If you’re like me, you have multiple email accounts, each of which is filling up with more and more emails. If you’re also like me, it feels like I can never quite keep on top of them.
After having my 2nd child in November I realized I only have about two hours a day that I can work on things in a day. I have to make the most of that time, which means keeping my email from getting out of hand.
So I looked around and found a workflow by Andreas Klinger. It uses a couple of built-in features in Gmail that, for the past month, have worked flawlessly for me.
The basics are:
What happens now is when an email comes in, I either respond immediately, or put the correct star on it with a few clicks, and archive. That puts the email to the correct section where I can keep an eye on it. This workflow has allowed me to keep my primary inbox empty and all those other email inboxes trim as well. I work through my to-do emails throughout the day, mark others that I’m waiting on someone else, and move calendar invites to the appropriate section. I can see at a glance what is going on, and that is perfect.
If you’re having trouble keeping up with email, I’d recommend giving it a shot. It has freed up a lot of time and energy for me to focus on what I need to do.