Even as a professional organizer, I must say, my digital world is the one place in my life that can quickly and easily fall into the slippery slope of a BIG mess. Below you will find five key tips I have discovered to help keep my email inbox as a tidy and productive space and I hope these help you too. 

First, I recommend having separate email inboxes. For instance, I keep a PERSONAL email inbox (for my family/friends, my church, and bills), an EXTRAS email inbox (for products, stores, and things such as blogs), and also a BUSINESS email inbox. Just as we sort our things in our physical world - our home and work - into categories for quick access, we should do the same thing for our digital world to make life more productive. You can also create new folders within each inbox. Like for my PERSONAL email inbox, I created a new folder called Church within it. I was able to automatically setup where emails from my church will directly go into that folder. To do so using Google, you can select the Preferences and add the Rule for those emails to go in the folder you choose.

Second, I suggest penciling in time to handle your email inboxes. As for my PERSONAL and EXTRAS emails, I chose Mondays during lunch to spend time with those inboxes. For me, it helps to make it catchy to remember important things, so I call it #MailMondays to recall checking both my electronic and physical mail. Also, I like the idea of Mondays because it’s helpful to start off my week knowing what’s ahead. As for my BUSINESS email inbox, I know to check it each day during lunch and then before bed. 

Third, I would advise checking out the website called Unroll.ME to help in reducing emails. It helps make the process of unsubscribing quick and painless. In addition, you are given the option to select your favorite subscriptions you want to continue to follow to receive as a daily digest email which is called a Rollup - a collection of your favorite newsletters rolled up in one for the day. When choosing which subscriptions to unsubscribe, to add to the Rollup, or to keep in your inbox, you will then next be able to choose when you would like to receive your daily Rollup.

Fourth, I would say when organizing through your emails, take full advantage of the Search box. You can quickly search for a particular email recipient. I use this going through store emails. It allows me to quickly locate those store emails I need to file away to refer/use later as well as the emails I need to delete. 

Fifth, I would tell you when it comes to the emails that require responding, if you can, respond immediately. Otherwise, it tends to get shoved down and forgotten. If you get a habit of receiving emails where you will need to respond with lengthy responses, I would suggest creating a separate folder labeled NEED TO RESPOND within your email inbox and move those emails there. This way when you do have the time to respond, you can quickly go straight to those specific emails.

Let me know if these tips assist you in creating and maintaining your inbox and/or if you have any tips to share!

In 11 days Easter will be here. This is an important time of the year to reflect and celebrate, yet the general public focuses on dying eggs, the Easter bunny filling up children's baskets, and a family meal. While there is not inherently anything wrong with these, we believe Easter centers on Jesus. With research through Pinterest, I have organized Easter based on its top priority, Jesus. Though Easter Day is the celebration, we must not forget to include nor take for granted the week prior, the Holy Week. 

We found the Easter story separated throughout the days of the Holy Week allowing you and your family to prepare for Easter Day. Easter baskets are a common theme for the American Easter Sunday. As we believe our belongings must serve a purpose in our life’s priorities, we consider it important to also remember and live this out including on holidays. If a family chooses to participate in Easter baskets, we suggest on keeping it light and more importantly include things that focus on Jesus. For little ones, you can remind them that Easter is not really about a bunny, but the Lamb of God, Jesus by giving them a lamb stuffed animal. Again, instead of focusing on a bunny, when giving your child a little candy treat, we recommend giving your child a chocolate cross. To make it more fun, we suggest giving your child candy molds and baking chocolate so you can have fun together in making tasty treats while discussing the true meaning behind Easter. For any age, we recommend using this time to encourage your child in God’s Word by giving them an age-appropriate Bible and/or devotional. Additional items you could include in the basket include: stickers, Bible tabs, children coloring books, adult coloring books, a true Easter related book or movie, or a cross necklace. 

In particular, we have separate recommendations for Thursday through Easter Sunday. On Maundy Thursday, we encourage as your family reads about the Last Supper to commemorate that moment by having a family meal of bread and wine and grape juice for children. For Good Friday, we suggest families to take time to consider what Jesus' death means personally. Take this time to reflect on what ways you have sinned against God and thank God for sending Jesus to die on the cross for your sins and rid those sins by destroying your list because through His death He paid for our sins, once and for all. If you are interested in a Good Friday service to attend, we recommend one in the Atlanta area for those in Georgia. On Holy Saturday, we recommend families making Resurrection Cookies. As for the day of Easter, we suggest fun activities such an Easter Scavenger Hunt, writing a letter to a sponsored child if you have one or choosing to sponsor a kid through Compassion International and share the Good News of Jesus Christ, and hiding Resurrection Eggs for your family to find and remember the true story of Easter. Easter day is a perfect day for the children to receive their basket of Christ-related goodies and a time for family and friends to celebrate Jesus' resurrection. If you are in the Bartow County area, we at CrossPoint City Church would love to have you and your family join us for an Easter service. 

We would love to hear from you if you have any Christ-related ideas for Easter Day and/or the Holy Week. Also, please share any recommendations you have for age-appropriate Bibles and devotionals. We would love to know what has been you and/or your child's favorites! And as always, please let us know if there is anything you would love for us to blog about next.