7 Tips To Keeping Your Inbox Clean

For those Inbox Zero lovers, keeping the inbox near or at zero is the goal.

For those without the love for Inbox Zero, the goal is keeping things ready to go when the workweek starts. Email is one of the most used applications in your workday, with the average US worker spending 6.3 hours on email.

That’s every day, that’s over 1,500 hours per year spent on email*.

Keeping your inbox clear and organized is vital to reduce noise and too much time wasted on email. We’ve put together a selection of tips to help you keep your inbox clean and ready for work.

1. 3 Times A Day

Limiting yourself to 3–4 check-ins a day is a popular option for many. These fewer check-ins scheduled and organized into your calendar will help you to be more objective with email. Clearing out all of the unwanted emails, answering the most important ones and clearing that inbox.

2. Remove Clutter

Newsletters and social media-related emails throughout the day can amass, building that ever-growing number on your email application. Unsubscribe to unwanted mail and reduce those notifications coming in. At Newton, we developed a feature called Tidy Inbox which separates noisy emails into a set folder for later, removing distractions.

3. Use a To-Do List

Email can sometimes be referred to as the to-do list. This doesn’t have to be the case and might reduce the amount of time you spend inside of email. A to-do list application like Todoist can provide a neat way to tally all of those email tasks for completing, an ongoing to-do list to add to.

4. Set a Timer

Looking to get to Inbox Zero? Set a 10-min timer for you to spend on email. This 10-mins will pressure you to get the most important emails answered, clear unwanted emails and get everything done. The 10-mins will set a limit to what needs to be done and avoid unnecessary time spent in email.

5. Read These Books

Literature can be a nice way to continually grow your insights on the inbox and how to control it. Try reading the 4hr WorkWeek to read about Tim Ferriss’s minimal advice and Jocelyn Glei’s email combatting tips in Unsubscribe. All great ways to grow that knowledge!

6. Schedule Emails

Always waiting to follow-up emails? Response times can be improved if you respect the other’s time zone. For example, if you work with a client in the US, and you are UK based, why not try scheduling an email to them for their morning (8:30AM), chances of them replying to a fresh email in the mornings are much higher, helping you to reduce time and effort. We wrote a piece on the power of send later here, worth a read!

The Power of Send Later
Do you know how many emails are received per day by the average office worker?blog.newtonhq.com

7. Connect All Emails

For those with multiple email accounts, jumping between providers and tabs can be a messy process, sometimes with mistakes made and time wasted. Using an application that brings together all of your accounts (IMAP, Gmail, Outlook etc.) will help to provide a seamless way to save your efforts.

All of these tips used together will help you to avoid the noise and get real work done!

Like a clean, distraction-free inbox? Try Newton.

Newton is one of the leading email apps on iOS, Mac, Android & Windows, providing users with a comprehensive way to keep the inbox clear. Features like Schedule Email, Undo Send and even Tidy Inbox help to reduce clutter.

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Notes:

*Based on 261 working day (2016)