I watched a reel the other day with college students saying how many unread texts they had. All but one had over 100 unread messages, someone even had like over a thousand💀 Reader, I about had a heart attack over that. Honestly, my brain would just short-circuit if I had that many unread texts. I might actually just throw my phone away and get a new numberrrrr.

This week I had like 50 at one time but it’s because a group chat went off. One of my friends rescued a puppy left at a Walmart parking lot, another rescued a cat who followed her home from a walk, and another starred in a local play. It was a wild week for the group chat. 😅

Whenever the group chat pops off and I’m not available to respond, sometimes I’ll mark it as read and then unmark it so it shows 1 unread text instead of like 40 🤫

My email inbox though is another story. Once an email comes into my inbox I’ve got a system setup where I can quickly get in and get out and not lose my day to it.

I’ve set up the same 3-step system for my client's inboxes.

1. Create a clear label & filter system

You don’t need a ton of labels for your inbox since you can search for stuff, but having some setup will make your life easier. The top 2 labels I create for my client’s inboxes are “Action Item” and “Waiting On”. These little labels come into play more on the next step below.

Whenever I onboard a new client (myself or for clients), I set up a filter so that any email that comes in from that client gets added to the “Client” label. This way, when I’m in the inbox I can instantly see emails from clients and know who I need to respond to first.

I’m even able to prioritize who to respond to if I see the “Client” and “Waiting On” labels attached to their email. It means that a client has responded to an email I was waiting for a response on.

If you need a system for your labels, check out this blog post.

2. Setup Priority Inbox

The default inbox setting for Gmail is any email in your inbox is just, well, there. You might have it so that you can see unread at the top and read at the bottom. But there’s a better way to do it 👀

I like to use the “Priority Inbox” setting. Basically, it lets you pick 2 labels to add to your inbox and turns them into sections. For my client’s inboxes (and mine) we have:

1. Unread
2. Action Item
3. Waiting On
4. Everything Else

With this little system, I can see at a glance what emails haven’t been opened yet, which ones I need to take action on or reply to, and what I’m still waiting on a reply for. Doing it this way has helped me triage the inbox quickly and efficiently so I’m not spending more time than necessary to respond to things.

3. Setup custom email aliases

A secret weapon of mine is the email alias. If you don’t know what it is, basically it’s an alternate email address you can set up within your regular email. I have a bunch of them set up for myself, but my top two to use with clients is for newsletters and support.

With the newsletters one, anytime I sign up for someone’s list I don’t do it to my regular email, I do it with the newsletters alias. This way, when I get an email it automatically gets my “Newsletter” label. And if I’m working with them (they hired me or I hired them), my regular emails with them don’t get tagged Newsletter since they’re emailing my regular address. 🤯

Haven't set up an email alias yet? Check out this post with the steps and some alias ideas.

Whew. If you're eyeballing starting to have a cleaner, less stressful inbox but strapped for time, I suggest starting with creating the Action Item and Waiting On labels, then shifting your inbox to the Priority Inbox. You can always create more labels, filters, and aliases later. But if you're in the weeds of your inbox and have 5 minutes, I'd recommend starting with those two.

Cheers to a happier inbox,

Liz

This week's picks 📚 Currently reading: Rereading When the Moon Hatched (because I'm obsessed with this story and need to read it again) 🍪 Baking: These cookies because I'm never not in the mood for more chocolate cookies