Free Yourself From the Inbox

Today I finally made the plunge and opened up a new Gmail account. I have been using Hotmail for years but I have subscribed to so many different newsletters that it had become an uncontrollable mess. So I’ve decided to start with a clean slate.

I will only be subscribing to one or two newsletters in hopes of keeping my inbox a bit cleaner.

In this article, I’m going to share with you the tips I will be using for ultimate email productivity within Gmail.

1.) Only check your email once per day and make sure you NEVER check your email in the morning. You should start your day off by accomplishing your biggest tasks first. Ask yourself what do you dread doing most today and that is probably what you need to accomplish first.

Most importantly, always have your email closed and make sure that you turn off any notifiers. You’d be surprised how many people set their email programs to check for mail every minute. That creates 500 potential interruptions in a single day. If your email is notifying you every time you get an email, you will never be able to focus on the task at hand.

The key to ultimate productivity is complete focus. When I start writing an article, I immediately set the timer for 60 minutes and get lost in my work. As said by Larry the Cable Guy “GIT-R-DONE!”

2. Gmail Filters

To make Gmail even more efficient you can also play around with the filters. Filters are a great way to automatically send newsletters, personal notes, and other email categories to their appropriate folders. According to the Gmail website, filters allow you to “automatically label, archive, delete, star, or forward your mail, based on any combination of keywords, sender, recipients, and more.” If you want to test it out first, you can set up a test query against current emails to see exactly what it would catch and what it would miss.

Filters make it much easier to work through your emails and find which ones need immediate action.

Click here to find out more about setting up filters within Gmail.

3. Get rid of all spam.

If you discover spam in your inbox, simply check the box next to the unwanted message and click Report Spam. If you have already opened the email, simply click Report Spam
along the top of the message to send it to the Gmail Team.

You can also block emails from certain senders if needed.

Whenever you want to delete spam, click on Spam along the left-hand side of any Gmail page. Check the box next to the emails you want to delete. Lastly, click Delete Forever.

For a complete video on spam protection, check out the following video: Attack of the Spam

4. Minimize Your Inboxes

If you’re like me, then you may have multiple email accounts scattered everywhere from Squirrelmail, to Hotmail, to Gmail and beyond. Fortunately, Gmail makes it easy to manage multiple email accounts all under one control panel.

You can do this by setting up all of your non-Gmail accounts to foward your mail to your main Gmail address. This process will vary based on which email service you use, but it can generally be handled from the settings option.

Gmail will automatically use the appropriate email address when replying, regardless of which email address it was initially sent to.

Click here to learn more about the Mail Fetcher feature.

5. Assign Gmail labels

To keep your inbox organized, Gmail allows you to put labels on your email. The labels will vary for each person. Here are a few examples to help get you started:

• business
• family
• mailing list
• receipts
• Upcoming (for anything regarding upcoming events you need to remind yourself of)
• work
• blogs
• customer support
• banking

The list is unlimited.

However, some people prefer not to use filters and instead opt for Gmails powerful search application. You can use Gmail Search in the same way you would use Google Search.

6. Emptying your inbox!

Here is a quick and easy process for emptying your inbox.

• If an email requires some sort of response or action that will take less than two minutes to complete, then do it on the spot. Once you are finished, you can then delete the message or move it to the Archive. The Archive is perfect place for email that you need to keep as a reference but don’t want stuck in your inbox all the time.
• If an email requires a response that will take more than two minutes to complete, then move it into a folder labeled action or “star” it.
• If an email contains information that you will need to reference or follow up on within the next few days, move it into a folder labeled Upcoming.
• If an email is of no use to you, delete it.

Follow these steps until you have completely cleaned out your inbox. Now, doesn’t that feel good

Set aside a specific time each day to review your email. In fact, you can even use a Google Calendar alert to remind you
at a set time each day to organize your inbox. You will find the Google Calendar link at the very top of your Gmail page on the left-hand side.

If you feel that you absolutely must check your email more than 2 time per day: DON’T.

Instead, set up an autoresponder that will automatically reply to each person that emails you.

The autoresponder should read along the following lines:

Thank you for your email! In order to actually get things done around here I will only be checking my email at 11am and 4pm. If you need anything immediately please call me on my cell phone so that I can quickly address any urgent matter. Thank you and have a great day!

- Kim

Do this and I promise your productivity will instantly increase. The hardest part is keeping yourself away from that dreaded inbox when you are in the habit of checking it 30 times a day. Do yourself a favor and stay away, far far away….

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