Instead of a detailed explanation about how incredibly inundated law students are with emails, take a moment to take a deep breath and reflect on the state of your own inbox. Maybe you’re already feeling a sense of anxiety and dread. There are so many emails. There is so much to read. There is so much time to spend catching up or just managing an inbox. Well, the truth is, you don’t need to read everything. You don’t even need to open everything. You just need to get through it, get the information you need, and move on with your day.
It’s that easy, right? The problem is, outside of law school a lot of people could keep up with emails as needed. In law school, however, there is a constant flood. Unfortunately, a lot of emailed information is also very important to law students, like registration dates, career opportunities, and class updates. Email is a massive aspect of managing our academics and it only gets more critical as we become lawyers.
So, instead of magically finding more time in the day or losing sleep over yet another “to do” of law school, we can turn to the best path forward: how to be as efficient as possible in approaching our inbox. Here are a few strategies that I like to use. By no means are these the only way to approach email, but they are my personal recommendations for keeping your head above water.
Strategy #1 – Triage Immediately and Read Emails Daily
I like to glance at emails as they come in throughout the day. Some are urgent, like when Holli or Jill announce that there’s food in the atrium. Some are about upcoming events, career opportunities, or classes. Some are just newsletters. No matter the content, these three questions can be used to triage your email as soon as you see it:
Is this immediately actionable? This includes going to the atrium for food, adding an event date to a calendar, or a quick response to confirm you received the message.
Do I need to spend more time reading this later? This might be when a professor sends an assignment, details about scholarship or career opportunities, or Dean Fisher’s Monday Morning Messages.
Do I really need to read this? These might be newsletters, subscriptions, and bar association updates.
Do the “immediately actionable” emails... immediately! These emails should take less than two minutes to reply or add something to your calendar or to do list. Knocking them out of your inbox brings a nice sense of accomplishment, too.
Ideally you want to get through the “spending more time” emails every day. This is the meat and potatoes of your inbox. Try to commit to getting these read on a daily basis, but life happens, and we get busy! If you have a quiz on Wednesday, plan to revisit your inbox on Thursday. Just make sure you don’t miss anything urgent in those days before that Thursday.
The “reading material” emails can be left for your spare time or interest. These are purely things that will not contain any necessary information. Often these are newsletters or other subscription mailings. Put them in their own waiting area for later, like in the archive or a designated folder.
Strategy #2 – Folders
My favorite strategy is organizing emails into folders. This is just my preference; you can use archiving to clear out your inbox as well. Really, whatever gives you a sense of accomplishment, is the way to go. That said, having an empty inbox is true bliss for a law student. So, here are a few ideas for folders to get you started:
Classes, using a separate folder for each class
Reading Material, like newsletters and things to look at if you have spare time
Bar Association Emails
Law School Memos, all the general memos for CSU Law
MPRE and Bar Preparation, this could include Character and Fitness, Bar Resources, and Important Dates
Career and Employment
Your Involvement, this could be journals, student organizations, or moot court
Past Folders/Emails, this is like an archive for past classes or projects
Personal, this is a nice bonus for anything you want to keep but is not law school related
Strategy #3 – Minimize Notifications
Sometimes constant notifications result in numbness and reluctance to deal with our inbox. Unlike social media notifications, which are somewhat gamified to make us want to get on an app, email notifications can make us more avoidant of our inbox every time there’s a new email. This is probably because another email usually means more to read and more to do. We tend to feel the need to ignore them for some brief moments of sanity and peace.
This brings us to our last strategy: minimize your notifications. Emails sneak up on us in our free time and during time with family and loved ones. Time away from law school is a great form of self-care. So, take some mindful moments away from your email. Breaks can help with recovery and focus, and I think this holds true in regard to our inboxes.
Furthermore, check your email with the intention of triaging it. One option is to only allow email notifications during your working hours. Another option is, take your school email off your phone entirely. Not having school email on my phone is my preferred method, but everyone is different.
Only accessing email from a laptop can feel nerve-wracking, but with foresight and communication, it is very doable. For example, I use my laptop any time I am working. If someone needs to reach me more urgently, I make sure they have my cell phone number so they can contact me when I do not have my laptop.
Last Thoughts
We’re all human. Email can get behind. Everyone has been there, and you can definitely get back into balance with your inbox over time. You do not have to wade through the entire mess right now.
If you are behind, try to just keep up for this week. Often, the older emails become less relevant. Focus on staying on top of the most recent emails and returning to the past emails which are important, like graduation registration dates or character and fitness updates.
After exams is a nice time to clear out your email and categorize, archive, or delete from your inbox. Use Microsoft Office features to assist in managing your inbox. If you’re catching up on backlogged emails, use “sort by: from” to group senders together and categorize emails faster. If you are taking a long weekend or need a break from emails over the exam period, use an “out-of-office” memo to let people know your responses might be delayed. You can even set up rules to automatically categorize emails for you.
Lastly, this is just my personal method. You might do better with a totally different strategy. If you need some outside perspective and guidance with email, never hesitate to reach out to academic support. If you’re a 1L, your peer mentor may also have some good ideas. And, lastly, you’re always welcome to send me an email.
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