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I seem to accumulate a lot of email in my inbox. Do you have any
suggestions for managing my inbox?
If you receive a lot of emails per day, it is easy for your inbox to
become overwhelming. Some tips that help people manage a lot of
emails in their inbox include:

• Delete some email messages immediately (spam, advertisements,
informational notices)

• Rather than letting a large number of email accumulate, as you read
each email make a decision about what to do with it. If you are
overwhelmed by a large inbox, a filing strategy is probably a good
idea for you. Many people find that if they file emails that they do not
have to act upon and only keep those emails that require action or
some sort of response in their inbox, they can more easily identify
what tasks they need to accomplish.

• If a message documents or provides evidence that you need to keep,
file it in an appropriate folder. (For example: correspondence with
students over a semester).

• Be aware of when a message no longer has value and delete
accordingly. There are some messages that you may only want to keep
for a short period of time, such as meeting notices, or other messages
of short-term value.
If you need to act upon an email message, you may want to either
"flag" the message in your inbox, or store it in a "To-do" folder. Once
you have acted upon a message, you should either delete the message
or file it.

• Some people find reviewing their inbox or to-do folders at a
specified time each week is useful.

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