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Spring is an excellent time to do some decluttering in your home and your business. After all, who doesn't want to start Q2 feeling refreshed and full of renewed energy?! If you work from home, you might find yourself swamped by emails. Your day is full of demands from reaching out to clients, managing social media, and actually getting some work done. And all the time, emails keep coming in. So how do you gain control over your inbox and build your business?

Here are 5 ways you could spring clean your inbox and get it working for you.

1. Delete Past Notifications

Ok, before I go further here, I want you to do a quick exercise. Go to your inbox and do a search for "Google Calendar". How many past events do you see? You may also find some emails for social media events that you signed up for.

If you're like me, you get lots of these notifications in your inbox and you don't regularly delete them. So, this is a good starting point for your spring cleaning exercise. 

2. Get Organized

If your inbox looks like a pile of laundry, you need to embrace the email folder! Folders are easy to set up to suit your business needs and make keeping track of messages and prioritizing them so much easier. Be intentional about moving messages to folders and resolve to have an empty inbox by the end of the day. If you use Gmail, you could set up filters so the emails will automatically go into their respective folders. 

3. Unsubscribe

Likely you get a lot of junk emails or emails that you signed for and now don’t even read. They are weeds that are infesting your inbox! Before you hit delete, go to the unsubscribe button down at the bottom of most business emails and get off those lists.

If your inbox is really out of control, I recommend you create an account with unroll.me. I've used them to help me identify emails that I haven't opened for a long time. They help clean up your inbox by:

• unsubscribing unwanted emails with 1 click
• combining your favourite subscriptions into 1 email

4. Use the Two-Minute Rule

Once you’ve got your folders set up, you could implement the two-minute rule. In just two minutes, you can either respond quickly, delete or mark with an action flag and move the email to the appropriate folder for future action.

5. Schedule Time to Check Emails

Set aside times during the day when all you do is deal with your inbox. Outside those times, close your email or turn off notifications, so you don’t get distracted by incoming messages. They all demand your attention but they'll have their time once you complete this exercise.

Depending on your schedule, it can be useful to check emails at the beginning and end of each working day. That’s it. Option: You could add information to your email signature, letting correspondents know when you’re available to answer emails.

Final Thoughts

Cleaning up your inbox will require some upfront work. But trust me, you'll be happy you did it.

My friend Jessica understands the peace of mind of having a lighter inbox. That's why she created the Get Your Email Under Control In Under 60 Minutes course. You read that correctly! In less than 60 minutes, you can clean up your Gmail account using her 4-step process.  Her step-by-step video tutorials will make the process much easier than you imagine!

So if you're a Gmail user and would love the help to shift from a messy inbox to one that's under control, then check out Jessica's Get Your Email Under Control In Under 60 Minutes course.

Feedback Time

I'd love to hear your thoughts on these tips to spring clean your inbox. Do you have any other ways that work for you? Share them in the comments below. (You must be logged in to comment so come on in 😉)