Oh, email. We love and hate you all at the same time. We use you to stay in touch with long lost (or newly made) friends, build our businesses, reach out, learn, grow. And we simultaneously despise you for interrupting every. single. thought. with your little pop up of new messages dropping in our inbox. Remember the 90’s when the words “You’ve Got Mail” were so exciting that they were turned into a movie? I have a system to live in that happy place where getting email is exciting, manageable, and (best of all) on my terms. Here’s how you can set it up for yourself:
Note: I am using the ever-popular Gmail for this test. If you don’t have Gmail, 1. I highly recommend it. 2. I’m sure there are ways to use this system in other mail programs and the steps may even be similar to what I’ll show you here.
Inbox layout.
In your settings page (it’s the little gear icon on the top right of your inbox), click on Inbox at the top in blue. Choose the dropdown for Inbox type and select “Unread first”. Your inbox selections will pop up and should read: 1. Unread 2. Everything else BAM. All of your unread mail will appear on top until you mark it as read. Don’t forget to hit Save Changes at the bottom. Step 1 complete. It looks like this:
In your settings page (it’s the little gear icon on the top right of your inbox), click on Inbox at the top in blue. Choose the dropdown for Inbox type and select “Unread first”. Your inbox selections will pop up and should read: 1. Unread 2. Everything else BAM. All of your unread mail will appear on top until you mark it as read. Don’t forget to hit Save Changes at the bottom. Step 1 complete. It looks like this:
Filter, baby.
Filters are your best friend when it comes to inbox organization. The one thing I hear all the time is “But I’m afraid I’ll set them up wrong and lose emails!” Here’s how you I have mine set up and I (knock on wood) never lose an email. There are several steps here so hang tight and follow the pictures below.
Filters are your best friend when it comes to inbox organization. The one thing I hear all the time is “But I’m afraid I’ll set them up wrong and lose emails!” Here’s how you I have mine set up and I (knock on wood) never lose an email. There are several steps here so hang tight and follow the pictures below.
In the same Settings page, choose Filters at the top in blue.
Select Create a New Filter at the bottom (I have over 35 filters and add new ones a few times a week based on my incoming emails)
Enter the incoming email address that you want to have sorted. You can also choose to sort by Subject if you know certain subjects can get categorized. (I sort all of my clients into their own folders/labels so I enter my client’s email address. You might have a “Newsletters” folder, a “Family” label, etc. Set it up so it works for you!) Hit “Create Filter With This Search”
Choose “Skip the Inbox (Archive It)”
Choose “Apply the Label” and add a new label that works for you. Give the label a new title and hit Create. (Note the checkbox at the bottom that prompts you to apply this label to past conversations – check that bad boy!)
And you’re done!
Apply these labels to your incoming emails as well. When you open your email, use the More dropdown box at the top and choose “Filter messages like these”. Then you’ll go through the process listed above all over again. Here’s how that works:
There are a bunch of other cool things you can do (add color to your labels, use Stars, mark Important Messages) but this is the most basic way to sort out your inbox. Yes, it takes time to set up in the beginning but it gets you back in control of your inbox and isn’t that just a lovely feeling?!
Here’s to clear, clean, and organized inboxes everywhere!
xo
