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I started making money online as a teenager. I knew it was possible, so I Googled the methods and embraced every single method that came my way. My main income streams back then (besides my healthy £30 EMA per week) were payments from survey sites and as a product reviewer on Ciao/Dooyoo. Every time I booted up the computer and navigated to my emails, I was buzzing to see what was in my inbox.

There was guaranteed money to claim – I just needed to be there. While I can now look back and see that it was such small amounts, it was something at a time when I couldn’t imagine working a real job.

These times – 16 to 18 – me and my sister had to share the only computer in the house. I had to accept I only had a limited amount of time to check what emails I had and deal with them. I would always try to wake up first so I could go on the computer first, before my sister had her Sims sesh, and then I’d end my day on the computer too.

I could only check my emails twice a day. That was it.

My financial situation changed dramatically once I started university. Between the educational grant and the student loan I received, I was straight up rich. I used that bank balance boost improve my life – including my first contract phone, from which I could check my emails at any moment of the day.

That’s the day it all changed. I couldn’t tell you what phone I had before then, but my first BlackBerry was a turning point and made me feel like I couldn’t waste a moment. From that point, I could practice reaching ‘Inbox Zero’ – getting to a completely empty email inbox – at any time of the day. I didn’t have to wait to see what happened overnight.

But there are downsides to this.

I’ve heard before that it’s good practice to check your emails a certain number of times per day. I think I’ve heard that under 5 is best. However, that just doesn’t work for me.

When I’m working at my laptop, I’ll always have an email tab open and I’ll always see what’s there the very moment it lands, and I try never to leave an unread message lingering for more than a day. Obviously that puts me at a disadvantage. At any point someone can draw me out and take my attention.

However, there have been times when I’ve allowed my emails to build up. Seeing a mound of unread messages drives me mad. Every time that’s happened, getting through the backlog has felt a lot worse, so I’ve decided the benefits of Inbox Zero outweighs the alternative.

Another issue is the quantity of email accounts that I have. I’m in a lot of different projects and while some of them can be condensed and forwarded to other emails, I need separate ones for:

I could definitely do some more consolidation, but I’m currently sitting with 14 of them that I’m attempting to practice ‘Inbox Zero’ with. The majority of them (probably 8-9) are quiet most of the time, so it’s not too crazy, but I can imagine most people would think it’s overkill. I’ve found that the best way to manage my email workload is to use a modified version of dealing with emails at a certain time of the day.

So while I check and read all emails as soon as they come, for all the ones that require me to do something off the back of them, they’ll be added to my Trello do-to list, or get be set to unread until I have time to deal with them.

As I say, I try to make sure nothing stays in that state for more than 24 hours, just because it’s so irritating having a backlog to eventually get through.

In summary, the way I cope with having so many emails is:

  • Reading everything as soon as I receive it
  • Consolidating and forwarding mail for similar projects
  • Using a lot of email filters for things I don’t need to read, but may need to store for future reference
  • Keeping things unread until I can deal with them – and dealing with them ASAP, with no excuses
  • Aspiring to maintain ‘Inbox Zero’

It’s working for me right now, but it’s been an extremely long journey to get here.

Chiino
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