Simple living lifestyle challenge 35 clear your inbox

The challenge: to clear your inbox

When we think of decluttering or simplifying we are to think about  subtracting things out of our lives.  To some this is hard, they want to hold onto every moment and every memory. It is something that needs to be changed.  We need to do our best to declutter our lives.  A life full of “stuff” is a life of constant managing, organizing, moving around and work.  A life of “simplicity” is a life full of peace, contentment, and just time to say ahhhhhhh.

One of these changes includes the area you probably frequent at least once per day—-your email inbox.

Why make the change:

Our world has turned to online media  and most all of us has an email.  Our email box can get just as overloaded with saved emails, or emails waiting to be responded to as our closets can with too many clothes.

This challenge is about simplifying every area of our life and this is one of the area’s that can become overwhelming.

How to make the change:

Here are some simple steps to achieving a simplified inbox:

1. Don’t check your email first thing in the morning.  When you sit down first thing in the morning and go through emails you get stuck going through tons of emails.  Do other tasks first and leave your email to be done later on.  Designate a set time and  stick with it.
2. When you check your email do something with it right away.  Decide what needs to be done and do it.
3. If it is junk or forwarded mail, trash it immediately.
4. If it is a long email, print it off to be read at a later date, or file it to be read at a later time while having lunch or waiting in a doctors office.
5. If the email requires a task, make a note on a list of what needs to be done and file your email in your archive. That way you can access it at a later date.
6. If you can do a quick response, do so immediately and then get rid of it.
7. If you need to save the email while you are waiting for a response, create a folder for that purpose.

In any case, emptying your email’s inbox will leave you with a satisfaction of completing something simple and easy.