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.

When it comes to scheduling appointments, we are usually more than eager to give everybody else the most convenient slot – most convenient for them that is. Inconveniencing ourselves in the process, we feverishly move things around, scrap our own plans, or forget to take care of ourselves altogether.

Tell me if this scenario sounds familiar?  It’s beginning of the year and you’ve made a resolution (once and for all) to get back into the gym.  You’ve even discovered a class that you really like and swore to yourself that you’ll go every week.  Then, usually after a few weeks, “life happens” and other commitments start creeping up:  from a deadline on a project to a phone call from a customer.  I don’t know about you, but I’ve been guilty of this a lot!

Until I discovered a secret to productively managing my calendar, while still being responsive to and of service to my clients.

The secret is to CALENDAR your own appointments FIRST, then everyone else’s – second.

In the beginning of the year, before any other commitments take over, sit down with your calendar, and write in all the recurring commitments you have with yourself.  Here are mine:

1. Gym (yes, I also made that infamous resolution)

2. Hair appointments

3. I don’t get my nails done, but if you do, it should go here

4. Dermatologist

5. OB/GYN

6. Dentist

7. Anton’s (my son) appointments

After you’ve calendared your personal commitments, then write down all recurring professional commitments.  For me, they are:

1. IFDA – International Furnishings and Design Association

2. WCAA – Window Coverings Association of America

3. GKIC – Glazer Kennedy Insider Circle

The key is to put it down on your calendar those things that tend to go by the way-side, once you get busy with your day-to-day dealings. It seems to be ‘human nature’ to keep pushing off those things that ultimately make us healthier, more beautiful, and more energized – all in the name of a short-term gain.

One easy way to combat the human nature is to pre-empt it.  We pre-empt it by scheduling ourselves first, then everything else second.  It’s called honoring our needs instead of shoving them to the back burner.  And when we do that, our productivity soars!