If you’re like most people, you get tons of email. Some you want, some you don’t. Some goes right into the spam filter. Others end up there after a trip to your inbox.
Once the spam is sorted out, you’re left with a glob of messages to wade through. Some of those messages are about your work and need immediate replies. Some not so immediate. And others are personal and don’t need replies while you’re working.
Yet seeing all those messages in your inbox takes time away from your work. Just looking at the personal or non-work related messages takes you out of your work flow. If you’re not tempted to respond, they’ll at least take your focus away from your work. That’s why in the past I’ve suggested shutting down your email.
Of course, there is another way. It might not be as effective. But it can help you manage your email more effectively than you do now. They way, use your email client’s filters and rules.
Filters and rules are conditional statements you can create in just about all email programs that will auto-filter your email. Here’s an example:
I don’t receive my client’s email in my inbox. Rather, when a message comes from a client, it’s automatically placed in a folder titled “clients.” That folder, then, holds all my messages from clients - and only from clients - until I have a chance to read it and reply.
By filtering out my client messages from the rest, it allows me to focus only on my clients when I’m working. I don’t spend time with personal email or comment notifications from my blog or anything like that when I’m focused on clients. And, you guessed it, I also have rules that filter my personal messages, my blog comments, family emails and newsletters, among others, into different folders.
So how do I know when a new message arrives in one of the folders? I know about it because the unread message count that’s attached each folder increases.
I filter my email enough that what’s often left in my inbox is almost irrelevant. What ends up there is either spam messages not caught by my spam filter, first-time contacts that will likely be added to my rules for filtering, or just miscellaneous, uncategorized messages. But it’s few, I can tell you that.
How this has helped me is that I’m not overwhelmed by my inbox any longer. More often than not, it’s emptied every day - which is easy because all important messages go into a folder. It also has let me focus on the task at hand. I stay mostly in my client folder during business hours so I’m not tempted to reply to my friends or get into something with the family.
It also means I have a different relationship with the comments on my blog. I like to answer blog comments and create conversation on my blog. So I used to get a comment in my inbox and head right over to my blog to read and respond. Now, all comments from my blog go into one folder, which I check a couple of times each day and respond as part of my workflow.
Rules and filters have made a huge change in my work life. I’m getting more done, with greater focus.
Maybe you’re already using rules and filters. Maybe not. But here are few resources that can help you set up rules for our email program:
- Apple Mail: Rules with Apple Mail & Automatically processing email
- Eudora: How to use filters (Windows) & How to use filters (Mac)
- GMail: How do I setup filters & Lifehacker’s Supercharge your GMail filters
- Hotmail: How do I create custom email filters in MSN Hotmail?
- Microsoft Outlook: Create a rule & Tips for managing your email
- Microsoft Outlook Express: Creating rules in Outlook Express
- Netscape Mail: Creating Message Filters in Netscape
- Thunderbird: Creating, using and editing filters in Thunderbird
- Yahoo!Mail: Filtering mail
Are you already using message filter? How? And if not, give it a try and let us know how it works for you.
Hi, I’m Dawud Miracle. Professionally, I’m a blog and marketing consultant, business coach, educator and web developer who helps people use their websites to grow their business. I’m also a devoted husband and father to two, soon to be three, children. Please let me know if I can help you in any way.
Sparkplugging Founder Wendy Piersall is dang passionate about helping people start & grow a business while maintaining life balance (somehow).
Dawud Miracle has one focus: to help you get it. The it? How your website, and blog, can change the way you do business. You can find out more at 
Excellent post Dawud! Email filtering is the number 1 organizational tool I use, otherwise my inbox would be a total mess.
I started doing this a while back and it help me manage my e-mail load better. Another great idea is to setup a Gmail tag “blog topics” and look for blog topic in the subject line. When you see a great idea for a topic in your RSS feed, email it to yourself and insert blog topic in the subject line.
NICE resource list - well done, friend!
Hi Dawud! Came across your site doing research for a client and stayed to read your suggestions on filtering. Our problem is the content of our incoming mail can’t really be filtered per se, however, I have managed to sort into over 680 different folders
Makes for an interesting day, and of course not every folder gets true incoming mail. Many are used just to hold information about current or past orders, etc.
