How to Organize Email

Learning how to organize email takes just a few simple, but powerful steps that help you clear out the excess, sort what's left, and organize your email so you can easily access what you need, exactly when you need it.

First, think of your computer (especially your email) as a virtual version of the paper inbox that sits on your desk and your filing cabinet.

Just because it's virtual and doesn’t seem to take up room, it's still clutter, and it’s still affecting you.

The challenge with how to organize email is simply the overwhelming amount…and the fact that it just keeps coming in.

So if you get behind, it can feel almost impossible to dig yourself out.

But you can totally do this.

I’m going to teach you a system to quickly and effectively go through the backlog of email you have right now, as well as extremely effective (and simple) ways to stay on top of all the new email coming in.

Consider everything in your email inbox as a to-do item (that’s why you feel so overwhelmed when there’s a lot of stuff in there). To learn how to organize email, you need to know how to keep that list of to-do's as short as possible.

We’re also going to go through the emails you have been saving and your email folders, and you’re going to delete as many as possible (just like you’d go through your physical filing cabinet and throw away papers that you no longer need).

Hint: your number one email management tool is your delete key. So use your delete to get rid of as many emails as possible...because the fewer the emails to organize, the easier it is.

So get totally excited to use your delete key!

Now let's learn how to organize email:

Step 1 in How to Organize Email: Create ‘Working Folders’

Create 5 email folders labeled as follows (the 'AA' is to set them at the top of your folders list):

AA – Take Action (to respond, to take action, etc.)
AA - Read (newsletters you haven’t gotten around to, articles, etc.)
AA – File (you will eventually be filing these…they should NOT be sitting in your inbox, because then your inbox will always be full)
AA – Undecided
AA – Delete (or you can simply delete them. The reason I suggest creating a To Delete file is so you can see, at the end, how many emails you are deleting. It's just fun to know).

Step 2 in How to Organize Email: Quick Sort

This step is about sorting, and ONLY about sorting.

Quickly sort everything from your inbox into your working folders. Do not stop to handle any of them or read them (except a very quick scan if needed).

If you have a ‘Sent’ file, sort and empty it out, too. Move things to either your 'File' or 'Delete' folder.

Do NOT start handling anything in your inbox until this step is done (don’t take ‘just a minute’ to respond to an email or read one you’ve been looking for). Do not stop to answer the phone. Do not let yourself get distracted by ANYTHING during this step. This step is designed to go very quickly.

Do not agonize over these decisions, even though some of them may feel VERY hard. If you have a lot of email, it’s because making these decisions has NOT been easy. This step in how to organize email is to start creating a new habit for yourself of making quick decisions about them.

If you have tons of email, sort them by day (most recent on top) and go through the most recent first.

Step 3 in How to Organize Email: Weed Down Your 'Take Action', 'Read', and 'Undecided' Folders

You’ll notice that this step, again, is NOT about responding to the emails or taking the actions any of your emails might need. It’s about planning for when you will handle them, putting them on your calendar, and then filing/deleting the email.

'Take Action' Folder

Go through your 'Take Action' folder again and see if you can reduce it by at least 75%.

Most of what you think you need to do, you do NOT need to do. Get very good at deleting that stuff. Don’t keep the ‘would be nice to do’ or the ‘when I have time’ stuff.

Any email older than one month old, delete it (you could even go to anything older than one week old.) If it needed to be handled and it’s a month old already, the time has past. If it’s a request from someone else and it’s important enough to them, they’ll ask again (in many cases, they will have moved on to something else and won’t even remember).

Let go of the guilt and let go of the ‘should’s.'

If it’s something you truly need to do, decide when you’re going to do it, schedule time on your planner when you’re doing to do it, and move the email to your ‘File’ or ‘Delete’ folder. In other words, don't keep pending items in your email inbox...put the action item in your planner for when it needs to be done and get rid of the reminder email.

By the end of this step, your 'Take Action' folder should be empty, and you probably have a lot of tasks in your planner (if you're finding you just don't have time to squeeze them into your planner, either, see if you can delete the item altogether).

Remember, learning how to organize email involves liberally using your delete key!

'Read' Folder

Once you have gone through your 'Take Action' Folder, do your 'Read' folder.

Anything older than one month, move to your Delete folder (again, you can also choose anything older than one week). If you’re behind on your reading, what makes you think you’ll have free time to catch up?

Don’t keep any of the ‘would be nice to read’ or ‘when I have time’ stuff. Delete all of it. It’s kind of like reading the paper a month behind...the news is already old and it’s totally OK that you missed it.

My own rule of thumb is that if I don’t read it the day it comes in, I delete it.

I simply have no interest in creating a backlog of reading or stuff to do…because I know that if I truly need it, it will show up again when I need it (or I’ll easily be able to find it, often something much better, by doing a quick Google search). I don’t read jokes, I don’t read stuff from people I don’t know, and I don’t read things I’m not interested in THAT MOMENT. So my ‘To Read’ folder would be empty at all times.

And I spend less than a minute reading anything that comes in, even newsletters or articles. I am a fast reader, and I skim articles and newsletters – I suggest you learn how to read quickly as well. If something really grabs your attention you could take a bit more time, but most things are sound bites without much deep value anyway.

If you still have emails in your 'Read' folder, then take out your planner right now and schedule time to read it (like an hour a week or once a month or whatever). And whatever doesn’t get read during that time, delete it. Seriously.

Undecided Folder

So now you have gone through your 'Take Action' and 'Read' folders. This next step will take a big leap of faith. You might want to be sitting down right now, if you’re not. I also want you to take a couple of deep breaths. Here’s your next step.

Take your 'Undecided' folder and move everything in this folder to your 'Delete' folder.

Yes, that's right. Move all of those email to 'Delete.'

Right now.

If it was that important, you would have put it in your 'Take Action' folder. You have enough to do without adding things to do that you’re not even sure about.

Step 4 in How to Organize Email: File

Now we’re going to move on to your 'File' folder.

This step is about filing each item in your 'File' folder (this is the first time you’ve actually gone through it; up until now you’ve simply been adding to the folder).

So you’re going to go through your 'File' folder and file everything in that folder, using your current filing system and email folders. Work quickly...keep this simple. Play music if you want. ;)

Also, see if you really need to keep most this stuff. What else can you put in your 'Delete' folder?
If you need to create new email folders for things from your 'File' folder, go ahead and create them.
If your email folders are virtually bursting at the seams, you may also need to schedule some time (block out the time right on your calendar) to clear out the excess emails you’ve been saving, one folder at a time.
If needed, update or set up an email filing system that works for you. The reason I suggest waiting until after you have filed your 'File' folder is that otherwise you may get bogged down completely in updating your system and leave the stuff unfiled. Our first goal is to clear out the backlog of email.

How to organize email folders:

Keep it very simple. If it’s complicated, you’ll never keep it up.
Set up your email folders in a way that makes sense. Some people say to alphabetize your folders, but to me that doesn’t work. I group mine by similar topics: all of my client files go together (A, B, etc.), all of my business files go together, all of my personal files go together
File by topic – marketing, family, friends, etc. Again, see what you truly need to keep, and delete everything else. The more you delete, the less you need to keep track of.
Use subfolders when it makes filing (and finding emails!) easier.

Step 5 in How to Organize Email: Delete

The final step in learning how to organize emails is fun!

Look at that 'Delete' folder you created. How many emails are in there, anyway?

Probably thousands, right? :)

Now it's time to delete that entire 'Delete' folder. Take a big breath, let it out, and delete the entire folder.

You're done! Congratulations!

Now you know how to organize email like a pro!

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