This Bad Work Habit Is Stealing a Shocking 72 Days of Your Time Per Year Here's how to recognize if you're guilty — and reclaim those precious days.

I had an epiphany about managing my overflowing email inbox while I was on vacation, of all places.

For a while, I had been religiously adhering to inbox zero, practicing strategies like replying to seemingly quick emails as soon as they arrived and diligently reading every message and either responding or archiving. There was an undeniable satisfaction in feeling like I had gone through each email.

At the same time, I spent hours sifting through my inbox daily. Oftentimes, simple emails ended up not so simple at all — requiring researching, collecting input from various colleagues, and finally crafting an email. I was achieving my email goals — or was I?

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Then, during a family vacation, I decided to allot myself just one hour daily to manage my work emails. I turned off notifications except for a couple of time-sensitive matters. Otherwise, I checked my inbox once every evening, just before dinner.

At the end of our family vacation, I felt more refreshed than I had in longer than I could remember. And to my surprise, nothing had slipped through the cracks. It got me thinking: If I could implement some of my vacation strategies every day, I'd lose a lot less time on emailing.

According to McKinsey, the average professional spends 28% of the workday reading and answering emails, which amounts to 2.6 hours a day and 13 hours a week. That's roughly one-and-a-half workdays a week and six days a month! Needless to say, email is eroding our effectiveness at the office. But there are ways to make your inbox work for you rather than vice versa. Here are some of the strategies I've found most effective for reclaiming time wasted on emails.

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Embrace filters

Your inbox shouldn't be treated as a junkyard for useless emails. Non-actionable items, including those old newsletters you'll never get around to reading, should be archived or deleted. That said, research has found that archiving emails into many folders (using a mouse) wastes 11 minutes per day. It's safe to assume archiving with a touchpad wastes a comparable amount of time. Email filters, on the other hand, function 50% faster than using a mouse.

I use Gmail's filter function to filter out all low-priority emails — like newsletters and those "special" subscription offers. That way, my high-priority inbox contains only messages that I care about and that require action on my part. With a drastically reduced inbox flow, I never worry about if I missed something critical.

You can generally find technical instructions for setting up filters with your email client online. Before doing that, consider what you'd like to filter. I filter depending on my priorities, but others find it useful to categorize based on what requires a reply.

This is another example of the no-code revolution — where technology empowers you to develop tools to make your life easier without being a developer.

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Create email templates

As any entrepreneur will tell you, no day at work is the same. Companies, and especially startups, are dynamic organisms. There are always new users, new concerns, new business partners and new employees. As my company grew from just me to more than 550 employees worldwide, I faced new challenges every day. Nonetheless, I noticed that my inbox was often inundated with similar requests. I found myself writing the same emails over and over again — until I discovered the time-saving magic of email templates.

In my new book, one of the automations I recommend is building email templates. To begin, make a list of the email types and questions you frequently receive. Then, group the full list into categories. Use Google Docs or any word processing software to prepare templates for each category. Then, save the templates in your email program with easy-to-recognize labels. Here's where the time-saving happens: Whenever you receive a query that matches a category, update the recipient information in the template and send the email.

It's a minimal upfront investment of time that ultimately leads to significant savings.

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Practice setting boundaries

When I decided to change my approach to emails, I didn't radically change overnight. Turning notifications off had worked on vacation, but I knew I couldn't do that during the workday. So I started slow — by silencing notifications outside of regular work hours and keeping them off at home. Rather than keeping an eye on my email all day, I'd close the tab (especially when I needed to focus deeply) and check it once an hour. As Harvard Business Review reports, professionals check their email an average of 15 times per day or every 37 minutes. If people checked their email hourly instead, they could cut six email checks from their day. Being intentional about these changes, albeit minor, can feel revolutionary.

In my case, these small steps allowed me to save time emailing and to dedicate more undivided attention to more meaningful tasks I was engaged in — or, as I call it, the "big stuff."

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Prioritize the day's most important task

It's no secret that we're drowning in busy work. For me, one of the principles of cutting back on busy work, like emailing, is to keep my most important tasks at the forefront of my mind. I'm not talking about the most urgent matters or the lowest-hanging fruit, but rather, the tasks that will make an impact on your career or your business — you know, like writing the thought-provoking article or finding the innovative product update.

Each day, when I arrive at the office, I consider my most important task. I write it on a Post-It note and stick it on the bottom of my computer monitor. That way, anytime I'm tempted to mindlessly or anxiously pop into my email, I'm reminded of the more critical stuff that deserves my attention.

Emails are the most useful communication form of our time and, at the same time, potentially the most damaging. If you're not careful, "just checking it" can steal invaluable hours from your workweek. With some intention, you can regain that time and get the most from your inbox — and worry less about whether it's at zero.

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