5 Steps to Detox Your Inbox

If your inbox is overflowing with hundreds or even thousands of emails, these five simple tips can help give you a cleaner inbox – and a clearer mind…

At The Arts VA, we love to organise – that includes our clients’ busy inboxes! We know how overwhelming it can feel to open your inbox and see lots of emails both old and new sitting there.

With a bit of structure though, you can tidy it up – and keep it that way. Our team of VAs follow these five simple rules:

1. Delete It

If you have an inbox full of marketing emails and newsletters, ask yourself if it is still relevant to

you or you’re still interested in receiving it? If not, unsubscribe and delete!

2. File It

Create sub-folders for emails you may need to refer to at some point but don't need action from you right now. This is key!

Then your inbox only contains emails that need a response from you and you can easily find any that contain important information in your sub-folders! At The Arts VA we have sub-folders for each of our clients, our accounts, marketing, etc.

3. Delegate It

After steps 1 and 2, your inbox should now only have emails that need actioning. If this can be done by someone else (ie: your VA or assistant), forward it on. Then file it.

4. Do It

If an email only needs a quick response from you that will take you one minute or less, then just do it - straight away! Once you've done it, the email chain can go into the relevant sub-folder.

5. Label It

Finally, label the emails that are now left in your inbox. The Arts VA team use the same labels as our sub-folders, so once we’ve dealt with an email, we remove it from our inbox and it goes straight into the relevant folder.

It helps to use different colours for your labels as you can differentiate between your emails. Those that need a response can be labelled “awaiting reply”. You could use amber and red coloured labels so you know how urgent the reply is.

If you’re still struggling to keep on top of your emails, we have a team of VAs who’d be happy to help you detox your inbox. This can be a one-off task or we can regularly check in and maintain your inbox for you. Why not book a free no obligation discovery call with our founder Charlie to discuss - drop her an email (on the address below) to find out more.

The Arts News

• Les Miz will be back on stage from November this year! A full list of dates and venues can be found on the tour website.

• An incredible £1m has now been raised by The Show Must Go On! campaign to support theatre workers struggling financially because of the pandemic. Read more on The Stage.

We’d Love to Hear From You!

We hope you found these tips useful? Please get in touch and let us know what you think. Look out for more tips and advice coming soon.

• Email: charlie@theartsva.co.uk

• Mobile: +44 (0)7824 547321

Want to Read More?

Make sure to keep up to date with The Arts VA’s latest news and tips by subscribing to the blog here.