Rachel Levy: Social Media & Marketing

I have been working really hard over the past few months to keep my email Inbox clean and as close to zero as possible. A few people have asked how I do it, so I thought I’d write about it.  Here’s proof that it works:

I use Gmail, but most of what I’ve written can apply to any advanced email client. Here are my tips:

• Unsubscribe - I can’t say enough about the value of unsubscribing.  I have signed up for so many newsletters over the years, but my interests have changed.  I also do a lot of shopping online, and many sites automatically add you to their email list (or I miss the opt-out button).  Now, as soon as I get something that I find myself automatically going for the delete button, I unsubscribe immediately.  No need to waste my time each time deleting these emails.  Plus, there’s something therapeutic about using the unsubscribe button!
• Filters - Filters allow you to perform a certain action automatically to incoming emails.  I use filters in a few ways:
  • Move emails I don’t need very often automatically to my Archived box -  For example, I receive a lot of emails that are about social events in the Boston area.  Usually I’m too busy to add anything else to my schedule, so I don’t need to clutter my Inbox with them.  Instead, I have them automatically go to Archive, and if I am looking for something to do at night, I know where to look.
  • Filter out emails I want to deal with all at once – For example, all the notices I receive from Twitter telling me I have a new follower… I prefer to go through my new followers all at once and review them.  Getting them out of my Inbox reduces the clutter.
  • Filters are great for Google Buzz, which makes any reply to you, show up in your Inbox. If you dislike this, create a filter to move these to trash automatically.
• Labels (this is a Gmail feature which is very similar to email Folders) – I use labels to categorize emails coming into my Inbox. About 1/2 of the emails I receive are set up to be labeled automatically. For example, each client I’m working with has a its own label, so any email arriving from that client gets automatically labeled.  That way, I can glance quickly at what is high priority and who it is for.  I also use labels to identify news subscriptions I receive, so they’re still in my Inbox, but easily identifiable as lower priority.
• Dedicate time to go thru emails – On a daily basis I try to keep my Inbox volume low.  But, inevitably it piles up a bit throughout the week.  I find that designating time to go through my emails each week and get it back down to zero really helps.  I typically do this on the weekends, but you can do it whenever works for you. The key is to ensure you do this, or 10 will become 20, and 20 will become 30, and so on.
• Add to task list – I used to leave follow-up items in my Inbox, and star them as important.  But, that then just cluttered my Inbox and made it tough to see what else I was receiving.  Now, I take to-do items and put them on my task list, and move the email to the Archive folder.  That allows me to prioritize my to-do’s and keep my Inbox clean.
• Conversations – One of my favorite features in Gmail is the grouped conversations, which groups all emails in the same email stream together.  So, if you send an email, and 10 people reply, it just shows up in your Inbox as ONE email, rather than 10.  All 10 responses are grouped together.  This helps a lot in keeping the visual volume down.
• Mark as read – For any of the news subscription emails I receive, I automatically mark those as read, so they mentally clutter my Inbox less.  They’re still in my Inbox, but don’t feel like they have the same urgency as Unread emails.

(Photo credit: Email)

What do you think?  Do you have any more tips to keep your Inbox in control?