Email is one of the most useful work tools, but one of the most relentless demands on our time. A recent study found that we spend 28% of our time dealing with an average of 121 emails every working day. Worse still, an overflowing inbox causes distraction, brain fatigue and that churning sense that there’s always something else waiting for our attention.

Email overload is also a workplace culture issue. Every organisation has unwritten rules about email: how quickly we should respond, what constitutes ‘urgent’, who gets copied into what, and whether we’re expected to show ‘commitment’ by being permanently responsive – evenings and weekends included.

Leaders own behaviour can inadvertently set those rules for everyone else. Managing email better isn’t simply about having a tidier inbox. It’s about being more intentional with our attention, and creating healthier expectations for the people around us. Here are ten ways to start.

Inbox Zero doesn’t mean maintaining a completely empty inbox. It’s a decision-making tool. Every email gets one of four actions: Delete, Delegate, Defer or Do. The aim is to eliminate ‘email procrastination’ — those messages we repeatedly open, reread and leave sitting there, creating stressful mental clutter. Simply open it, decide where it sits, schedule the when, and move on.

Not everything urgent is important and not everything important is urgent. Often, we mix the two together. Decide what constitutes urgent and important, and prioritise your work based on that. Using the 4D’s from Inbox Zero will help.

If something takes less than two minutes, just do it. Small actions left unresolved quickly accumulate. Completing them immediately reduces inbox volume, cuts down on mental clutter and creates a sense of progress.

Instead of dipping into email continuously, set specific times for dealing with it – perhaps late morning, after lunch and late afternoon. This reduces context switching, protects deeper work and challenges the belief that you must always be instantly available.

Use email rules, filters, flags and folders to control what actually reaches your main inbox. Newsletters, notifications, receipts and emails you’re simply copied into can be automatically organised elsewhere.

Process similar emails such as approvals, scheduling, administration or project updates together. Staying in one ‘brain mode’ speeds up decision-making. Even a focused ten-minute batch creates momentum and makes a large inbox feel more manageable.

According to the Pareto Principle, 20% of activity produces 80% of impact. Which emails move important work forward, influence decisions, strengthen key relationships or significantly impact others? Prioritise those. Not all emails deserve an equal share of your attention.

How often do you read an email, close it, then come back and read it again later? Wherever possible, open an email when you’re ready to make a decision: Delete, Delegate, Defer or Do. One touch means fewer repeated decisions and a clearer mind.

If you regularly send similar responses — confirmations, introductions, follow-ups or routine updates — create templates. Personalise messages to keep communication warm but stop wasting time writing the same content from scratch.

Before you finish work, spend three minutes asking: What’s left? What’s essential? What can wait? Identify what needs your attention next, then consciously close the inbox. Unfortunately, emails are never finished but you can decide how much of your time, attention and energy to give them.

Remember, our individual habits become collective ones. When we set clear boundaries, reduce duplication, stop treating every message as urgent and resist being permanently responsive, we give others permission to do the same. These small, visible behaviours say, your time matters, your boundaries matter, and you don’t have to be constantly available to be effective.

To help you turn theory into practice, download your free email checklist from mip.social/emails.