1. Sweep your inbox at the end of every day. Keep no more than 20 emails here. Strive for “inbox zero” once a week.
2. Sweep your “Sent Items” folder at the end of every day. Use this folder only for emails that you’re waiting on a reply for. This will lighten the load on your inbox.
3. Filter into folders emails that you receive regularly that aren’t time-sensitive, like enewsletters or social media alerts. Your main inbox is holy.
4. Use colors to flag emails from your boss.
5. Remove the columns for flags, categories, and size. Nobody uses the first two, and the third is increasingly irrelevant. Also, less clutter makes it easy to focus.
6. Don’t use your work address for personal matters.
