April - June 2011
Email and Inbox Overload

Overwhelmed by email? Who isn’t? It is an endless stream of information, invitations, and communication. However, recent research estimates that businesses lose $650 billion annually in productivity due to unnecessary e-mail interruptions. Defining your email style with systems and routines makes all the difference for your effectiveness and peace of mind.

• Just like paper, start off by trashing the junk. Be decisive about what you are keeping and why you are keeping it. A client recently told me he was keeping the Lands End sale emails, because he was about to go skiing and might need new clothes. If so, move these emails into their own subfolder, review and purchase, and then delete.
• Eliminate as many email list serves as you can. This is just like stopping subscriptions to magazines you don’t have time to read! Be sure you are subscribing ONLY to necessary information, not the “just in case” information. For valuable email newsletters, move these into a “read” folder.
• Decide when it is most productive to open your email. Really, at a stop sign in the car, is not a good time! Open email when you can triage or act on it.
• Conversation view in Office 2010 enables you to organize email folders by date and conversation. When Conversation view is turned on, messages that share the same subject appear as conversations that can be viewed as expanded or collapsed, helping you to quickly review and act on messages or complete conversations. On the View tab, in the Conversations group, select or clear the Show as Conversations check box, click all folders or this folder.
• Decide the function of your email inbox. An inbox is not for filing, it is for active use. If your inbox is cluttered, it is often because of indecision. Because email floods in like a tsunami, be decisive on your email processing. Being committed to using your inbox as a temporary home for action items, it is easier to work with the clutter there. Use the mantra, Do it, Delegate it, or Delete it, when processing your email. Make the decision right then accordingly.
• Create a subfolder named “Processed” or “Done” to eliminate delaying email filing. Often “filing” your email is put off because it is more complicated than your needs. When you need information in this subfolder, it can be sorted by arranging the subject line or sender to find it.
• Limit the times you check your email. Schedule two or three consistent time periods each day to go through your email inbox. Turn off your email so that incoming email is not a distraction. Plan to spend an hour at that time answering your email and truly focusing on this task. The first hour of work can be most productive by focusing on a major project and by checking your email the second hour. You will find increased productivity and a sense of accomplishment by conquering a project first thing in the day!
• Your responsiveness to email is a factor of who you are responding to. If your boss expects an instant response, there is no question. Establish a reasonable period for your own responsiveness and the responsiveness of others. Relatively speaking, 24 – 48 hours should cover most situations.
• Email is best used for short messages with direct subject lines. Need to explain a lengthy topic or have a crisis situation? Using the phone can make a difference!

What are your secrets to email success?

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For more tips on organizing, visit the Tips Archive (left column).

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