The Email Folders Creative Professionals Need

There have been volumes written about email management, folder structure, and productivity. But something you don’t see very often is what are the best email folders for creative professionals. In this post, I’ll show you my folders and some general ideas to help you maximize your productivity and creativity – all at the same time.

First, the best system is what works for you. There are numerous techniques and strategies, but if they don’t feel comfortable or work for you, then look for something else.  Having said that, however, I would encourage you to give new ideas and techniques enough time. Don’t discount a system because it’s different or difficult to master. With a little practice, you can master almost anything, and in many cases, it will really transform your email experience.

Second, remember that email is about communication. It’s not a task list, notetaking program, or calendar. Any email that comes in that’s actually a task, I forward to my task manager Things, which is super simple to do, and it goes on my task list. If it’s just reference information, I put it in Apple Notes.  Then, I archive that original email. 

Third, only touch it once is a good mantra and can indeed be used for the vast majority of your emails. Remember, email is about communication, so that email about a meeting? Put it on your calendar and archive the email. The email with the report? Put the report in your Notes, and archive the email. But for a certain number of emails, you can’t respond right away. In those cases, you need a good folder structure to keep those emails close by for when you need to act.

And speaking of folders…

Fourth, you don’t need so many folders anymore. In the early days of email, most of us had 20-30 or more email folders for every project, area of interest, task, personal, office, and more. Back in those days, email search was slow and not terribly accurate. 

But that’s all changed. Today, search is pretty efficient, which means it’s far quicker to just search for what you need than take the time to scan through all those folders looking for the right one.

However, some folders still matter – especially for creative people. If you do much research into this, you’ll see that some professionals arrange folders by deadlines, some by projects, and others by what should happen next. 

Here’s how I arrange mine:

Inbox:  This is just what it says: an “Inbox.” It’s not for filing, sorting, or leaving for the future. My job is to get through my inbox every day and make decisions. If I can immediately act on it, I do it out of the inbox. I’m not a fanatic about “Inbox Zero,” but when using this method, I achieve it more often than not.

1. Action: This is where I move everything that needs a response from me. The goal is to burn through this every day, if possible, and if not, every few days.

2. Review Later: This is stuff that’s not really on the front burner, and I don’t need to act on it immediately. Perhaps I’m waiting for a response from someone else, waiting for other things to happen, I’m traveling, or it’s just something I need to keep in the back of my mind. 

3. Screen: In my job as a media producer, I get a ton of links to screeners of all kinds: short films, documentary films, promos, commercials, TV shows, and much more. Anything I have to screen goes into this folder if I can’t stop and take the time to watch it right now.

4. Speaking: These are emails related to upcoming speaking engagements. Any conversations related to speaking dates, themes, arrangements, etc, will go into this folder. Like the “Screen” folder above, if you’re not screening videos or speaking on a regular basis, you might substitute other categories that are more important here or not need them at all.

5. Projects: This isn’t every project I’m working on, but it does list the main 4 or 5 priorities. This is the only folder that has sub-folders, and I use them for upcoming film projects, books, etc.

6. To Read: This is for longer emails, scripts, magazine articles, or other documents that I can read at any time. I also use the app “Pocket,” a read-later app where I send a lot of material, and productivity expert Tiago Forte is a big advocate of using an app rather than a folder. I may eventually eliminate this folder altogether, but I’m keeping it now for anything that I can’t export to Pocket.

7. Travel: I travel a lot more than most people, so it’s helpful to keep all my agreements, itineraries, hotel and car rental confirmations, Tripit information, and other documents here for quick reference.

8. Receipts:  I’m experimenting with this one with my traveling since so many receipts today are sent via email rather than paper. The idea here is to collect them during a trip, and then when I’m back at the office, deal with them all at once. But at this point, I may delete it. 

9. App Reference: This is simply for application registration codes, purchase information, purchase confirmations, and other emails related to apps. 

You may notice that I number folders because Apple Mail has a very fast system of keyboard shortcuts that allow me to process emails very quickly. In fact, there have been other programs like Spark that I like a great deal, but it’s just too hard to turn my back on the speed of Apple’s keyboard shortcuts.

For me, nine folders is a bit too many, and as I mentioned above, I may eliminate at least 1 or 2. You may notice that the most-used folders are at the top of the list, so 90% of my email processing is actually in very few folders.

The lesson here is to experiment constantly. If one system frustrates you, try another until you find a rhythm and flow to your work. 

Let me know what works for you. I’m always trying out creative strategies and would love to hear new ideas!

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash