Summary: The Art of Inbox Warfare, and How To Organize Any Space<br> Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thanks!<br> <br> Main Topics <br> Dan's Topic: Sun Tzu & the Art of Inbox Warfare<br> We've had a few other listeners out there who have been struggling with their email inboxes lately, so I thought I'd take some time to give you some tips on how you can declare war on Inbox clutter and reclaim the calm to this part of your digital life.<br> The key to email management is the same as it is to physical things in your simple life: limit what you allow into your life. If your inbox is full of messages that don't add value to your life, eliminate them now and put systems into place to eliminate them permanently.<br> <br> Why do we get so much junk? Sometimes it's just that your email was on a subscriber list that was sold to marketers. But it’s also affected by what type of things you sign up for. So, if you really want to cut down on junk email:<br> <br> Be a bit more careful who you give your email address to<br> Signing up for every little contest or offering that comes along is like saying, "Please spam me!"<br> Get over what’s called FOMO or the fear of missing out.<br> There's good info and junk info…bringing more junk info into your life doesn't make your life better or more simple. It makes it cluttered and hectic. Trust me, you’re not missing out.<br> <br> So, here are some steps you can take to shape a more simple email experience:<br> - Unsubscribe from newsletters, feeds, updates, lists and other streams that don't enrich your life. If there’s no link to unsubscribe, you shouldn't be at all uncomfortable about marking the message as spam. Gmail has a built in function that marks the message as spam and automatically attempts to unsubscribe you from the sender's list but you can also do it yourself by clicking the little stop sign-shaped icon with an exclamation point inside in your Inbox panel.<br> - Another way to deal with unwanted emails is by using filters. Most email programs allow you to set filters to weed out messages based on your inputs. You can easily set filters in the settings area of your Gmail account, or if you have an email message open in Gmail, just click the "More" button and choose "Filter Messages Like These". Then just follow the prompts.<br> So that covers stopping the deluge of inbound emails. What about the “Occupy Inbox” movement that’s already camped on in your email? Here's how to handle what you have right now in 3 Steps:<br> 1-Pick the dozen or so emails in your inbox that must be handled now to avoid an emergency, overcharges, severe embarrassment, or a close relationship and deal with them now. That alone will leave you feeling better.<br> 2- Make the rest of the not so urgent emails (and yes, for many people that numbers in the THOUSANDS) and put them in a temporary folder or Label (Gmail). You'll deal with them later. This does 2 things… First, it gets what appears to be a major obstacle, stumbling block, and barrier to progress out of the way. Second, it allows you to set up new habits and systems.<br> 3- Tackle that Temporary folder or Label full of old emails. If you have so many that you can't tackle it in one sitting, pick a time, set a timer for 15 minutes, and go to battle. Make time in your schedule for the next session, and keep at it until you’ve dealt with all of them. BUT...big but here...NOT at the cost of your inbox. You've got to commit to staying on top of your inbox.<br> So, now that you’ve kindly asked the spammy squatters to move on and you have your Inbox back...let’s move on to those habits and skills. Here are some things to master for a solid email routine:<br> - Don't Over-Do the Folders or Labels: Keep it simple by trusting the search function in your email system. So, set up a few folders (called "Labels" in Gmail) th...
