There’s an email I’ve used since the days of MySpace. Over the years, I’ve used it to sign up for accounts, newsletters, and many other things. Because everything comes with marketing emails these days, the inbox got inundated with junk mail. Probably like some of you, I ended up just not bothering and let the unread notifications pile up. Recently I got the chance to organize it like I have my other emails, and I thought it may be helpful to make a guide.

Email remains the most popular communication tool. Two years ago I took a serious effort in organizing my inbox. This article originally inspired this journey. Over time, I’ve iterated on a system that works for me.

This guide is for Gmail as it’s the most common email I’ve used, but the setup can be adapted worked for iCloud Mail and Outlook. The instructions are for desktop, but once setup it the flow also works great for mobile.

The Linear Inbox Flow

I call it the Linear Inbox because you work from top to bottom. When you reach the bottom, you are done.

Every time you open your email, there is a clear flow that works towards getting the inbox toward zero.

1. Read and process all the incoming emails. Messages become tasks.

1. Archive the ones that need no action

2. If the email that requires attention can be done immediately, do it and archive it.

3. If the email that requires attention cannot be done immediately, label it “ToDo” and archive.

   1. If it’s a task that should be transferred to a project management system, do that.

4. If the email requires something to be scheduled, label it “Schedule” and archive.

5. If the email is pending a response or some other action, label it “Waiting” and archive.

2. If you are short on time, just do 1 and come back to 3 later.

3. Set aside time to do the tasks

1. Go through the “ToDo” emails and clear the things you can do.

2. Go through the “Schedule” emails and schedule the meetings you need to schedule

3. Go through the “Waiting” emails and clear the ones you’re done waiting for

From here, keep to these guidelines

1. Every time you come to the inbox, get it to zero

2. Don’t let the labeled tasks sit for too long, set aside time to process them

Basic Setup

Labels

The system works off of 3 labels. I use prefixed numbers so they are arranged at the top. They are also helpful for quick access when labeling. Pick the colors that make you happy. For non-gmail inboxes, you can usually use folders.

Multiple Inboxes

The thing that makes gmail great for this system is the ability to set up multiple inboxes so labeled emails show up on the same page.

Go to Settings > Inbox > and configure Multiple Inboxes

Configure one section for each organizing label.

Configure the multiple inbox position to “Below the Inbox”. This way the workflow is top to bottom.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Learning the keyboard shortcuts will make things much faster. 

In Gmail, press Shift+/. This will bring up the shortcuts menu. Scroll halfway down the menu and enable them.

To go through the flow:

1. g then i to go to the inbox if you are not there already. You’ll see a blue cursor at the left of the top message

2. j to move the cursor down and k to move the cursor up. Press o to open the highlighted message.

3. In the message, press l to open the label menu, type to find the appropriate label, and then enter to apply.

1. To un-label a message, just do the same for a message that already has that label.

4. Press e to archive the message.

5. Rinse and repeat

Cleaning up the mess

At this point, you’ve completed basic setup. If you are setting up a fresh email, congratulations! You can skip this section.

Unsubscribe to all the subscriptions you don’t need

One big contributor to a messy inbox is all the marketing emails that we get signed up for from all the accounts we may or may not need. Unsubscribe to these to prevent unwanted emails from coming into your inbox in the first place.

Use search to bulk archive emails

Unsubscribing doesn’t get rid of the unwanted emails already in your inbox. Use search to find them and archive them in bulk

Declare inbox bankruptcy

The quickest way to get to zero is just bulk archive all unread emails. You might miss a few important ones, but if your inbox is already a mess, not like you’re going to read them anyway.

Maintaining Inbox Nirvana

Keeping your inbox in shape requires regular maintenance. Get into a habit of doing the flow every time you come into your inbox. Doing this once or twice a day should take less than 5 minutes. Below is a screenshot from my main email. I’ve been tardy on some todos, but they’re still on my list!