Next week marks one of the most dreaded holidays of the year, “Clean Out Your Inbox Week.” Cue the dramatic music! Hopefully, a week will be enough time!

I personally have close to 500 emails in my inbox and another eleven folders with over fifty emails filed away and forgotten. Yes, I too have to do some cleaning. We have five work day, I think we can do it! Here are some suggestions on how to go about it. All the methods include; opening, reviewing, filing in a file folder or…..deleting them.

1. Sort emails by sender –
Day One – Sort A, B, C, and D
Day Two – Sort F, G, H, I, and J
Day Three – Sort K, L, M, N, and O
Day Four – Sort P, Q, R, S, and T
Day Five – Sort U, V, W, X, Y, and Z

1A. (For those who have Monday off) Sort emails by sender
Day One – Sort A, B, C, D, E, and F
Day Two – Sort G, H, I, J, K, and L
Day Three – Sort M, N, O, P, Q, and R
Day Four – Sort S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, and Z

2. Set a timer and start at the bottom (The oldest) and work up.
3. Sort emails by sender, set a timer and start in the middle and work up or down.
4. Sort emails by unread first, set a timer and start at the bottom and work up.

As you can see, there is a multitude of ways to go about cleaning your inbox, but I want to point out the obvious one that isn’t listed, which is starting at the top and working down.

I don’t suggest this way because it is, in fact, the root of the problem, we think that what is the most recent is the most important. In some cases this is true, but in most cases, it isn’t. We naturally place more weight on the things at the top because it is staring at us when we log in, and we get nauseous thinking about an email being pushed down too far that we lose track of it. Wasn’t email supposed to save us from all the piles of paper we had on our desk? Now we just have collections in a computer. Let me paraphrase Brendon Burchard, your inbox is a convenient filing system for other people’s agendas.

That is a sobering thought, isn’t it?

Do I have the answer to this problem? No, I think, like with everything it is complicated and highly personalized. Only you have a clue to what works for you. But if you have over 500 emails in your email system, clearly something is not working. Next week is an excellent time to start digging out of the virtual pile we have in our inboxes.