Master Your Inbox: 5 Simple Tips for Email Sorting
- T.
- May 23, 2024
- 6 min read
Updated: May 26, 2024
Do you feel overwhelmed looking at your inbox? Do you keep putting emails in the "too hard" basket? Are you not sure where to start, so you just...never start?
Don't worry, I'm here to share some simple email inbox sorting tips with plenty of examples & ideas included to help you with sorting & automating, ensuring you stay on top of your inbox game without the stress!
Now the terms I will be using in this article relate to Microsoft Outlook, but most email providers will have their own very similar way of sorting emails & the principals should be the same.
Blog Snapshot
Tip 1: Create Email Folders for Major Areas
Start by setting up folders for main areas of your e-life. This will be the foundation of your email organisation.
How To Set Up a Folder (in Outlook)
Setting up a folder in Microsoft Outlook is a straightforward process. Right click on 'Inbox' > select 'Create New Sub-Folder/Folder' from the menu that appears. Type in the name you want for your folder > press Enter & now your new folder is ready to start using!
To move emails to the new folder you can either click & drag the email you want to move into the folder you've created, or you can right click on an email > select 'Move' & choose your desired folder from the list. If you have a lot of emails to move you can select multiple emails by holding down the 'Ctrl' key while clicking on them, then move them all using either method above.
Folder Ideas to Get You Started
Subscriptions
Newsletters
Finance: Bank statements etc.
Bills/Invoices: Keep track of what's due and when.
Work
Health: Medicare, Doctor Certificates etc.
Utilities: Water, gas, electricity.
Home: Anything you have purchased for your home
Appointments: Doctor's visits, meetings, you name it.
Read Later
Tip 2: Add Extra Descriptions or Actions With Categories
Within each folder you can add personalised categories to determine the action required or the urgency of each email.
How To Set Up a Category (in Outlook)
Right click on an email in your inbox > select 'Categorise' > New Category. You can then make up your preferred category name and choose a colour for that category (because who doesn't love some good old colour coding!) > save & then you can start using that category straight away by right clicking an email > select 'Categorise' and selecting your personalised category.
Category Ideas to Get You Started
'Prioritising' Categories like: Urgent / Do Today / Do This Week / Do Next Month
Specific timeframe Categories like: "Research on Friday"
Name Categories to indicate you have sent it to someone else to action (delegated) - this helps if you still want it in your inbox to remind you to follow that person up.
Defining Categories: you could have a folder for invoices & have categories within that folder for specific types of invoices like electricity bill, water bill, real estate/rent, groceries.
Tip 3: Simple Email Inbox Sorting
My favourite way to sort my emails is by Category as it clumps together all the similar emails & helps my brain to simplify what to do first, second & so on.
How To Sort by Category (in Outlook)
Go to the filter button at the top of your email list > select 'Sort' > sort by 'Category' & this will reorganise your inbox or folder into categories; from here you will have a good overview of everything allowing you to zone in on doing one task type at a time - the best way to stay focused & be more accomplished in your day.
OR If you just want a quick way to do very basic sorting
You can use the Outlook "Focused Inbox" feature - this uses low-level AI to separate your inbox into two tabs: Focused & Other & can help you with prioritising important emails & not so important emails. Generally speaking, things like newsletters will go into the "Other" tab & emails from people asking you questions will go into the "Focused" tab.
Tip 4: Focus by Minimising Categories
Avoid category overload! Keep it simple by focusing on one category at a time which helps in reducing distractions & increasing efficiency. You can do this by minimising & maximising your categories to help you focus- simply click the arrow that is next to each Category name to minimise & maximise each one.
Tip 5: Set Up Email Inbox Rules (Automation)
Setting up rules is the next step to simpler, more automated inbox management, but it does require a little bit of upfront thinking to put them in place, once you do this you can sit back & watch them work for you - like a little (free) virtual assistant working in the background to simplify your life.
How To Set up a Rule (in Outlook)
It's pretty simple to set up a rule, see the steps below:
Right click an email in your Outlook inbox that you want to create a rule for & select 'Rules' & 'Create Rule'.
From there, make a name for your rule so you can recognise it when you have a few rules set up - for example "Newsletter Emails Rule".
You then need to set conditions for your rule (if 'this' then do 'that'). You can choose from dozens of conditions like: if an email is "From" or "To" a specific person, if keywords are in an email (like "Invoice" or "action"), if the emails is marked as important, if the email is a certain size or has an attachment, then do a certain action - the only limit is your imagination!
You now have the choice to save your rule as it is OR add an additional action like marking it as read, or important or categorising it. Examples are below:
Once you are happy with your rule, & additional actions, click 'OK' to save it - & that's it! Your inbox will now automatically organise itself based on the rules you've set & if you ever want to change or delete a rule, just go to 'Rules' & 'Manage Rules' to edit or delete! 😄
Rules & Automation Ideas to get you Started
Automatically move to a folder - if an email arrives from yourfavenewsletter@outlook.com in your inbox you can set up a rule to automatically move it to a folder named "Newsletter emails" or "Read Later" - you could then take it a step further & set a reoccurring calendar reminder to trigger you to check the folder once a day/week/month
Auto-add a category - when an email from YourFavePerson arrives, you can set up a rule to add a category to the email called "Urgent" & then filter your inbox by categories to focus on the urgent ones first (minimising the rest).
Add an email to your Microsoft To Do list by flagging it in your inbox. From your To Do list in the Flagged Emails section you can then add detailed notes/steps/reminders/related attachments & you get the added satisfaction of being able to tick the task off as complete when it's actioned (one of my personal favourite things to do!)
To learn more about why I use Microsoft To Do list for my personal & professional life you can read one of my previous Blog Posts: Boosting Productivity With Microsoft To Do App The Microsoft To Do app is free, suuuper simple to use & integrates with Outlook emails.
Auto-Respond - Set up an automatic reply for certain types of emails. You can use trigger words in the email subject line or body of the email to define which emails you want to have this auto-reply set up for, like when: 'YourWebsiteReplies' is in the subject line, or the word 'question' is in the body of the email. For example: A prospective client asks you questions via your website & your website sends this to you in an email - you could set up a "Thank you for your email" auto response that gives them an estimated timeframe on how long you will take to get back to them. This makes them feel acknowledged & you come across very professional & considerate of their time.
Auto-Forward - when emails from a particular email address arrive in your inbox you can set up a rule for them to auto-forward to another account for easy monitoring. This is a good idea for if you are away on leave & have someone who can look after your emails for you, but who you may not want to give full access to your inbox to.
Final Thoughts
Now that I've given you some instruction & ideas on how you could start sorting your emails, why not jump straight into your inbox & try some of them out now!
Start small by adding all your folders one day & all your Categories the next. Then start thinking of ways you could automate & set up rules for things to ease your stress & stop feeling overwhelmed.
Trust me, once you get on a roll of setting all this, you will be surprised at just how excited you get seeing everything organised & automating for you!
Don't forget to comment below to let me know how you go setting everything up! I would genuinely love to hear about your successes, help you with any frustrations & hear about your Ah-ha moments! 😄
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Sending productive vibes your way,
T💜
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