Get in, get out, and stop thinking about it. According to productivity expert Merlin Mann, managing email isn’t about getting to zero—it’s about reducing how much of your attention it occupies. Email begins as a marvel of efficiency—instant, frictionless, almost... The post Getting Control Over Your Email appeared first on Sharp Eye.
Get in, get out, and stop thinking about it.
According to productivity expert Merlin Mann, managing email isn’t about getting to zero—it’s about reducing how much of your attention it occupies.
Email begins as a marvel of efficiency—instant, frictionless, almost fun. Then, quietly, it changes into a small but persistent sense that you are always a few steps behind.
There are messages you meant to answer yesterday, or last week, or at some vague point in time when you were more on top of things. You set an email aside to make a thoughtful response – and it disappears off the bottom of your inbox. There are newsletters you don’t remember signing up for. There are reminders, follow-ups, and the occasional passive-aggressive “just circling back” that manages to sound polite and accusatory at the same time. If I wake in the night, I’ll often remember an email I am two weeks late in responding to, and I’m grateful for the attention some part of my brain is paying to my overwhelming email situation.
I was having dinner one night with a group of friends and one of them asked me how many emails I had in my inbox. I told her I had 40,000. I thought she was going to pass out. As others at the table chimed in, I realized that several of them made a point of going to sleep every night with zero emails in their inbox.
My approach to email is binary: easy ones get answered immediately, obvious junk gets archived or deleted. Everything else accumulates in my inbox—not from laziness, but because I’ve never found a better home for it. Creating folders feels like a solution that just moves the problem out of sight, but now also out of mind. Not everything can be resolved by 11 pm every night. Some messages can wait. Some never needed my attention in the first place. A surprising number lose their urgency if given a little time.
I have been collecting tips for how to deal better with my emails and here are the best of them.
Unsubscribe from Emails You Never Read
I delete most newsletters without opening them. At some point they all sounded useful. Now they just sit there until I clear them out. I’ve started unsubscribing when I notice the same sender showing up again and again.
Delete Old and Unread Emails
I searched my Gmail for emails from 2010 and I deleted all of them at once. I didn’t read them. I didn’t think about them. I’ll probably keep going until I hit a year that makes me hesitate.
Delegate Emails at Work
If something lands in my inbox that clearly belongs to someone else, I send it to them and move on. I’ve also asked to be taken off email chains that have nothing to do with me.
‘Snooze’ Non-Urgent Emails
I haven’t fully trusted this tool that both Gmail and Outlook offer. Moving an email out of sight feels like losing it. Still, I can see the appeal—sometimes I just need it gone for a few days so I can think. The challenge for me will be remembering to check the ‘snooze’ email pile. Some organized friends set aside a time – Sunday afternoon with a cup of tea – and clear out the week’s accumulation.
Don’t Feel Guilty
If I can answer quickly, I do. If I can’t, it lingers. That’s where things break down. Important messages slip out of view. Sometimes I print them just so they stay in front of me. When I’ve finally answered, I throw the hard copy away.
I don’t expect to ever have an empty inbox. I’m mostly trying to make my email feel less like something I’m avoiding.
The post Getting Control Over Your Email appeared first on Sharp Eye.
