The New Year tip guaranteed to cut your stress levels
AT THIS time of year, we often start to think about ‘detoxing’. While the body doesn’t really need a detox — organs such as the liver do this naturally, meaning there’s no need for faddy diets or ‘cleanses’ — I do think the New Year is the perfect time to look at the things that are causing you stress and anxiety.
So here’s a New Year’s resolution you may not have thought of, but that could really make a difference to your state of mind: declutter your email inbox.
Is your inbox groaning under the weight of unread messages? Do you forget to reply to important things because they get lost in the barrage? You’d be surprised by how often my patients give their emails as one of the main sources of stress in their lives. People feel ground down by their inbox and what feels like a never-ending to-do list.
The fact is you are probably using your email incorrectly. Nearly everyone does, which is why it’s such a source of stress.
It’s not uncommon for people to have thousands of emails sitting in their inboxes. One patient told me how periodically his email would stop working because his inbox had exceeded 20,000 messages. he travelled a lot for work and this would often happen when he was on the road, so he would phone his PA and ask her to delete the bottom 5,000 so he could start receiving them again.
This approach is a total mess. emails, like any technology, are a tool that should make life easier, not harder.
I, too, used to feel utterly overwhelmed by my inbox. I felt a constant, low-level worry. have I done everything? Is there something I’ve forgotten? I was always scrolling down it, re-reading old messages and panicking because I’d be reminded of things that had slipped my mind; or even just panicking in
case I’d forgotten something (when I hadn’t). Something needed to change, and so a few years ago I sat down and came up with a plan to get on top of my emails once and for all. I don’t think it’s an understatement to say that it changed my life.
I realised that, without any proper system in place to deal with emails, I was having to rely on my memory for the jobs I really needed to do — which is an entirely unrealistic expectation as your brain cannot possibly sort through all the information piled up in your inbox at a glance.
THE biggest error most people make is to use their inboxes as a holding pen for everything, when it should really be exactly the same as an in-tray on your desk.
Imagine that, instead of emails, this was letters. On your desk, you have one solitary tray marked ‘in-tray’. each morning you come to work and there are already a few dozen letters in there.
Then, throughout the day, people are constantly coming over and dropping more letters in your tray, burying the ones from earlier. Some of them are important, others are frivolous. Some are just junk mail.
Now imagine that each time you pick up a letter, open it and read it, you put it back down in the same pile. Quickly it’s covered by other letters, and before long you’ve forgotten about it.
This would be absolute chaos — and yet this is precisely what we are doing with our emails.
So this year, aim for zero emails in your inbox.
Treat your inbox exactly as you would an in-tray: it’s a place for new emails to sit before you’ve read them. It is not where they are stored. Instead, they should all either be filed away or deleted. The delete button is going to become your new best friend.
To start with, you need to get on top of the emails you already have. Those emails already languishing in your inbox are what put off most people from ever tackling the problem. It seems just too huge a task, so we never bother. So here’s the solution. Delete them all except the last month. Yes, all of them. You’ll be amazed how you didn’t really need them. (And most accounts keep deleted emails for a few weeks, so you have a grace period if you suddenly remember something urgent.)
Now go through the remaining month’s worth of emails, picking out any that contain information you need to keep. Be ruthless. The vast majority of emails you think you need, you actually don’t (see box below).
From now on, emails you receive that you definitely want to keep should be filed away. Others can be deleted as soon as you’ve read them. So set up folders on your email account. Create one for bills, for example, and sub-folders for each type of bill you receive. If you need someone’s contact details or the timing of an event from an email, then write the details on your calendar or in an address book — and delete the email.
People feel wary about deleting emails but keeping it will only clutter up your inbox — and by extension, your mind. D
O NOT fall into the trap of thinking that all emails need to be dealt with immediately. In all but absolute emergencies, only allow yourself to reply to emails twice a day — 10am and 4pm are good times. You’ll be amazed at how most issues get sorted out without you having to get involved.
Some of the emails you’ve filed away won’t need to be kept for ever. Set a reminder in your diary for every three months to go through your folders and delete any emails you now don’t need. It should only take a few minutes.
It’s incredibly satisfying when you do get your inbox down to zero. A thrill, even. You’ll find you have much more time to deal with emails that really do matter — not to mention the life outside your inbox. And by not having to rely on your memory so much, you you’ll feel calmer in a way you can’t quite put your finger on.
And if you do it and don’t like it, you can always just let your inbox fill up again. But I’ve talked many people through this process — and so far not a single one has resorted to their old, chaotic system.