06/10/2026
Before I was a business operations consultant, in my past I was the right hand to several CEOs of multi-million dollar companies.
When it came to email, I would often manage the CEO's, my own, and other general inboxes all at the same time. One of the things I got asked most often was: "How the heck do you keep up with all this?" 😅
Honestly? For me and what works with my brain, it's all in the attention to detail.
Using a labeling system kept me sane and organized. Nothing fancy, no apps needed. Just labels and a few simple rules about when to actually deal with email.
Here's a simple version of what I used (and will always recommend to every person who comes to me with inbox struggles):
Set up these labels in your inbox
🔴 Action Needed (or To Do) - these are emails that require YOU to do something. Sign this, reply, follow up later, etc.
👁️ FYI - these are emails worth reading or keeping for short term reference, but no action required.
📤 Delegate - these need to be handled, just not by you. If you have multiple employees you can even use sub-labels with their names. Use this to help you follow up on tasks or projects with them.
It's perfectly fine for these emails to sit in your primary inbox until you can get to them, but the goal is that only things with these labels should be there. Everything else either gets archived or goes to your Promotions or Updates tab.
Once you take care of it, time to archive!
Now it's time to level up even more. Here's a rule that really changes everything:
Stop living in your inbox!
Check your email 2-3 times a day at most. Open it, scan it quickly, label what you see, and get out. Then set aside a dedicated block of time to actually work through your emails and take action. That's it.
Literally no one expects a reply to a normal email 15 minutes after they sent it. That urgency you feel is self-imposed.
Yep, I'm looking at you... Responding to every email the second it lands, especially when you've only got 10 minutes between appointments, is how you end up scattered, reactive, and behind on the work that actually moves your business forward.
A focused 45 min email block will ALWAYS beat 12 frantic check ins throughout the day!
I managed the schedules, communications, and operations of some seriously busy executives using this exact approach. It works at the CEO level, and it will absolutely work for your business too.
And you can set this up in about 15 minutes!
Bonus points if you're using Gmail and combine it with Google Workspace Studio to automate some of the labeling for you (I posted about that last week!).
Start simple. Pick a few labels. Use them consistently for one week. I promise your inbox will feel like a completely different place and you'll know exactly what's going on in there.
Got any inbox label hacks you use? I'd love to know!
Pic of my old work set up, when I tried to see if the other directors would notice if I put my dog in our weekly meeting instead. 😝
