Do you struggle to keep on top of your inbox? Do you dread your first day back at work after a vacation? Is your inbox always full? If so, let me show you how to avoid email overload and get organised in 21 days.
Twenty-one days is all it takes to get organised; that’s how long it takes to form a habit.
On workdays, 53 percent of business users check e-mail six or more times a day, while 34 percent of users check e-mail constantly throughout the day. On average, business users spend 49 minutes per day managing e-mail accounts. – Gartner
Email overload is frustrating. A full inbox is a distraction and will divert your attention from what is important if you don’t take charge and do something about it.
In this guide I show how to avoid email overload. This method is proven and works for me. Try it for 21 days and see if it makes a difference.
For ease How to Avoid Email Overload is broken into three weekly instalments:
Day 1 Although this step is really easy you may find it counter-intuitive. However, please do this as everything that follows builds on this preparatory step.
I have written How to Avoid Email Overload for Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Outlook users since this is widely used in the business environment. However, the instructions that follow will help you get organised whatever email software you use.
First, forget about all those nested folders you use to store email. They’re unnecessary and pretty useless when you want to find something quickly.
Simply create an archive for the current year and create two folders: _Copy Inboxand _Copy Sent. Now set-up a filter that copies every new message to _Copy Inbox and every sent message to _Copy Sent. Check that your filters are working. GMail users may skip this step: these folders correspond to All Mail and Sent Mail.
Finally, select every message in the Inbox and copy them to _Copy Inbox. Do the same for your Sent items; copy them to _Copy Sent.
Until you are satisfied that this method works for you I strongly advice you not to delete any folders.
Day 2 The first thing we are going to do today is get organised and take control of your email. All is you need to do is sort through all the messages in your inbox.
However, before we begin please filter all messages by date received starting with the most recent at the top.
In 2010, the typical corporate user sends and receives 110 messages daily. – The Radicati Group
Next up we are going to get rid of a lot of messages quickly. Depending on how comfortable you are with my suggestion, how many messages are in your inbox, and how much time you have I want you to do the following:
_Copy Inbox folder.Aim to have less than 300 messages—the fewer the better—remaining after taking this step. On average, that’s four day’s worth of mail.
Day 3 Here’s today’s challenge to avoid email overload. I want you to clear out every message received in the past 24 hours in just 45 minutes!
To make this a less daunting task, first create a new folder in your Inbox and call itAction. Next move every message received in the past day to this folder. Switch to the Action folder and filter by date received in ascending order.
Now you’re going to do one of the following with each message:
(Based on The MPS Four D’s for Decision Making by Sally McGhee.)
Delete
Scan your messages by title, sender and recipient (a message may be sent to many people.) But don’t open any.
Identify messages that aren’t relevant to your work, are from unknown senders (including spam), or of no interest to you. For example, a newsletter you don’t have time to read or a message from someone trying to sell something. Simply delete them!
Similarly, delete all messages bar the most recent sharing the same subject; usually you can follow a thread using a single message.
Get rid of those out-of-office messages. Delete them all!
Take Action
Now you are left with a message list that needs closer attention.
First, deal with meeting appointments.
Next, open anything you’ve received where your name appears in the CC field. Typically, you’ve been sent the email for information only. Read it and delete it.
Open the remaining messages, read them and decide what needs to be done. But don’t close the message! Either delete it, deal with it by replying (in less than a couple of minutes) or send it to someone else for action (delegate it.) If a more considered response is needed defer it.
Sometimes you can prepare a reply but you can’t send it because you’re missing some information. In these situations, prepare your reply and save the message in your Drafts folder. Then write another message requesting the information you need. And before you send it include yourself in the CC field (the reason for doing this will become clear later.)
Delegate
If a message involves an action that can be done by someone else delegate it. Forward the original message, changing the subject to something meaningful to you, and write an email delegating the task—also in under two minutes. And before you send it, include yourself in the CC field. Now delete the original.
