Manage Email Overload

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Concentrate on results, not on being busy

Many people spend their days in a frenzy of activity, but achieve very little because they are not concentrating on the right things.

The Hamster Revolution: How to Manage Your Email Before It Manages You

If you're bogged down by too many e-mail messages, action items, and interruptions then maybe it is time to reclaim control of your day and take back Your life.

Home Page - Living Mindfully

How many times a day do you check your inbox?

If you are like most people you check it as soon as you log on in the morning as well as several times throughout the day. This can not only sidetrack you but wastes precious time that would be better spent doing something more productive for your business or with your day.

So how do we handle all the email that proliferates into our inboxes.

Here are a few suggestions...

1. Have set times to check your mail e.g. in the morning, after lunch and at the very end of the day and stick to your times.

2. Sort your mail into:

• Spam - delete immediately
• Non-urgent - Personal letters or letters from clients that do not need an immediate rely. Park these until later.
• Urgent - Ones that need a reply immediately.

3. Don't waste time answering the current batch and then checking to see if there is any more. You can end up checking all day long.

4. Set your filters to cut down on the flow of junk mail although many ISP providers now do a fairly good job of filtering out a large percentage of spam and other unsolicited bulk mail.

You can never completely eliminate it but the few seconds you are spending deleting them could have been used to answer an email that is important to your business or personal life.

5. To save cluttering your inbox with non-urgent mail that you want to read later e.g. mail from friends and loved ones, newsletters, mail that does not need an immediate reply, or mail you are not quite sure what to do with, then use a temporary folder in which to park them.

Before going online in the morning look at the saved emails from previous days - compose your letters and place them in the drafts folder ready to send later.

To save time, cut and paste elements of the message that you want to include and prepare your response underneath.

6. Use a variety of folders

Create temporary folders. It is easier to open a folder than to search down a long list of mail in the inbox.

Delete the folder when the project or issue it pertains to is complete.

If mail is worth keeping file it in another section of your computer e.g. into word so it can be retained on your hard drive for future reference.

These are just a few suggestions to help manage your email. Establish a system that works best for you and then be sure to use it!

Living Mindfully