You know that feeling when you’re looking for an email that you remember reading, but you just can’t seem to find it again?
Not only is it annoying, but it’s extremely stressful. After years of trying to search through thousands upon thousands of messages every single time I had to look for an email, I’ve finally figured out how to effectively organize my inbox.
Here are five tips to get your email inbox organized:
Use Separate Email Addresses
Most of us probably have multiple email addresses: school, work, personal. The best advice I could give you regarding multiple email addresses? Keep them separate. That means you shouldn’t use your school email for online shopping, or your personal email for communicating with professors.
Unsubscribe From Junk
Don’t you want to cringe whenever you find yourself on email lists that you never remember subscribing to? Even though it might seem easier at first to open and delete them, it doesn’t help in the long run. Most newsletters and emails from companies have a tiny link on the bottom to unsubscribe. It’ll save you so much time and energy by not having to open and delete those junk messages every single time.
Keep Important Emails Unread
Sometimes it can be a little too easy to forget to respond to emails. We’re busy people who are constantly checking our new, unread messages. If you have an important email that you’ll need to respond to at a later time, mark it as unread after you look at it. Otherwise, you’ll forget you ever received it in the first place.
Create Color-Coded Labels
Gmail has an amazing feature that allows you to make incoming emails fall into designated categories. You can create a label from the sender, subject or words within the email. Once you create labels, there is the option to add a color. When the message appears in your inbox, you’ll see the label. You can also view all of the messages with a certain label in one place, like a folder.
Choose Which Notifications You Get
Your iPhone is probably bombarded with notifications all day — including ones from your email. If you’re like me and have every email account you’ve ever had connected to your phone, you most likely get a hundred emails throughout the day. On top of texts, social media notifications and news alerts, this adds up to a lot. Make it easier on yourself by setting up your notifications to only alert you for the most important email account you use. For me, it’s my school email. Or better yet, don’t get any email notifications.
Whether you’re looking for an order confirmation, e-gift card or invitation, these tips will help you find what you’re looking for.