Beyond Blue

Beyond Blue

4 Steps to Banish Email Clutter

posted by Beyond Blue | 9:42am Tuesday September 9, 2008

email clutter.jpg

I just found a great article on clearing e-mail clutter on a blog called “Think Simple Now.” She offers a few suggestions on how to tweak your preferences so to avoid the land of clutter anxiety. And don’t fool yourself into thinking just because the information isn’t taking up your living room that it’s not stealing it’s share of sanity from your life.

If you want to know why I care so much about clutter, go back and watch my video about cleaning my desk.

To view the entire article, “4 Steps to Banish Email Clutter,” click here. It begins this way:

Banishing clutter from your email with just a few proven tweaks can add a whole new dimension of smooth flow to your workday. If you’ve got 3,045 emails in your inbox, it can weigh on your subconscious and steal your momentum. The reminder that you’ve got this many unread emails can create noise and clutter your inner psychological space, not to mention be a source of distraction.

In just the way that a clean room or a clean desk can be energizing, banishing that email clutter will energize you as well. This creates a clean open space in your mind, which was taken up by the constant reminder of the number of emails still needing your attention.

I use Gmail to help organize messages, keep my inbox light and uncluttered. It’s an excellent productivity tool. Click here to read why.

I love the Archive option (I feel it’s one of the most underused, productivity tool), because it clears emails and reminders of unanswered emails out of your visual field. You can focus on one thing at a time. It’s like that calm and pleasant feeling of having nothing on your clean desk, yet you know where your all your files are kept.

To read more Beyond Blue, go to www.beliefnet.com/beyondblue, and to get to Group Beyond Blue, a support group at Beliefnet Community, click here.



Previous Posts

Rewire Your Brain For Love: An Interview with Marsha Lucas, Ph.D.
In the spirit of Valentine's Day, I thought I’d feature an interview with a very cool licensed psychologist and neuropsychologist that I was lucky enough to meet in person at a book signing back in September. Marsha Lucas, Ph.D., has been practicing psychotherapy and studying the brain-behavior re

posted 6:00:56am Feb. 14, 2012 | read full post »

Love Deeply ...
Valentine's Day is a good time to remember all the ways we can be loving, not just to the guy/gal sitting across from you at the kitchen table, but also your boss, your mother, your boss's mother, and her mother. One of my very favorite reflections from Henri Nouwen is "Love Deeply," found in hi

posted 6:00:28am Feb. 13, 2012 | read full post »

Therapy Thursday: Sweat
I have decided to dedicate a post on Thursday to therapy, and offer you the many tips I have learned on the couch. They will be a good reminder for me, as well, of something small I can concentrate on. Many of them are published in my book, "The Pocket Therapist: An Emotional Survival Kit." Work

posted 6:01:57am Feb. 09, 2012 | read full post »

Scrupulosity: What It Is and Why It's Dangerous
If you sprinkle a hefty dose of Catholic (or Jewish) guilt unto a fragile biochemistry headed toward a severe mood disorder, you usually arrive at some kind of a religious nut. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! For I am one. I have said many places that growing up Catholic, for me, was

posted 6:17:35am Feb. 07, 2012 | read full post »

The Treasures of Darkness
We often equate darkness with sorrow, misery, get-me-the-hell-out-of-here reaction. At least I do. That’s why I keep a mammoth Happy Lite on my smallish cubicle at work. But darkness can also be a treasure. Say what? J. R. Miller writes this in “From Streams in the Desert” by L. B. C

posted 6:06:40am Feb. 06, 2012 | read full post »

Advertisement
Comments Post the First Comment »
post a comment

Post a Comment

By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.

Share this story


About Beliefnet

Our mission is to help people like you find, and walk, a spiritual path that will bring comfort, hope, clarity, strength, and happiness. More about Beliefnet.

Help

Media Kit

Subscribe

Legal

Copyright © Beliefnet, Inc. and/or its licensors. All rights reserved. Use of this site is subject to Terms of Service and to our Privacy Policy. Constructed by Beliefnet.

Advertisement

Report as Inappropriate

You are reporting this content because it violates the Terms of Service.

All reported content is logged for investigation.