Trying to figure out the real secret behind having an empty inbox every day?
Look no further.
Email is my main form of communication with so many people.
a. Personal communication with family or bills/accounts (we sign up for ALL paperless)
b. Professional correspondence (Self Employment)
c. Professional correspondence for Body By Bulb (Husbands Business)
d. Professional communication (Influencing)
e. Junk ="Please Enter your Email"- for all stores, programs, blogs, websites, etc.
Because we have so many types of communication via email, I need to keep my email very organized. To do this, I have an email for each category. (You can manage your accounts on Google very easily by choosing the options at the bottom of the photo below "manage accounts on this device" and "add another account"- This will allow you to have multiple accounts on one device)
a. Personal email- My husband and I choose to share a personal email which houses all of our bills and personal communications. We have several folders in this email-
Home (Utilities)
Jessica Personal
Alexander Personal
Medical
Pets
Investments
Receipts
Vacations
Vehicles
Taxes.
Again, these are the folders that we have INSIDE of our joint PERSONAL email. If you have separate email accounts from your spouse, this may look different. If you see yourself needing a space to store a particular email, then create a folder for it!
b. Self-Employed Email- This email is for my correspondence with the variety of organizations that I work with as a certified freelance American Sign Language Interpreter. Because I work in a variety of different settings, I have a folder for each place.
Place 1
Place 2
Place 3
Place 4
CEU's
License
General
c. Business email- We have an email designated to all Body By Bulb. We have specific folders in this email as well;
Business
Classes
Clients
Podcast
Receipts
Taxes
Testimonials
To Do
d. Influencer Email- This email is linked to my blog, YouTube, and Instagram and houses all my correspondence that I have with any of my lovely followers as well as any questions through the website itself. jessicamaehaizman@gmail.com
It's also the place where I correspond with my agents, brands, and companies, coordinates giveaways, work with 1:1 clients, schedule podcast guests, and more. The folders are constantly growing and changing- so thank you for that!
1:1 Clients
Business
Giveaways
Organization Clients
Podcast
Products/Brands
1. Current
2. In-active
3. Past Brands
Taxes
Testimonials
Website
THIS RIGHT HERE IS THE LIFE CHANGING NEWS
e. Junk Email- Both my husband and I have an email that is designated for JUNK. We use this to subscribe, give to stores, sign up for trials, and anything else that is going to send email after email. WE NEVER GIVE OUT THE OTHER EMAILS TO SIGN UP FOR ANYTHING.
All of my Google emails are linked to my Google email account on my phone, and notifications are enabled. These emails are what I find incredibly important, need to be responded to or taken care of, and need to stay organized.
My spam email is Yahoo, and the reason that I love that it's separate is that I can individually turn off notifications for this app because it's NOT PERTINENT.
Because I have one place with all my "junk emails," I just use it as an archive and simply search when I'm looking for something. A receipt from DSW? A coupon code for BuyBuy Baby? Search it and you'll find exactly what you are looking for.
I don't bother organizing these because it's ALL advertisements, receipts, and junk. I simply search when necessary and ignore the rest. Again, I emphasize ALL MY IMPORTANT EMAILS GO TO OTHER ACCOUNTS.
Alright, Alright- I get how you use emails and folders to organize but right now my inbox has 40,000 emails.. what do I do?
Let's tackle that inbox to give you a fresh slate.
1. Set Up New Account- Let's say you currently have an account that is 80% junk and 20% bills and family correspondence. It sounds annoying, but here is what I want you to do.
Monitor your account for a month (or two or three until you feel comfortable) and decide what emails are important that you see yourself saving and responding to. These are the emails you want to be moved to a separate account that you can easily maintain.
For example: you have an email account with thousands of emails, but when you search through, you are able to identify the following emails are important:
- From Mom
- Utility Bills
- Vet Reminders
- Insurance Reports
- Tax Information
- Realtor Correspondence
- Vacation Plans
Now, those above emails make up for a tiny fraction of all the emails that are coming in to your account. With all the advertisements, rewards programs, newsletters, receipts, coupon codes, and other junk that has taken over your account.
Which seems easier?
a. Taking time to delete all the junk and 1 by 1 unsubscribe from ALL of those emails
b. Create a new account and find the important people/website to update your email with.
I'm going to assume that 'b' is your final answer- and is EXACTLY what I did! My spam account is 15 years old! It still has my maiden name in it too! But this has solved the never ending promotions from flooding my inbox and allows me to easily maintain INBOX ZERO!
If you find yourself with a long list of websites you need to change your email on, make a list, and tackle 5 every day. You might be living between two emails for a while but eventually, you will have all the important emails switched over. Plus, for family and friends, you can send out a mass email with your updated email address which may knock a bunch off the list!
When you finally have done it how do you maintain?
Every single day I look at each email in my inbox (I get LOTS of emails) & I either:
a. respond immediately (for those quick responses)
b. move it to the appropriate folder and add it to my to-do list if it requires action
c. delete it/unsubscribe
It's as easy as that! Making it a part of my daily digital routine (check out my Instagram highlights for more information about what this is) has truly changed the way I look at email and has kept me from feeling overwhelmed.
I hope that this inspires you and you feel fully capable of hitting inbox zero very soon. Leave some feedback here or shoot me a message on Instagram and let me know if this was helpful or if you have a tip that HAS to be included!
Always, Jess
L E T ' S B E F R I E N D S!
