Email is a critical method of communication. However we are getting more emails than ever before, and it is difficult to stay current in email while not detracting from other essential activities. Opening an overflowing inbox can be distracting at a minimum, and can trigger intense anxiety. Here’s some tips to keep yours organized and under control.

Keep work and home separate

Have two email addresses, one for work, one for your personal business. Be militant about keeping the two separate. You don’t want your doctor’s reports popping up in windows while you are looking at data with someone, just like you don’t want emails about meetings popping up while trying to organize plans with friends.

Develop a filing system

If you have a system you use to store your computer files, you can set up a similar one in your email program. If not, it is worth developing one. Think carefully about how you tend to organize information. Then create a file system to reflect this. A common one is to have top level categories of “Admin”, “Teaching”, and “Lab”. For organizing lab communications, the most common subfolder method is to organize either by lab member or by project. For each top level category, also include an “archive” subfolder so that you can move old items into this folder as appropriate to keep your organizational structure streamlined.

Set up automatic rules

We get a lot of emails that need to be read, but many don’t need to be read immediately. Take advantage of the ability to use “rules” to automatically sort new emails from particular senders to subfolders so you aren’t overwhelmed when you open your inbox. Then you can set aside a particular point in the day to go through your subfolders and read any automatically sorted emails.

Once you read it, do it

People waste a ton of time scanning emails and then not completing simple asks. If you have already opened and read the email, and you are interested in completing the ask it contains and capable of completing it within 2 minutes, do it immediately. This works for very simple things like requests for your availability for a meeting, requests for you to send a resume or a biosketch, or requests that you are going to turn down. Some people even keep a word document with sample responses for commonly rejected email requests. You can also use an AI program for this type of email. 

For things that you definitely want/need to do, take a moment to either mark the email to come back to later, or schedule when you will complete the task. Then at the end of the week, go through all your marked emails and either schedule a time to complete the task or delete the email. Friday afternoon is a good time to do this. It leaves you with a sense of accomplishment as you go into the weekend.

Unsubscribe early and often

It’s easy to end up on a mailing list, particularly after ordering supplies from a new company or attending a conference. Taking a minute to click the “unsubscribe” button does usually pay off. Use the search function if you can’t find the "unsubscribe" link. It’s worth taking a second to decrease the number of emails you receive. Note that you can also unsubscribe to many University communications. 

Delete

It is easy to get into the habit of leaving things you are sort of interested in sitting in your inbox for sometime when you will be “more available”. That time is unlikely to come. Instead, every Friday, go through your inbox and look for this type of thing. Either complete the task, set aside a specific time to complete the task the next week, or delete the email or respond with a “no thank you” as appropriate.