2023-11-04

The single most useful organisational hack you can apply to an email inbox

Create a folder called WaitingFor.

Then use it as a place where you drag any message that relates to something that’s a) going to happen and b) you need to keep track of.

Online orders. Details of upcoming meetings. Emails that you’re waiting on a reply to. Anything, really.

There’s three benefits that this is going to give you.

First, it’s reducing the clutter in your main inbox.

Second, it’s a way of being able to scan over the things you’re waiting for, and freeing up the mental bandwidth you’d otherwise have used thinking “I must remember to…”

And thirdly, there’s a peculiar satisfaction to be had in purging the contents of the folder. Delivery arrived? Go and delete the email confirmation. The day after that meetup? Delete the message with the ticket.

Bonus tweak. If you sort folders in a list view alphabetically, make sure this folder stays at the top by putting a dash at the start of the folder name. Non-alphanumeric characters are usually automatically filtered to the top of an A-Z order.