You open your email. 47 unread messages. Your brain freezes. Which one matters? Which can wait? The decision fatigue kicks in before you even start. It may even trigger anxiety. Sound familiar?
For an ADD brain, processing too many detailed data points is exhausting. Simplifying your inbox isn’t just a productivity hack—it’s a way to protect your mental energy.
Filters Setting a filter to mark things as read or to delete them automatically is a game changer. They can eliminate a huge amount of clutter from your inbox.
You can also set up a filter to send a category of email to a folder that you might want to review later. The mail can be automatically marked as read and placed in the folder. That way you can get to it when you want to, or if you never get to it, then maybe it wasn’t that important in the first place.
Forwards Do you have somebody on your team who handles certain aspects of your business that you don’t need to review? Set up a forward and a filter to mark it as read. That way, if you want to review it later, it’s still in your inbox, but you don’t have to treat it as new mail when it first comes in because it’s forwarded and marked as read.
In my real estate investing business, all responses to offers are forwarded to my acquisitions team. They stay in my inbox but are marked as read automatically. That way, if I want to review them, I can. Otherwise, my acquisitions team is handling them.
Unsubscribe This is kind of obvious, but if you’re getting repetitive emails from people that you don’t want, it’s just another thing that’s fatiguing your brain. Unsubscribe. And if they don’t have an unsubscribe button easily grab-able in their email, mark them as spam.
Folders Real talk: I rarely look in my folders. ADD people are ‘out of sight, out of mind’ types. The therapist who diagnosed me with ADD explained it this way: if there’s a piece of paper in a file cabinet across the room, it might as well not exist.
But here’s the thing—sometimes just knowing those emails are somewhere reduces anxiety. I have folders for newsletters and financials. Do I check them? Almost never. But on the rare occasion I need an old QuickBooks email or an Alex Hormozi newsletter, I know where to find it.
That’s it, that’s my quick and dirty ADD productivity hack. Minimizing the new, unread messages hitting your inbox will save you from decision fatigue and overwhelm, and allow you to focus on what’s important.
I’ve also written about managing ADD with supplements.
A book I like about ADD called “ADD: A Different Perception” by Thom Hartmann talks about how ADD brains are designed for hunting and gathering but not so great for our modern civilized world. We can adapt though!
Tools that work to overcome anxiety and panic: Explore my Interactive Nervous System Regulation Guide or download the free PDF to start resetting your baseline today: