Merry Christmas and an even merrier day after Christmas. The day when we recuperate, clean, and begin the organization process. We’ll start off slow, but make a change that will make an enormous difference in your mental health. Let’s work on getting our inbox to zero.
Two weeks ago I told you about the accidental gift I was given. My husband took 20 things off my online to-do list. You see, I keep windows open on my iPhone because it reminds me of the things I want to complete. These windows stay open for months until I finally get to them and check them off my list.
But the thing I realized was that… I put those things on my to-do list and I could take them off at any time.
No one was forcing me to complete the things on the list. They included things like, researching new products I may want to add to my Amazon shopping cart, article ideas for Entri Ways, and ideas to grow an online business. I was making my own work.
Don’t get me wrong. I love what I do. I love creating and building this Entri Ways business. I love interacting with my readers and writing articles I think you’ll enjoy. But sometimes these to-do lists that we create for ourselves can act as a mental weight.
My email inbox has been much the same mental weight. It’s an online filing system of things I don’t want to forget and want to complete. But much like my iphone windows, I put these things there and it’s time to remove them and start fresh in 2018!
Join me in starting 2018 off fresh!
Let’s get our inboxes to zero by the end of the week.
If you’re like me, you’ve created individual files in your inbox. When you read an email you’d like to save, you move it over into one of these files for later reference. And, if you’re like me, these files go back many years.
Let’s be honest though, how often have you looked at those files? My guess is… not very often.
So start there. Open up those files and start deleting.
When you empty all of the emails in a single file completely, delete the file entirely if you don’t have a need for it anymore.
Now there are some files you’ll want to save and these will be different for everyone. For me, I have to keep school correspondence relating to my son’s IEP, online orders (for tax purposes), college-related information for my daughter, and some client info.
But all of those miscellaneous articles we kept because they were interesting, email threads we kept from friends about a dinner we were planning, and expired store promotion emails can go!
Here are more tips:
Go into your “Sent” file and delete anything older than 6 months.
Delete all of the mail in your “Junk” folder.
Delete all retail promotional emails. By now they’re expired anyway.
Delete all Unread emails that have been in your inbox longer than 3 weeks. If they were critical, chances are the sender sent a follow-up email.
If it’s a great idea you want to save, add it to your Pinterest board. Just remember to set up detailed boards so you can easily reference it later (i.e. Blogging Tips, Recipes, Purple Painted Furniture, etc.)
If you do want to save an email, but it’s not on your immediate to-do list, create a file folder and move to there.
If an email mentions an event you might like to attend, immediately add it to your online calendar then delete the email.
Delete emails from past jobs, old clients, or old projects that are part of your past and you’ll never use again.
Delete the mail in your Trash bin.
In the past 3 days, I’ve deleleted over 6,000 emails. I’m feeling lighter already.
The ultimate goal is to get our inbox to zero by December 31st!
I have about 30 emails to go.
Join me and let me know how you’re doing.
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