Getting organized with your mail is a must if you’re doing serious business online.
Thanks for your post, I enjoyed it and will return
I forward a lot of my business emails through GMail and have that sort it for me. Their spam filter is really good, plus the options they have for filtering into different labels so that you can find different topics easily.
I love filtering my google alerts into a folder so when I feel like looking at them once a week they are already there…I need to set it up for other categories, great suggestion I’ve forgotten to use! THanks!
I get soooo much email it’s tiresome. At best lately I’ve been skimming it. I do have filters set up so that I can see at a glance when I have blog comments to approve, when I have a work assignment etc… It really does save time.
Great list of links.
At work I’ve implemented Leo Babauta’s advice from zenhabits to have an empty inbox. When an email arrive I take action on it immediately and either delete it or put it into my Archive-folder. I can always use the search function to find it again. I’m using Lotus Notes at work and has a lot of various projects, so project related mails get into the appropriate folder. Still my mantra is to keep the inbox empty at all times.
I do use filter or rules too, I get a lot of mails that are sent to the entire company that isn’t related to me in any way, they go straight into a specific folder that I empty from time to time.
I’ll use your idea for my personal mail at home Dawud
@Theresa…Not knowing the details it’s hard to say more. What I suggest, however, is look at your incoming mail folders and pare them down to as few as possible. For instance, I have one incoming mail folder that collect all my client email. Then I sort that folder into my individual client folders as I read and respond. Organization shouldn’t create more work - it should create less.
@Everyone…we all get too much mail, if you ask me. It’s way to easy for people to contact us through email for every little thing. I get a huge number of client messages that aren’t necessary at all. And they all expect responses. I think filtering is only the beginning of retooling how we (and people we know) use email.
@Dennis…I like an empty inbox as well. And, I know that responding immediately gets in the way of my workflow. That’s why I’ve taken Tim Ferriss’ advice on checking email less frequently. I still have an empty inbox at the end of the day and I’m getting more done not being at the whims of incoming mail.
One thing I am starting to do is unsubscribe from some of the lists I have gotten on. Most of them I never open up anymore anyway. After spam and the lists, it is a lot less to think about.
One GTD tip a colleague shared with me - and I absolutely love - is to ensure your email doesn’t pop up a notification window every time you receive a new message (Outlook 2003’s default). It’s super distracting.
I used to do the “filter -> folder” thing, too, until I switched email clients.
I had about thirty folders, and everything got sorted and saved. It helped a bunch.
But then when I switched to Thunderbird, I didn’t have all those filters and folders set up anymore. So instead, I started getting really efficient with my inbox (I do the zero-in-my-inbox routine, too).
- if I need to save it, I print as PDF and put it where it needs to go on my hard drive, not save it in my email client (receipts, payment notices, etc.).
- if I don’t need it, I trash it.
- if I really don’t need it, I unsubscribe.
- if it’s a two-second thing, I reply fast.
- if it requires a longer reply, then once I’ve skimmed through the inbox, I go back and reply to them.
Result: No folders bogging me down, no leftover emails in my inbox, and ultimately, less emails to manage at all.
(And, of course, I only check email once a day - no auto-check, no first-thing-in-the-morning, etc.)
I say unsubscribe from as much mail as you can - except from my list.
@Adam…I know you’re on a Mac and that print to PDF is part of the OS. So what about PC users?
I have filters up and running on my thunderbird email, but didn’t realize you could do that with Yahoo. Thank you Dawud, you just added something else I need to do to my “to-do” list. Sigh. I’m sure it’ll make things a lot easier when I do, though.
It’s like, these tools were here all the time but we never get around to using them! Great post.
thanks for this article!! I’m bothered by over 50 spam emails a day in the form of scams and phony job offers I’m filtering out these from my email now. A quick word of warning to readers. things addressed to your lucky day, beloved, sent in trust, business proposal,please open,and job offer, often contain viroses that you do NOT want!!! thanks again, todd
I’ve used thunderbird filters for about two years now and using the filters allows me to focus on the important stuff. Great article!