Opening your email application and finding it full of messages can be a paralyzing moment.  Which one do you respond to first?  How can you keep up?  It is possible to have an empty or nearly empty inbox everyday, potentially several times a day!

Use these suggestions to help you round up your email and keep yourself — not your inbox — in control.

Round up the Junk

If you find that you’ve signed up for email newsletters that sounded great at the time but have now taken over your inbox, consider unsubscribing to those that are no longer meaningful to you.  Remember that many newsletters are also offered in an RSS feed, making it unnecessary for you to receive a copy in your inbox.

Can’t bring yourself to let that newsletter go?  Consider setting up an automatic filing/filtering system, using OtherInBox or by creating an alternate address in your domain (such as newsletters@mydomain.com) or a free email accoung through Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo or AOL.  Be absolutely strict with yourself — don’t use the address for anything other than this purpose.  Then set rules in your mail client that automatically file non-essential messages like this so you can review at your leisure.

Use an Email Workflow

Sun employee Constantin Gonzalez shares his email workflow that is very similar to the GTD workflow:

1. Go to the next email in your Inbox and ask yourself:
   “Do I need to do something because of this email?” (or: “Is it actionable?”)
   
   • If the answer is “yes”, then you either have to reply to the email or do some action that is associated with it. Now ask yourself:
     “Can I do it in less than 2 minutes?”
     • If the answer is “yes”, then just do it. Really. Now.
     • If the action takes longer than 2 minutes, ask yourself:
       “Can I delegate it or do I need to do it myself?”
       • If you can delegate it, delegate it. Now. Forward the email to the person that is supposed to do the job, then make yourself a note so you can follow up with her if needed.
       • If you need to act upon the email yourself (it’ll take more than 2 minutes), write this down as a new task into your to-do list (so it never gets forgotten).
   • File away or delete the email. There’s no more reason for it to sit in your Inbox.
2. Go to 1.

After a couple of iterations, you should have an empty Inbox. Really. 0 emails. Take a deep breath, celebrate and get used to it.

Work Someplace Other than Your Inbox

Many people end up managing their work, tasks and projects right out of their inbox.  This is a hard way to work, as new mail comes in all the time — unless you set your mail program to work offline.

Better to move away from your inbox to manage your next actions, and make it a new habit to only check email several times a day, as opposed to several times an hour.

As a Mac user, I use OmniFocus to corral my next longer than 2 minute tasks, next actions and projects out of Mail.app.  By setting up the Clipping Preferences in OmniFocus, I use Command-Option-C (you define what keystroke combination you want to use) to quickly clip the email(s) into my OmniFocus inbox or directly into established project folders.  I then file the emails out of my Mail.app inbox directly into appropriate client sub-folders.

Free Yourself!

Use these methods to help you break free of a paralyzing inbox.  Spending time gathering greater understanding about GTD methodology, or reading the 43Folders blog, may also help you craft your flow.  One size doesn’t fit all — you must define a system that works for you, or modify an existing one.

Read more

Constantin’s Blooog – Enhancing Email Efficiency

43Folders – Clippings intelligently convert “stuff” into OmniFocus tasks

About the author: At Your Service Cincinnati principal Nora Rubinoff’s core virtual assistant services include social media management, WordPress support, online reputation management, project management, customer relationship management, customized e-mail marketing campaigns and productivity enhancement. Nora is a Mac and PC specialist. Nora is enthusiastic about architecting solutions that enable clients to make more out of their business day. Nora is a recipient of the Karen S. House Award for Regional Collaboration as well as the Women of Excellence Award, several state and local government proclamations and holds the IVAA EthicsCheck™ certification. Nora is a past board member for IVAA and serves on several community advisory boards. Read more from this author

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