.<\/p>\n

So, for the next week or two, unsubscribe from every list-based email, unless you actually open and read them, and believe they’re truly valuable and worth keeping. If they’re not, then unsubscribe and delete straight away.<\/p>\n

This is the time to be honest with yourself. If you don’t care about hearing from X,<\/em> if you don’t open or read content from Y<\/em>, if you can’t remember how you started receiving emails from Z<\/em>, cut the cord now and unsubscribe without thinking twice.<\/p>\n

Of course, there will be newsletters and subscriptions that you want to continue receiving. Some because they’re filled with great content and the latest in your industry, others because it\u2019s how you keep an eye on your or your clients\u2019 competition.<\/p>\n

Step 3: Get organised with folders and subfolders<\/h2>\n

Now that you\u2019ve deleted and unsubscribed from any unnecessary newsletters and subscriptions, it\u2019s time to create a better system that\u2019ll help keep your inbox low and organised moving forward.<\/p>\n

So step three involves creating folders and subfolders.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll be using our new Business Email<\/a> as our example, but most email platforms, including Outlook or Gmail, will be very similar.<\/p>\n

When you get your first mailbox, you only have the bare minimum of folders \u2013 Inbox, Sent, Bin, and Spam.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fairly straightforward what these are:<\/p>\n