This logo isn't an ad or affiliate link. It's an organization that shares in our mission, and empowered the authors to share their insights in Byte form.
Rumie vets Bytes for compliance with our
Standards.
The organization is responsible for the completeness and reliability of the content.
Learn more
about how Rumie works with partners.
Do you get dozens of emails a day? Is your anxiety increasing and your inbox in disarray because of them?
Streamline your inbox to reduce email overload with these tips.
Did you know?
Tools like Zapier or Asana are great for converting emails to tasks. However, several options exist, so it’s best to find the tool that works for you (and works well with your email software).
1. Break Them Into Categories
Define the main categories that reflect your needs:
Want to organize personal emails?
Want to organize work emails?
Within each main category, create subfolders for more specific organization.
For examples, under “Personal” subfolders, you might have:
Insurance
Retirement
Receipts
Work Related
Taxes
Community
Church
For example, under "Work" subfolders, you might have:
Clients
Reports
Meetings
Projects
In Review
Progress
Completed
Sorting emails into folders will help you keep your primary inbox clean. This means you only see brand new messages each time you open your mailbox.
Did you know?
There are thousands of email providers, but Mailmodo identified its top 10 picks.
2. Tag Them
Use labels or tags for additional organization, if your email service supports it.
By adding tags, you can easily send emails based on the exact audience and measured results. You can also locate or filter them for future organizing strategies.
Photo by Shawn on UnsplashCommon Tagging Categories
Projects: Tag emails related to specific projects (e.g., "Project A", "Client X").
Urgency: Use tags like "Urgent", "Follow Up", or "Later" to indicate the priority of responses.
Status: Tags such as "Pending", "Completed", or "In Review" can track the progress of tasks.
People: Tag emails by sender or recipient names (e.g., "Team", "Manager", "Client").
Topics: Use tags for specific subjects (e.g., "Invoices", "Reports", "Meetings").
Color-coding: This type of tag allows for cross-referencing emails across different folders.
Quiz
Your manager is constantly emailing receipts, which you automatically receive because of your department role. How can you organize the overload? Select all that apply:
Your manager may need to retrieve the emails at some point, so simply color-code or tag those emails and place them in an appropriate folder.
Take Action
Start small:
This Byte has been authored by
Mary Driskill
Instructional Designer
Ed.S, M.Ed., BS.