Mastering Inbox Clutter

Sometimes keeping your e-mail inbox under control can seem like wrestling with a hungry grizzly bear with only your bare hands...you just can't ever win no matter how hard you try. This leaves you feeling stressed, unproductive, and buried under a pile of never-ending work. You can't check out, even on vacation, lest you come back to even worse of a mess. I'm here today to tell you that you DON'T have to live and work like this! By applying some handy practical tips you can achieve some tranquility in your day, all the while maintaining..neigh, even MAXIMIZING your productivity. Three cheers for that!

Here's 4 smart strategies you can use to start wrestling that e-mail bear:

1. Set up auto folders

Set up auto folders that store emails you get from lists. You can check them when you want to, but they don't clutter up your inbox and make it difficult to see other messages. This also will help your stress levels since you simplify your inbox without having to manually check everything.

2. Don't respond to everything

Only respond to those things that are highest on your priority list for the day. If something you skip over is important, the person will follow up with you again if need be. You definitely don't want your day to be spent sifting through emails and not get to any of your top priorities effectively. That's wasteful and unproductive. This is part of learning to say "no" in order to free you up to say "yes" to higher value activities. As part of #2, I don't advocate actually striving to get your inbox to zero. I recommend focusing more on what adds the most value.

3. Keep responses short

Keep responses short where you can, and follow up with face to face meetings or phone calls when the response is long and requires discussion. This will avoid long email conversations that can become impossible to follow (cluttering everyone's inboxes), and also can be misperceived by different audiences.

4. Give yourself an out while on vacation

Lastly, if you go on vacation, state in your away message that you will not be checking emails and for people to follow up with you when you return. This gives you first the opportunity to unplug (very very important), and second, allows you to skip over a mountain of emails when you return. As a part of this, I do think it is completely okay to simply empty your inbox upon returning from vacation and start fresh! If it's important, you'll hear from them again...

© 2017 by The Process Maven