Do you want to keep your email inbox clean and tidy on a regular basis? 

Are you looking for some insight into how to declutter your email inbox?

While you may have recently thought about decluttering your inbox, you probably haven’t considered a key part of the process.

And do you know what that key part is?

It is when you should declutter your email inbox. Now, the answer to this statement may seem like a bit of a no-brainer.

Obviously, you should declutter your email inbox when it is full of clutter. That makes perfect sense, right?

However, if you want to truly stay on top of clutter, then you need to take more than just a problem-solution type of approach.

You need to have a solid mindset in place to help you keep clutter at bay.

In this blog post, you’ll find several pointers as to when you should declutter your email inbox. 

You’ll find a fresh new perspective to an old problem in this thoughtful post.

Hopefully, you’ll embrace this viewpoint and use it in your daily routine moving forward to declutter your email inbox. 

Email Clean: When to Declutter Your Email Inbox

We use email constantly in our daily lives. In fact, there’s probably not a day that goes by where you don’t use email (although I do hope you logoff from email when you’re on vacation!).

You use email at work. And you use email at home. You use it pretty much everyday.

That really spins the simple question of when to declutter your email inbox is turned into an oh-so simple answer. What is it?

You need to declutter your email inbox on a regular basis. Period. End of story.

Now, rest assured I’m not saying this to cause you grief or upset you.

Clutter exists in our world. We regularly remove items from our life experience that no longer interest or serve us be it clothing, books, office supplies, or kitchen pantry items.

It’s something that must be done if we are to keep our belongings in check.

And that’s exactly the reason why we need to take this straightforward approach when it comes to your email.

The task must simply be done!

Now, please bear in mind, this isn’t to say you must spend all your waking hours decluttering your email inbox.

To the contrary, decluttering should just be a part of your regular routine so that it becomes second nature, and not all that much of a big deal. Truly, it’s the consistency that counts.

Now that you are aware of when you should declutter your email inbox (i.e. on the regular), you’ll want to rewrite some of those old stories you’ve been telling yourself when it comes to decluttering your inbox.

Keep these new decluttering rules in mind and you’ll be one giant step ahead when it comes to keeping your email inbox clutter-free.

Declutter your inbox from the start. 

Ideally, you’ll want to declutter your inbox anytime you’re assigned a new email account at work or school, or if you create a new account for yourself. 

Now, decluttering your inbox may seem like the furthest thing from your mind when you start a new work position or open a personal email account.

Most likely you’re laser-focused on completing your work in a timely manner or organizing your personal affairs.

But here’s the real secret when it comes to decluttering your inbox. You can be even more productive and organized in life when you take the time to practice decluttering on a regular basis.

It’s about creating a set routine for yourself so you can appropriately maintain balance, structure, and order.

Look at it this way. Have you ever used a clean desk or workspace? You may have recently decluttered the area yourself or you may have been presented with a clutter-free area in which to work.

You simply revel in the clean, open space and before long you find yourself taking steps to remove any obvious trash or clutter and keep things looking neat for as long as possible.

This is the exact same approach you want to take when it comes to your email inbox. You want to make a conscious decision to actively declutter your inbox from the moment you start using it.

When you do, you’ll be in a far better position than if you were to just flounder and make a decision in a few months’ time.

You’ll have the right mindset from the very start!

Declutter your inbox before it becomes unbearable. 

Obviously, you’ll want to declutter your email inbox before you have an account that’s jam-packed with messages and ready to burst at the seams.

An email inbox with thousands of unread and unprocessed emails is a true recipe for disaster!

It’s human nature to procrastinate. But that doesn’t mean it has to be the way YOU go about your life.

You can take simple steps to make the decluttering process more manageable for yourself. And one of those steps is to take action before things get out of control!

Your email inbox does not exist in a vacuum. You may not have thought about it this way, but a cluttered inbox affects the rest of your life.

You cannot easily focus on your work, sort messages, read information, or locate important materials. Even the smallest of tasks becomes a major headache.

That’s why it so important to take action and declutter your inbox before it becomes a giant headache.

Declutter your inbox anytime during the year. 

Unlike spring cleaning a home, there’s no true seasonality when it comes to decluttering your email inbox.

And unlike sweeping, vacuuming, and scrubbing a home or office, you don’t need to wait for the springtime or a sunny day to clearly see a buildup of dirt, grime, and dust bunnies.

You can declutter your inbox anytime during the year. You can take action right now. 

There’s no need to wait for the perfect or opportune moment. You don’t have to wait for conditions to improve or situations to settle out.

The only thing that truly matters is that you take some form of action. Even taking a little of bit of action is preferable to doing absolutely nothing.

And the good news is that once you get the ball rolling with your decluttering, it will become easier, and easier.

How about you? What concerns you when it comes to decluttering your email inbox? Which of the above points resonated with you most? Join the conversation and leave a comment below!