Taming your email

At university your inbox becomes your official noticeboard: timetable changes, deadlines, fees and visa messages all arrive there. A few habits keep it under control.

Know which inbox matters

• Universities usually give you an official email address and send formal messages there. Florida Polytechnic University's policy calls email the 'official mode of communication' and expects students to check it daily.
• Carleton College says students are 'responsible for the failure to receive, or act upon, official communications', so 'I did not see it' is not accepted as an excuse.
• If you forward university email to a personal account, Carleton says you do so at your own risk. It is safer to add your university account to your phone's mail app.
• Keep a separate personal email for banks, shopping and accounts you will keep after graduation, because university accounts can end when you leave.

The inbox zero idea

• 'Inbox zero' was introduced by Merlin Mann in 2006. TechTarget explains that the 'zero' is not about message count but about how much time your brain spends in your inbox.
• For each email, choose one action: delete or archive, delegate (forward to the right person), respond (if it takes a couple of minutes), defer (move it to a folder or your to-do list for later), or do (complete the quick task).
• Check email at set times, for example morning and late afternoon, instead of reacting to every notification.
• When an email contains a task with a deadline, put the task in your to-do list and the date in your calendar, then archive the email.

Filters and folders that work for you

• Keep folders simple: Action, Waiting for reply, University, Money, Housing, Receipts. Too many folders become a job in themselves.
• In Gmail, you can create a filter: open search options, enter criteria (for example a sender or subject words), click Create filter and choose an action such as applying a label, archiving, starring or forwarding.
• Useful filters: label all emails from your university's domain as 'University', and archive newsletters into a 'Read later' label.
• Most other email apps offer similar automatic sorting under names such as 'rules'; check your app's help pages.
• Unsubscribe from marketing emails you never read. Use the unsubscribe link in genuine emails from companies you know, and simply delete anything suspicious instead (see the Scams and Fraud module).

Security checks for your inbox

• The NCSC warns that a common tactic of criminals who get into an email account is to set up forwarding rules so they receive copies of your emails and can reset your passwords.
• Every few months, check your email settings for filters and forwarding you did not create, and delete them.
• Use a strong, separate password and 2-step verification on your email (see the AI and Digital Skills module for setting these up).