Five ways to get your Microsoft 365 inbox back under control

You open your mailbox in the morning and forty new messages are already waiting. Newsletters, CCs, an urgent client question somewhere in between. Before you know it, you've spent an hour sorting instead of doing your actual work. Sound familiar? These five habits bring calm to your Microsoft 365 inbox.

1. Get your inbox to zero — once

Start with a clean slate. Archive everything older than a month into one folder. What really mattered will come back on its own; the rest you didn't need anyway. An empty inbox isn't a luxury, it's a starting point.

2. Let priority do the work, not chronology

Newest on top sounds logical, but it means a noise message pushes your most important mail down. Sort by what needs a reply, not by what arrived last.

3. Make follow-up a task, not a mental note

‘I'll get back to that’ is the fastest route to a missed deadline. Turn follow-up into a dated task right away — in Microsoft To Do, for instance — so your head doesn't have to remember it.

4. Answer recurring questions with a template

Notice yourself typing the same explanation again and again? Save your best answer once and reuse it. Your client won't notice the difference; you win back hours every week.

5. Let AI do the first pass

An AI email assistant like HeyOtto automatically sorts your inbox by category and urgency, and even prepares draft replies in your tone. You stay in control — nothing goes out without your say-so — but the tedious prep is already done.