RSSLiving on the edge of your inbox
Posted by callthatgirl on July 21, 2010
I wake up everyday and first thing I do is check my Blackberry to review what email I got over night. I know it’s an addiction at this point, so you don’t need to tell me that. I am aware of it. If they had a Blackberry anonymous group, I would probably go!
Lately though, I have noticed how much email I have been getting a day and realized that I needed to start getting it under control. It was at around 150! And since I am running a business, I would spend each evening organizing and replying to all of these emails. Very exhausting. The idea of starting to use rules and subfolders for my email is something that a professional organizer would probably want to do for me, so I stepped up and started doing it myself.
Here is what I have been doing, and it’s a process. You have to do it almost everyday to make it work. I have noticed results and it’s getting better. I woke up to 2 emails today instead of 20.
First let’s start with this.
Today, only answer the important emails. The business critical ones, the ones that really need to be answered. Let the rest go, do not move them or delete them or anything. Just let them sit.
Tomorrow morning will be when the work starts. If you are like me, you probably wake up to 20 emails, mostly all the newsletters and updates you have subscribed to. I got to the point, it was annoying and wanted them gone. Just sick of them and needed them organized or to not come to me anymore.
Tomorrow am: Open each email with a directive thought. Here are a few examples of my emails.
- Things I must do NOW
- Things I must do later
- General FYI, but I need to keep the info
- Newsletters
- Special Projects
- Etc
Next, create a subfolder in your email program to reflect these needs. Then move all of those emails to those folders with the exception of the newsletters.
Once your email is organized a bit, then attack the newsletters. I started unsubscribing from newsletters that I didn’t want anymore and then created a rule for ALL newsletters to go to. I want to read them, just not today. I prefer to read through them on weekends when I have time. So now I know where those are. My email inbox is now pretty clean and in just 3 days, I have already noticed a big change! I love it!
I am by far not a professional organizer, but this was pretty easy for me to get going with, took a few minutes a day and well worth it. Trust me, I had the feeling of living on the edge of my inbox and now I’m not feeling it so much. Yes, I’m still addicted to the Blackberry and yes, I still check emails every morning, but now I feel better I don’t have to clean up so many emails when I get on the computer.
whew!
Hi Lisa
Great blog post! This is why I love Gmail. I can create rules that filter where messages go, and even make it so they skip my inbox, so that…like you said, I can read them later when I’m ready.
The other reason I love Gmail is because it’s sort of like having an Outlook Mail setup with multiple accounts I can send and receive to/from. Plus it goes wherever I go, I can check it and send messages from any computer with Internet access, so no one has to know I’m not actually at my desk!
Great piece of advice! I am surprised how many newsletters I get…
I made a:
_Today
_Tomorrow
folders so they are at the top of the list. When I finish the Today file, I can start on tomorrows. Every day I can cut and paste tomorrows into the Today folder.
I think this will work well.
Thanks,
Grant
Lisa,
I have been doing the folders for some time ,where I mess up is unsubscribing from Newsletters. But save them to a folder and go through it at a later date will work. My aol mail has a report spam button this can stop the crap. Just be careful I stopped my sister in laws e-mails by a slip of the pinky and thought she was mad at me till we connected by phone.
Always great hints.
Nana
Lisa,
Thanks for another logical solution to email and information overload. While it seems impossible to achieve an empty inbox, any method to sort and store emails helps.
I also use a “Coupons and Specials” folder for all those great email deals and a “Pending Orders” folder to store confirmation and order delivery tracking emails. Then, once a month I quickly purge these folders.
Great advice especially because I’m the type of person who wants to get to every email and reply/respond right away or I feel guilty….I know I need to prioritize better and let go of the messages and information that can wait. I started looking at it as: If the email message could either make me money or lose me money; then it’s a TODAY email response. Cheers!
Michelle
As a professional organizer I’m here to tell you that you can be very proud of yourself for the systems you’ve created! Atta Girl, Call That Girl!
Here’s another tip for you…
One folder that I find really helpful is what I call: ‘Record This Info’. I put emails there that have info I want to put into my cell phone, address book or calendar. You just have to remember to review, record and delete the emails periodically to stay on top of it.