Defer
Sometimes it’s not possible to deal with an email in less than two minutes. For instance, a request to review a business case or an action to prepare a report for senior management. To defer a message simply forward it to yourself (as an attachment so you can easily reply to the original message later) after first changing the subject to something meaningful and setting a due date (if needed.) Finally, delete the message.
Ta da! The Action folder is now empty; don’t delete it though as it was created for a purpose. In a couple of days your Inbox will also be clear. For now, simply check new email and process it using the approach described above.
Day 4 Today I want you to resist the urge to check your email throughout the day. Instead check it once in the morning (as described in Day 3) and again in the afternoon—without using the Action folder this time.
Schedule some time to check and process your mail twice daily; time when you’re not likely to be interrupted. And work through your backlog. However, before you start, move all the messages you sent or CCed to yourself to the Action folder. And for each message set a flag:
Also, to make life a little easier I suggest you create some more filters: colour-code all messages sent only to you in green and those where you only appear in the CC fieldgrey. Finally, create a filter that moves all messages sent to self straight to theAction folder.
Day 5 Spend the last day of your working week clearing your inbox using the techniques described to get organised.
Day 6 and 7 Think how great it will be starting on a Monday morning with hardly any messages in your inbox. This is how to avoid email overload and reclaim your inbox!
This is the second part of our feature: How to avoid email overload. We show you how to get organised in 21 days using a practiced and proven method.
Twenty-one days is all it takes to get organised; that’s how long it takes to form a habit.
In 2010, the typical corporate user sends and receives about 110messages daily. Roughly 18% of emails received is spam, comprising both actual spam and “graymail” (i.e. unwanted newsletters, alerts, etc.) –The Radicati Group
Email overload is frustrating. A full inbox is a distraction and will divert your attention from what is important if you don’t take charge and do something about it.
In this guide I show how to avoid email overload. This method is proven and works for me. Try it for 21 days and see if it makes a difference.
For ease How to Avoid Email Overload is broken into three weekly instalments:
Day 8 With a little effort and determination last week you should have your inbox message count to zero. If not, take time now to empty your inbox (see Day 3 – Let’s Get Sorted.)
I have written How to Avoid Email Overload for Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Outlook users since this is widely used in the business environment. However, the instructions that follow will help you get organised whatever email software you use.
And if you’re still struggling to eliminate lots of messages simply focus on that empty inbox. I reckon you can get through 75 messages within an hour. Therefore, if you have 500 messages left you should easily be able to deal with them in a few hours. Spending half a day to clear your inbox is a pretty productive way to spend a morning.
If you are struggling with more messages, work out their shelf life and go back to Day 2 – Top Down.
Last but by no means least stop monitoring your email! Turn off any pop-up or notifications. From now on we only process email; monitoring is a waste of time. Check and process twice-daily.
Day 9 You may be thinking that you’ve only moved email from the inbox to theAction folder. True to a point. But you shouldn’t underestimate the value in doing this. You have processed your inbox. That is, dealt with most messages first time and created a prioritised Action list.
Your Action folder has a series of prioritised (flagged) messages:
Sort these according to flag colour. Group all high priority tasks together, followed by the medium priority tasks, and so on.
Most of us are living in an illusion that we’ll get everything done in one day. That won’t happen. The truth is that you’ll always have more to do than you have time for. – Sally McGhee
Now you need to deal with your Action folder. Since these are the things you can’t deal with in a few minutes I recommend you schedule time for them. You probably use your calendar to track and schedule meetings. Now use your calendar to prioritise and plan actions.
Day 10 Your Calendar isn’t just for scheduling meetings. Use it to prioritise and plan the work you have to do. Actions you’ve identified and prioritised when processing your email.
Transfer email from your Action folder to your calendar. Doing this increases the chances of dealing with an action. Therefore be sure to honour meetings you’ve made for yourself to complete a task. Treat them in the same way you would have if the meeting request came from someone else.
When you’re done, open your Action folder and change the message flag to completed (or simply delete the message.)
