Conquer Email – 1 of 2
Things are getting kind of busy around here with some upcoming conventions, my apologies for missing last Friday's post! To compensate, this week I'll update twice, with this two part series on Email managment. These are my own personal email management strategies.
Part 1: Getting out of the mess you're already in
A few notes:
- I use Microsoft OUTLOOK, but the strategies can apply to any system.
- The Inbox is for ACTION ITEMS ONLY. If you want to keep something for REFERENCE: save the email to a folder (or print to PDF and save to a folder!)
- Yes there is search. That does not help the fact that a busy inbox registers in your mind as CLUTTER. An inbox full of emails is SCARY, even if they're all read. The point of the system is to get through your email SUPER FAST.
- The delete button is your friend
My system relies on getting emails OUT of your inbox and into folders.
- The goal is to use as FEW FOLDERS as possible and rely on search to find whatever it is you need
- I use one for personal, one for anything related to my websites. I have specific folders for "reader mail" and "sales", but that's about it.
GETTING IT DONE
So you have a giant inbox. It probably goes back to 2005. (Or earlier!) Hundreds of emails. Some of them flagged because you need to get back to that person... someday. Here's how to get your inbox CLEAN:
1) Set yourself a time period to work at it every day. 15 minutes or 1 hour works well. Set a timer and spend that time just focusing on clearing the inbox, when the time is up, you're done for the day! Repeat until it's finished. (It will be faster than you think!)
2) Sort by FROM (or SENDER) and work through your emails like this:
First Pass: Delete
Delete all the old Newsletters (trust me, you don't need them), junky mail, friend request notes from Facebook and other such nonsense, and anything that you don't need to save. Sorting it by sender, I've found, is the fastest way to find groups of emails that go into the same folder. Don't focus on anything other than DELETING messages that are easy decisions.
Second Pass: Move 'Read' but 'Unflagged' messages to Folders
If an email doesn't require an ACTION (you need to do something as a result of it, including reading or replying), move it to the folder it belongs in. If it does require further action, FLAG and move on. If there's lots of emails in the chain that you just flagged, just keep the latest and move the rest out of the folder (unless you're in Gmail and the chain is kept together automatically).
Third Pass: TAKE ACTION
- If the email requires that you read it: read it then drag it into the folder.
- If the email requries that you reply: reply, then drag it to the folder.
- If the email requires that you go to a site and click a thing: do that, and drag the email to a folder.
Keep hammering away at your action items until your inbox is CLEAN!
February 9th, 2010 - 10:17
That’s actually a pretty well working system. I usually have no mails but the most urgent ones in my inbox. Those are kept as a kind of reminder, but rarely more than a week. Normally, any mail is processed within an hour. There are two special cases: My wife often receives 20+ mails from her father with stuff he wants her to put on his website. She keeps those in her inbox as well, but I think it would be better to move them to a folder immediately and make a note in the action list. The other thing is: A friend of mine keeps sending me a lot of mails. I usually reply to every third or fifth. So when a new one arrives, I keep it as a reminder and move the old one to a folder dedicated to mails from this special person.
February 12th, 2010 - 13:35
I, too, have a few people that I have lots of continuous “conversation” emails with. Keeping a separate folder for these few is great because it lets you quickly read back through the “thread”.
February 11th, 2010 - 19:09
When I first starting teaching, a principal said to me, there are four things you can do with a piece of paper. 1) act on it immediately. 2) throw it away 3) File it 4) give it to someone else. You only want to handle each piece of paper once. Don’t act on it later. Get it done. All seems to apply to email.
February 12th, 2010 - 13:36
Very true! However, I think that the instantaneous nature of email is what has gotten us into trouble. Pieces of paper used to have special importance. If it was important enough to get on paper, it was important enough to do one of those four things. Now we are getting SO MUCH MORE to process, and I don’t think that acting on it all IMMEDIATELY is the best way to manage it.
February 25th, 2010 - 09:18
I’m a hoarder to the core; I had 7000 e-mails in my inbox. When I read your article, I thought I’d give clearing it out a go, and I’m glad I did. My inbox acts kinda like a correspondence to-do list, now; only stuff that needs to be dealt with stays in the inbox. Everything else is deleted or filed. It’s only a little thing, but it’s so refreshing to see my e-mail account so free of clutter!
Anyway, just wanted to say I really like the site. I’m still reading all the older posts, but since your e-mail advice worked out so well, I thought I’d try out some of other techniques you’ve talked about. I’m preparing to build my own inspiration board at the moment!
April 1st, 2010 - 11:58
Thanks, Daniel! Let me know if the inspiration board helps, I’m still evaluating my own