Empty Inbox: The Key To Using Filters

Filters are one of the most underused tools in email. They can be the easiest way to reduce the amount of manual email processing you do every day as well as cut down on the regular interruptions email creates. However, over use filters at your peril, filtering your email to within an inch of it’s life usually ends up with it scattered in hundreds of different places and even less organised than if you’d never used them in the first place. There is such a phenomenon as over automation.

Most people, when introduced to filters, try and filter everything. It often seems they are trying to filter email from each sender into separate folders. Invariably this results in them losing control of their email (because they can’t find them again) which is totally the opposite to what we’re trying to do here. Instead it’s best to create filters for any noisy, frequent and non-urgant items that don’t need to be dealt with right now. (right now is 12pm or 4pm if you read my post on email cheats) Obviously what each individual considers noise differs but some of the things I include are:

• Any Facebook update emails.
• Blog comment receipt emails.
• Mailing lists such as online shop promotions
• Regular newsletters or memos
• Anything else that walks the wobbly line between useful and spam.

Remember filters are not a delete key and just because you have filtered your email into a folder you can’t see doesn’t mean it’s not there anymore. What it does mean is the next time an email pops up in your inbox you can be 90% sure it’s worthwhile looking at now. Then you can action it and get on. You should also schedule some time in your week to go through your folder of filtered items, once or twice a week should do it, just to check you didn’t miss anything.

Filtering your email is an on going process. Just like anything really worthwhile it takes time and you have to be consistent. I’m not telling you that sitting down for 30 minutes on a Sunday afternoon and playing with filters is going to fix your email. It won’t. When you check your email and see a message that makes you think ‘oh, not this again!’ it’s probably time to filter messages from that source. Equally when you find your missing stuff to over-filtering, reduce the amount of filtering you do until your happy. Learn, tweak, watch and improve is the mantra for successful filtering and it allows you to focus your time and energy on the emails that can have the most effect. (or get yourself a little more leisure time, which ever you prefer!)