What’s in your in-box?
I don’t know what’s lurking in your e-mail in-box, but, if it’s anything like mine, it’s not an e-mail from a real person. And, if there is one in there, it’s hard to find between the spam, newsletters, weekly LinkedIn group updates, etc.
I keep sending more and more of my blogs and news subscriptions to my Reader, but my in-box continues to overflow with junk.
So, once again, here I am. Unsubscribing. Blocking spammers. Setting up a folder with a rule for all the newsletters to drop directly there. Setting up RSS Feeds where I can.
I’m doing anything and everything I can to declutter that in-box so I can find the important e-mails. You know. The chain e-mails from my mom 
.
What was the result? Instead of waking up to 30 e-mail newsletters and spam this morning, I woke up to eight new items in my in-box and 10 new items in my “newsletter” folder, which I can read with my coffee when I get into the office.
Of the eight new items in my in-box, a couple of them were actionable, while the rest need a rule to move them into the newsletter folder.
As the days go by, I’ll continue to cull through my in-box, unsubscribing, blocking and setting up rules to ensure that the e-mail I receive in my in-box is the e-mail I actually want to read.
I took an all-day course at one of my jobs, called The Effective Edge http://www.effectiveedge.com. It’s all about how to use Outlook as an organizational tool. It changed my life forever. The four principles for an email are Delete, Do It, Delegate or Defer. The goal is to eliminate ALL emails from your Inbox. They even show you how to change your view, deactivate that sound that alerts you to a new email (& destracts you from what you’re presently doing) and other very helpful tips. I love it! I cringe when I see an inbox with hundreds of emails. Reminds me of all those shows on my DVR that I’ll never watch!
David Allen (www.davidco.com) from Getting Things Done has the same philosophy. Your in-box (e-mail and desktop) should be cleared daily. I wish I could say mine is … but there’s rarely more than 100 in there at a time. And ALL have been read/viewed.
My problem is that once a message moves out of my inbox, it never is seen again, despite my best intentions (and I’ve tried on many occasions). I don’t see those newsletter or defer folder options working for me. =-)
Tracy – what you can do is set up a reminder (add to your tasks) with an alarm if it’s an actionable item. Otherwise it just gets files. However, each message in your in-box should get processed in some way.
As for the “newsletter” folder, it is a discipline to check it once or twice a day. I do it over coffee in the morning and late afternoon. Since they are mostly newsletters, I know there’s nothing pressing in there. Kind of like my Google Reader. If I come back from vacation and there are 1000+ posts in there, I can do a quick perusal, or mark all as read. I haven’t missed anything important.
However, if you don’t gain control over your e-mail in-box you can miss important messages. Ever get a call back from someone three weeks or more later? Most likely due to an over-filled in-box. Your important e-mail slipped in between and ad for flash-drives at a discount, and a “really great opportunity” that isn’t.
Electronic messages are not slowing down. They are picking up speed. By finding tools that work for you, you can gain some (I said some) control over it.
Heather,
Thanks for the inspiration to try and tackle this. My inbox is out of control. My problem is like Tracy’s. I need to develop better discipline in visiting those reading folders. Of course, perhaps if they aren’t important enough to grab my attention, the materials are just a wasteful time suck to begin with.
I’m starting to use more tricks such as copying an important actionable email into an appointment (time not blocked as busy) in my calendar and scheduling exactly when I want to deal with it. That way, even if the email gets pushed way down in my inbox I’ve got a trigger to deal with it.
I have already set up some rules for incoming newsletters to be forwarded to the appropriate people in my firm. I think I’ll follow your lead and take a little time to set up some folder filing rules for myself, as well.
Thanks,
Lydia