Tackling the Great Big Email Beast
I have a love / hate relationship with email. I’m trying to get a grasp on it, but I feel like I’m always trying to get a grasp on it. I’m one of THOSE people who has an inbox with a ton of emails piled in it. Every once in a blue moon I get around to filing some of the emails into archive folders.
I never get the inbox cleared completely. The inbox is only half of my problem; the other half is that emails inevitabely slip through the cracks with my cluttered mess of an inbox. It will often hit me weeks after I was supposed to email someone that I never got back to them.
If identifying the problem is half the battle, here’s the other half of the battle for me - sticking to my new plan to tackle the email beast:
- Answer emails immediately if I can
- Flag emails the require follow-up - and I will flag the email according to priority, so that I can filter my inbox by flagged emails and get an immediate snapshot of who is waiting on me.
- Delete and file emails on a consistent basis (scheduling a time to do this every two weeks is probably sufficient)
- Set reminders on my calendar with alerts
I’m taking on simplifying the disorganized parts of my business and email is a huge piece of that disorganization. Having my inbox in a state of disarray is incredibly time consuming and costs me in productivity. I hope I can stick to my plan, it should make my life a lot easier.
July 24th, 2007 at 9:19 am
Loved this post! Isn’t that the truth though - it’s so hard to keep up with a bajillion emails. One thing I’ve done that has helped is to set up a help desk on the site, and forward emails there. That way, you know at a glance which have been answered, which haven’t, and how long they’ve been in there. Hope that helps someone else!