With a little set up and some patience to get caught up if your backlogged, keeping your emails organized and your inbox clean can be easy with these tips:

• Block off time for checking email. Checking emails as they come in can become compulsive and can chew up productive time, so block off 20-30 minutes at the beginning, middle, and end of each day to manage your emails.
• Create folders. Create folders based on topic or client so incoming emails have a place to be filed. Two main categories are “Administrative” (for personal items, corporate communications, vendors, and financial info) and “Clients” with subfolders by client name. Create additional subfolders if needed.
• Process immediately. During your blocked off email time, keep your inbox clean by processing an email as soon as you read it instead of letting it sit in your inbox to “do something about” later. Immediately:
  1. Delete unusable emails
  2. File informational emails
  3. Color code actionable emails
• Your inbox is your to-do list. Use your inbox like a to-do list and only keep open actionable items there. When an action is complete, file the email in the appropriate folder.
• Prioritize by color. Use flags or create rules to color code and prioritize incoming emails.
  1. Red for urgent or “must be done today”
  2. Green for “need to follow up”
  3. Black for normal priority action items
• Forward with “Task” in the subject. If an email subject doesn’t clearly identify or remind you what your action item is, forward the email to yourself and change the Subject like to TASK: (enter to-do item here) so you can quickly scan your inbox and not have to re-read an email to know why you saved it.
• Drag & Drop. If using Outlook, you can drag and drop an email onto a task list or calendar icon to quickly create a task list or meeting.
• Preview your emails. Use a preview pane or reading pane so emails are viewable without having to double-click on them.
• Hide unused icons. Shrink or hide any unused email functions so the icons don’t clutter up your screen.
• Sort by date. Sort emails by date so the newest incoming items are at the top and you can quickly see how many you need to process.

Remember, when you’re starting out and have a thousand emails in your inbox, be patient. It will take a little time at first to get caught up on existing emails while new ones are still coming in, but it will happen. And from then on, your inbox will stay clean and your task list will be manageable!

Posted in Technology Organization, Time Management by Kara Russelo / December 15th, 2008 / No Comments »