Getting things done on email can be pretty tough!

Once you’re in the flow of things, you can be clearing an inbox in no time, but then there will be weeks on end with an email to-do list as long as your arm. That’s natural, don’t worry! When it comes to tasks, most of us work effectively by completing one task at a time, as opposed to juggling 3–4 at the same time, it’s our human nature.

So why don’t we do that with email?

Once we get into the inbox, the structure typically draws us to the unread, starred and list of messages to process and this normally ends in chaos.

So approaching email with some strategy isn’t a bad idea. We’ve compiled some of the best advice from experts and also those in our team who conquer email on a daily basis, without getting muddled.

Start from the Bottom

The top might look like the best place to start but mono-tasking from the bottom will help you to tactically clean your inbox.

Mono-tasking on emails needs to be linear, so systematically clearing your email from the bottom helps to create a concrete rule to obey by.

Granted you might be clearing some backlog, shuffled down by incoming emails and even pressured by more important emails, but the rules below should help to combat that! Recommended by FastCompany.

2-min rule

Buried deep within the chunky classic GTD (Getting Things Done) by David Allen is some advice that can apply to your email clearing.

The 2-min rule is something hailed by many as a way to process to tasks from emails. If you find an email that can be completed in under 2-mins, do it. E.g. If it demands a link, or reply, all under 2-mins, then go ahead. If it’s more than that, this tends to distract you, if it’s more than a 2-minute task, clip it to your to-do list, whether that’s another app or the pen and paper in front of you.

This will take some time to implement, but being stern in your decisions inside of email with help to craft a sharper list of actionable items.

One Panel View

One of the biggest struggles with email providers is the list view.

Distractions occur when we see them. So flipping your layout or view to a one-panel view to see emails will really help. Processing one email at a time will become a more effective strategy in this view as you’ll be less tempted to jump on all of them, instead systematically read and process each one.

Try it, it’ll feel a lot better!

Switch Right To Left

Alongside the one-panel view, use the right and left/up and down keys of your keyboard to head up and down your inbox.

Navigating your inbox in this fashion will help avoid clicking out and heading back to that classic list view, adding a lot of distractions in the mix.

Snooze

You don’t need to clear your inbox necessarily.

Using features like Snooze will provide you with a way to process emails at the correct time. An example, let’s say I’ve received an email to assist on a project, but I’m working on that project tomorrow, what’s the aim of having it hovering and taking up space?

The snooze feature will help me to hide an email for later, tomorrow to be precise, so I can use that email in context to my piece of work.