Day 11 Last week I said that folders were unnecessary and a waste of time and recommended that all your mail was copied directly to _Copy Inbox. A better alternative is to use virtual folders or search folders. For starters create a search folder for each of your Action flags: High Priority, Medium Priority, Low Priority and so on.
Virtual folders make it easier to locate messages by matching them to pre-defined rules. You can quickly find messages based on an email address, subject, key word, size, date, attachment and so on. And because the search folder is indexed when first created the results are displayed quickly.
Another thing, start reducing the amount of messages you send. If you do this you’ll soon receive less email. It’s often better to use instant messaging, to pick up the phone, or get out of the office and talk to people. Also, use the CC line sparingly—use only when the message has an impact on the recipient—and filter out unnecessary recipients when replying to messages.
Day 12 Okay, you’ve got through the second week. Hopefully you’re seeing a benefit and enjoy being in control of your inbox. As the weekend draws nearer I want you to schedule 30 minutes in your calendar for a weekly review.
Make this a recurring appointment and use it to check progress with your actions and to transfer tasks from your Action folder to your calendar.
During this half hour you should think about the following:
Action folder to your calendar.Action folder.The weekly review is an important activity and discipline that will help you improve your productivity and work-life balance. Therefore, endeavour to keep this appointment each week.
Days 13 and 14 Think how great it will be starting on a Monday morning with your inbox at zero and a prioritised list of actions. You are in control! Now you know how to avoid email overload.
This is the third and final part of our feature: How to avoid email overload. We show you how to get organised in 21 days using a practiced and proven method. If you’ve enjoyed reading this series follow Leadership Thoughts with Bloglovin.
Twenty-one days is all it takes to get organised; that’s how long it takes to form a habit.
In 2010, the typical corporate user sends and receives about 110messages daily. Roughly 18% of emails received is spam, comprising both actual spam and “graymail” (i.e. unwanted newsletters, alerts, etc.) –The Radicati Group
Do you want to get on top of your email? If so, you’ve come to the right place. In just 21 days—that’s how long it takes to make a habit—you can learn to take control and get organised! If you’ve just landed here you may like to read part 1 first.
For ease How to Avoid Email Overload is broken into three weekly instalments:
Day 15 Writing clear and meaningful messages will help to cut the amount of email you receive. Really. Think of the times you had to reply to a message because you were unclear about expectations or a deadline wasn’t stated. Use Sally McGhee’sPASS model to write purposeful messages:
Day 16 When sending a message use the subject line to make it clear what you want from your communication.
Moreover, only include people in the To line if they must complete an action or the topic relates directly to their work.
I have written How to Avoid Email Overload for Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Outlook users since this is widely used in the business environment. However, the instructions that follow will help you get organised whatever email software you use.
Use the subject line to describe the topic and the action or response required. If you’re sending a message to tell people about something make this clear. If you want them to read a document simply say that!
Day 17 Do you really need to include someone in the CC field? When you do this you often create an unnecessary distraction for someone. The same sort of distraction you get on a daily basis (which is why I suggested you colour coded messages when your name appears in the CC line.) Nine times out of ten these messages are time wasters.
Think very carefully when including people in the CC line and never use Reply (to all) without reviewing and amending the CC list first.
Day 18 We are all busy. We have a job to do. Our job is defined by our objectives.
Yet we often receive messages asking us to help out or do something that isn’t our responsibility. If these messages relate to an objective deal with them as described inLet’s Get Sorted. If not, say no. Say that you’re unable to help.
Day 19 Over the past three weeks I’ve briefly described how you can take control of your inbox and become more productive. It takes as little as 21 days to make a habit. Hopefully you’re reaping the benefits of a clear inbox now and know how to avoid email overload.
What’s more, people will notice that you’re organised, get things done on time, and know what’s really important.
Days 20 and 21 That’s it, we’re done. You’re in control of your Inbox! You can push aside distractions with ease and focus your attention on what’s important to you and to your business. There’s no more dreading an Inbox that’s overflowing. No more time-wasting.
To recap, How to Avoid Email Overload: Get Organised in 21 Days includes the following lessons: