5 Tips to Declutter Your Schedules and Emails

As women, we are constantly on the go. Not only do we have busy work schedules, inside and outside the home, we also are in charge of family outings, vacations, play dates and more! With so much going on, it’s extremely important for today’s CEO of the home to take the time to declutter their digital life.

That’s why Latina On a Mission and Microsoft are offering five tips to declutter your schedules and emails:

1.       Cleanup that schedule. When you write something down in a paper calendar, you don’t have much choice about how it’s done. You take your pencil — or your pen, if you’re brave — and you write it down. Simple. In Outlook you have choices: between meetings and appointments, for example, or between once and repeatedly. You can mark scheduled time as busy, free, or tentative. And if you choose, when it’s time to pick the kids up, Outlook will remind you.

2.       Manage inbox clutter with conversation view. Condense several conversations into one view for easy-to-follow dialogue with friends and family. You can also arrange email by date or individual. This will allow you to create a system of organization that rescues email you want from the clutter and reduces the likelihood of missing important conversations.

3.       Don’t procrastinate. Many people get overwhelmed by too many incoming emails. So, rather than deal with them, they ignore them instead. Procrastination can hinder your inbox organization. Take time to respond, file or delete email as it arrives. The longer you wait, the more it piles up and the bigger the clutter problem becomes.

4.       Schedule and commit to uninterrupted organization time. With so many distractions, it’s important to establish a time each day to process mail and ensure a clean and organized inbox. Commit to a regular schedule that is free of distractions (such as Facebook and Twitter) so you can deal with messages that need your immediate attention and purge those that don’t.

5.       Make a clean sweep. Outlook’s “Sweep” feature allows you to manage email clutter. With one click you can get rid of all chosen mail in your inbox. You can also sweep future mails. For instance, incoming newsletters can be directed to an assigned folder, while email you know is junk can be sent directly to the deleted folder. The feature also lets you block emails from unwanted senders.

Let’s talk! What do you think about our suggestions? Do you have any to add? Share it in a comment so that we can all benefit from your wisdom!