Efficient E-Mail

I spent last week traveling around the United States. I had to go to Los Angeles for work during the first half of the week and then to visit my son with his family in Ohio. During that time, I built up quite a bit of e-mail and so I spent today going through all the messages I put off until I got home.

While in Los Angeles, I got to spend some face-to-face time with my boss and could see that he has very few e-mails sitting in his inbox. I consistently have over 100, and that is much better than I used to be when I had close to 1000. I could still improve and so I hope to share a few tricks that I hope to use more myself.

Growing up my dad always counseled that you should try to touch an item only once. He generally meant that for cleaning up the house but it also applies to efficiency with e-mail. When you get and receive an e-mail, you should try to deal with it immediately instead of going through all of your messages and then going back to respond to the important ones. This is an area where I could use some help.

My wife is someone that likes everything put away. If she sees something out, she will put it away. If it is a new item and there is no home for it, she will make one, sometimes without telling me where it ended up and so I have to hunt for it. I tend to let things rest on a shelf or counter for way too long. The same holds true for my inbox. Most e-mail programs have folders to help you sort and keep those important messages. I have started creating folders but could probably be better at it. Then so many e-mails won't clutter my inbox.

Finally, not all e-mails need to be saved. This is one area I am great at. I have my trash folder set to delete messages after 1 to 2 months depending upon if it is my personal or work e-mail. Should I accidentally delete something, I can always rummage through the trash and find it for a short time. There are a lot of unneeded e-mails that can be deleted and so don't feel bad throwing them away.

I'm sure there are a few more ways to keep your inbox down to only a few messages. I would be interested in finding out other tricks so don't hesitate to leave a comment and let me know what works for you.