Last updated on September 18, 2024
It was your standard morning pop in. I just needed to deliver some information related to an email sent the night before and see how my coworker was doing. That was when she checked her email, and I noticed that she had close to ten thousand emails in her inbox, of which more than half were unopened. I regretted bringing it up before I finished. To her, emptying her inbox was the equivalent of running a six-minute mile. That inbox was a ten thousand email anchor on her productivity. It was time to declare email bankruptcy.
As someone that keeps my inbox empty most days, I can’t imagine living with this much clutter in my inbox. All of the tasks waiting in those emails are distracting your attention from what you are doing in the present moment. Unfortunately, a cluttered inbox is all too common.
Most articles make a big deal of making a declaration as if announcing to the world that you are bad at email is somehow cathartic or a sign of being enlightened. It’s not. It is better to work on changing your behavior and becoming a more reliable colleague.
The trick to email bankruptcy is getting good at using the search features of your email client. Since you will be archiving your inbox emails and not deleting them, searching the archive is how you will find old information. Fortunately, if you have been living with thousands of emails in your inbox, you are probably pretty good at email search. If you could use some improvement in that area, I’ll have some search help coming soon.
If your inbox doesn’t have more than 500 emails, you’re not a candidate for email bankruptcy. Working through 500 emails should not take too long. The best tip for approaching this is to do a little at a time. With a thirty-minute a day commitment, you should be able to address those emails in two weeks. You can do this.
Just because you have declared email bankruptcy doesn’t mean you can never address old emails. You can still process them using the search feature. Search by a subject, person’s name, project name, or date are all candidates for creating a list of emails to review and address. A few minutes of brainstorming should produce a list of searches that will find important emails and ease your mind about not answering them. Just create a to-do item for each search and work on at least one of them each day.
It is important not to let the problem build up again. Future posts will help you keep your inbox empty with minimal effort while improving how you communicate.
If you need help with managing your email and automating your communication, WSI works with all major email marketing vendors to help you get the most out of your email list. Schedule a time to talk today.
