So how many emails do you currently have in your in box? And how do you FEEL when you open your in box? Do you
And then there’s “Inbox Zero”? It was developed by productivity expert Merlin Mann. It’s a rigorous approach to email management whose objective is to keep the inbox empty (or almost empty) at all times. According to Mann, the “zero” is not a reference to the number of messages that should be in an inbox. Instead, the word refers to “the amount of time an employee’s brain is in his inbox”! His point is that our time and attention are finite and when an inbox is confused with a “to do” list, productivity suffers. So STOP using your inbox as your To-Do list!
Think about how many emails you feel comfortable have residing in your inbox. For some people it’s a number; for others, they don’t want to have to scroll to see all their emails. But if you currently have far more than you feel comfortable with, you need to take action in order to get them down to a more manageable number. Will it happen overnight? Absolutely not because it took you far longer to get into the email predicament that you may currently be in. But it is possible. In my opinion, to get your inbox under control requires 3 things: Time, Patience and strong Decision-Making skills.
Here are a few tips:
- First and foremost, get intimately familiar with your email software program through training, online articles or my favorite, Youtube videos. You have to truly understand its capabilities so you can use it to its full advantage. Once you do this, you can dive into the nitty gritty!
- Group together like emails so you can see take inventory of what you have and determine patterns. I find that sorting them by Sender and/or Subject usually expedites the process.
- Once sorted, determine the nature of the email. Is it a newsletter or something else that you no longer want or need? If so, before you delete all like emails, unsubscribe to nip it in the bud… then delete. Unsubscribe and delete from as many as possible. The result (eventually) should be those emails that you want/need to keep.
- This is also a great time for you to start thinking about what to do with emails that you’ll continue to receive. In other words, what is the end result of each email… do you need to add it to your to-do list, respond to it, delegate it, read it or file it? Knowing what you need to do with your emails is critical to helping you decide how to handle them going forward.
- Some people like to create folders in which to store their emails based on the end result of each email. This works well for some; not so well for others. The only thing I would caution you against is creating too many folders. You don’t want it to take you 5 minutes to decide in what folder to store an email… that would be an enormous waste of time. With the capabilities in today’s email systems, finding an email is pretty quick and easy by doing a search.
- Once you get your emails down to a number you’re happy with, you need to think about how to handle future incoming emails. Filters/Rules (depending on which email system you use) are great. They allow you to have an email skip your inbox and do whatever you tell it to do. These are referred to as if/then scenarios. One example is as follows: IF I get an email with the word “Digest” in the subject, THEN skip the inbox and put it in my folder labelled “Skim, then Delete”.
If you ever watched “Lost in Space”, you may recall that the Robot frequently warned Will Robinson of impending danger as I’m about to do for you… Warning! Warning! Be extremely cautious when you set up Rules/Filters! You don’t want an urgent email from you boss to end up in a folder you rarely check!
My goal is for YOU to be in control of your email inbox and not have it control you!
Quote:
“A five minute call replaces the time it takes to read and reply to the original email and read and reply to their reply… or replies. And I no longer spend 20+ minutes crafting the perfect email – no need to.” ~ Simon Sinek ~
Brenda Tringali, Organizing, Productivity & HR Specialist
At Your Fingertips Organizing
Serving Greater Myrtle Beach, SC or “virtually” anywhere (via phone/video)
Cell/Text: 603.490.6062
Email: Brenda@AtYourFingertipsOrganizing.com
Web: www.AtYourFingertipsOrganizing.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AtYourFingertipsOrganizing/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendatringali/
Youtube: @AYFOrganizing
Brenda Tringali is the owner of At Your Fingertips Organizing. She provides Life/Workplace/Residential Organizing & Productivity services to clients in the Myrtle Beach, SC area & “virtually” anywhere via video, phone, etc. Drawing from her 30 years of Human Resources/Staffing experience, she also helps clients with HR/Staffing/Job Search needs as well. Brenda is an active member of NAPO (National Association of Productivity and Organizing professionals). She is also Chair of the NAPOCares Committee which highlights the community outreach efforts of NAPO members, NAPO Chapters, and NAPO Business Partners as they reach out to share the three “T’s” of Social Responsibility: their Time, Treasures, and Talents.