Controlling Your Email Inbox

Do you want to:

• Become more productive by freeing up some time?
• Reduce your frustration and/or stress?
• Keep up with deadlines better by not having a too-hard basket in your inbox?
• Present a more professional image by not ignoring important emails?
• Reduce the size of your inbox easily and efficiently?

I have countless email addresses five of which I check regularly. At home I get 10-20 emails per day, which is fairly manageable, but it's enough to require a system. At work (Greenslade Creations) I get about 50-100 per day (more if I am sending more).

The important thing for you, when you're considering whether to use this system (or something similar) is to realise that "Do it now" is a timesaver when it comes to email and "Do it later" is a time-waster. Don't misunderstand me - I don't mean you have to action every email and every task it relates to as soon as you get it. What I mean is you need to DO SOMETHING with it as soon as you've read it. If you aren't going to action it right away, flag it, mark it unread or MOVE it to a folder called "To Do". This one critical piece of advice keeps you from having to re-read emails as more and more come in and ones you've put off move toward the end.