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The One Email Trick That Keeps My Inbox In Shape

by Mike Vardy

Email is a real pain point when it comes to truly being productive. I’ve discussed a slew of thoughts on email strategies at length here at the blog, but if you’re looking for one trick you can use to get your inbox in better shape now, then you’re in luck. This trick is going to pay off huge dividends if you make the switch and stick with it.

The one email trick I’ve used to keep my inbox in shape is to sort my incoming mail so that the oldest email is the ones I see first. I go by the “first in, first out” rule, and it works.

I’ve heard from many people who I have encouraged to do this that they’ve pared down the emails in their inbox drastically. One individual just this past week said they were able to eliminate 300 emails in 20 minutes simply by switching to the same view I use.

There’s no reason you can’t do this. Gmail has this feature. (Note: Gmail’s web interface no longer allows for date sorting. I’d suggest you use a native application like the ones mentioned below to regain the ability to do this.) Outlook has this feature. Native email applications like Postbox, Mail.app, and Airmail have the ability to sort emails from oldest to newest. Simply by “flipping the switch” you can discover any stale emails and deal with them now instead of later — and no email should be dealt with too late if you maintain this sorting method.

Flip the switch on your email sorting method for a week (or, better still, 39 days). I’ll bet your inbox — and you — will be in better shape by doing so.

Photo credit: ColinBroug via SXC.HU

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About Mike Vardy

Mike Vardy is a writer, speaker, productivity strategist, and founder of Productivityist. He is the author of The Front Nine: How to Start the Year You Want Anytime You Want, The Productivityist Playbook, and TimeCrafting: A Better Way to Get the Right Things Done, coming soon from Mango Publishing.

Categories: Best of, Routines

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  1. 389: chapters 23-24 - Sense and Sensibility | CraftLit says:
    July 18, 2015 at 4:38 am

    […] on Mondays, TextExpander and one way it can be used, Five (good) Zeroes, One way to schedule a day, one trick to lesson the email morass, another email trick, my new fave helper Nozbe(which is free for teachers and professors!), and my […]

    Reply
  2. The Productivityist Podcast 74: Dmitri Leonov - Productivityist says:
    January 4, 2016 at 11:18 pm

    […] The One Email Trick That Keeps My Inbox In Shape | Productivityist […]

    Reply
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