Spring is here and with the warmer temperatures usually comes an urge to do some house cleaning. I guess after after being cooped up indoors all winter you get tried of the clutter and feel a need to get things organized. At least I feel that way sometimes when I have the energy.

A couple weeks ago I cleaned out my inbox, which contained over a thousand messages to nothing, zip , zero, nada. To some of my co-workers, a thousand is nothing, while to others it would be horrendous. To me it was becoming overwhelming and some what out of control. Many of the messages were deleted, but many were stored away. In the past I tried to keep numerous folders or labels (in Gmail which is what I primarily use for email), but they were rather tedious to maintain. Do you organize by sender or subject? What if a single email covered multiple subjects or was a email discussion from multiple sources?  Many times I would not do anything and leave it in the inbox, but unfortunately messages could get overlooked once they fell off of the front page of the inbox.

I searched the web and found some guidance.  Gina Trapani at LifeHacker (which btw, is great site for useful tips and how-to's) has developed a system which I have adopted and has worked very well for myself. It allows me to get my inbox empty and helps me stay on top of my messages. Items are less likely to get lost. I'm better organized and can better prioritize my tasks, since almost all of my work tasks has at least one email associated with it.

Here is the system, almost verbatim, with a few minor changes, from LifeHacker. 

I keep three types of labels in Gmail: permanent/manual labels, permanent/filter-based labels and temporary labels. Each has certain naming conventions.

Permanent labels (underscore, all caps): There are four main buckets or folders: Action, Archive, Later and Hold. Gmail has a built-in ArchiveThe underscore keeps these labels - the most important ones - at the top of the list, and the all caps is just for emphasis.

Explanation of the three buckets: 

Action: These messages represent tasks you must complete; whether that's a response that will take more than two minutes (anything less than that, just respond on the spot!) or some sort of an action. All these messages represent an item on your to do list.

Examples of messages that might go here include: a request to update the web site, or a message from a long-lost high school friend who you haven't spoken to in years that you want to spend some time writing with updates on your life. This folder should be reviewed on a regular basis and cleared out as tasks are completed.

Archive: The Archive folder is your long-term email reference library. Place all the messages that contain information you may want to retrieve at some point in the long term future in Archive. Any completed threads, completed requests, memo's you've read, questions you had answered, and completed project email goes into Archive. Basically, whenever an email is "closed" but you may find it useful at some point in the future place it in Archive.

Dumping everything directly into Archive may seem scary to dedicated filers . It was to me at first. However, the archive is your "pile" versus "file;" Just remember it's completely searchable, and any message you place there will be retrievable using a well-crafted query. If you use Gmail, the advance search functions make finding messages easy.

Later: Those items are ones you would like to read or follow-up on but do not have time for now. They do not require any action or immediate attention and you can review them at your leisure later. 

Hold: The Hold, which could also be called WAITING folder is a temporary holding pen for important messages you'll need quick access to within the next few days. If you're waiting on someone else to get back to you with crucial information, or you're maintaining a thread about a time-sensitive topic, keep it in the Hold folder.

Examples of messages that would go in Hold are: a FedEx confirmation number for a delivery that's on its way, or a message from a co-worker that says, "I'll get back to you Tuesday re: The Big Project."

This folder should be reviewed on a regular basis and cleared out as the message contents are no longer needed (ie, that FedEx got delivered or your co-worker gets back to you.)

I considered a Reference label, but anything I keep in archive or in projects is kept in case I want to refer to it later, so it appeared to be redundant and I wanted to simplify my inbox and streamline it. 

Filter-based labels (parens): I've also got a few longer-term labels for automatically shuttling messages out of my inbox: like tips email, mailing list messages, and unwanted messages that might very well be spam. I use parentheses to sort them below the above main labels. I do not think many people take advantage of  the automatic filters built  into your email client. Messages can be sorted according to sender, subject, content and then be deleted, moved, forwarded and so forth. A little bit of time spent upfront can save time later.

Short-term labels (asterisk): Last, I keep a couple of short-term labels for current projects sorted at the bottom of the list using an asterisk (like *Reunion) These labels will be deleted at some point when I don't need them anymore.

In order for this system to work you have to apply it every day to every message, Once a message is read do not leave it in the inbox. Put it where it needs to go. I use Gmails "Star" feature to highlight important messages across multiple categories so that I can easily list them all at once. It works well with the ACTION folder because I can star the next action item. When an action is complete I remove the action label, remove the star and the message is archived. 

Here are some other helpful links for managing your mail: