#1 SECRET TO MANAGING THE E-MAIL INBOX
It is no secret that our e-mail inboxes get overflown with messages on the daily basis. Yet email is THE way of modern communication, so there is no ignoring it. How then to best balance our preferred way to communicate with getting the most out of our time?
Here are several helpful tips that I’ve picked up along the way and use daily.
1. Set up folders for those e-mails that don’t need checking on a daily basis. For me, they are: on-line magazines, e-zines from industry and marketing experts, invoices, and google alerts. When I get an e-mail on any of these topics, it automatically gets filed away, without even hitting my in-box screen. I then go through these on a weekly basis. Not looking at them every day saves me time and energy.
2. Don’t use your inbox as your to-do list. Your to-do list should be a comprehensive file, while your in-box is not. So it’s not enough to refer just to your inbox. And since you already have a to-do list (right?), why keep it in two places. When I get an e-mail that requires action, the item goes on my to-do list and gets filed away from my e-mail in-box screen.
3. Set up folders for everything. Much like you have physical folders in your drawers and virtual folders on your computer, you need to have folders for your e-mail. My list is long but here’s a sampling: customers, marketing, product, vendors. Many have sub-folders – for example marketing is broken down into advertising, pr, newsletter, direct mail, etc.
While all of the above tips are highly helpful, they are useless if you don’t do them. So I’ve come up with a way that I can actually implement them. Here’s my #1 secret for managing my in-box. Only check your e-mail when you’re in the position to deal with it.
So this means that you won’t check your e-mail because it’s the first thing in the morning and that’s just what you do. Don’t check it because you’re curious and you’re itching to hit the F5 button. Don’t scan it, only opening a few ones that you’re most interested in.
Although it sounds simple, think if you actually follow this advice. Unless you have time and energy to read, respond, delete, and move to folders – don’t be checking your e-mail. Otherwise it will become a big monster of unread, undealt with message that will hang over you and add stress to your life. Of course the idea is to simplify your life.
So there you have it: only deal with your e-mail when you’re in the position to deal with it. There are only four ways of dealing with e-mail: read, respond, delete, and file away. If you don’t have time, energy, and desire to do either one of these actions, it’s best to check it at a different time of the day.
