Are you going email-blind?

Do you fear looking at your unread mail? Is your inbox overwhelming? In this article, Education Executive’s Laura Williams shares her 10-minute sanity saving strategy to help you organize your email

Every few months, I go through my emails and unsubscribe from any mailing lists that I don’t want to be on anymore. After feeling irritated at the absurd volume of randomness I’ve been getting in my inbox, I recently decided it was time for another cull.

Whilst it seems like my to-do list has been growing more to-do lists when I’ve been sleeping, the influx of cr*p that I’ve been wading through has made my busy brain feel even more busy and overwhelmed.

Last week, as I started sifting through my messages, I realised that because I’d assumed that most emails were ones I didn’t want to read, I’d inadvertently been skipping over emails that I did want to read. I’d been missing the good stuff whilst trying to avoid the bad stuff.

As SBLs, our consumption rate of information is high – but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be discerning about what we consume. If we’re not careful, we can get information overload and go info-blind! We can moderate our intake of news and we can step away from social media but when it comes to our inboxes, we need to be proactive gatekeepers.

Your inbox is important to what you do and unsubscribing from mailing lists may not be the answer (because you can’t unsubscribe from your SLT right?!) but don’t be afraid to be picky about what else lands in there. Apply as many rules and filters as you feel you need to make sure you get to see the things you want and divert the things you don’t, whether that be to another folder – or the bin.

Your task for this week is to make a brew and take 10 minutes to calibrate your inbox accordingly – let’s call it a spring clean.

That feeling of not having to wade through cr*p and to actually be able to find the things that matter makes this small investment of time definitely worth it. And if you’re feeling overwhelmed right now, trust me, this will help – as will the 10 minutes breathing space and a brew!