Email Jail

 Do you feel trapped? Chained to your computer or smart phone? It's not just surfing on the web; it's all the time spent looking at and responding to email. Sometimes it feels like you are sitting, focused on your monitor, and surrounded by metal bars.

Well, if you were in an actual jail cell, you would need two things to get out: the jail keeper and the keys. To escape from your email jail, you only need one thing- the keys- because you are the jail keeper!

1. Declutter: I don't mean just deleting emails because that is obvious! It's time to stop what's coming in. Unsubscribe yourself from articles, ezines, and other mailings that you receive on a regular basis but don't read. When it comes into your email, it is easy to say "I'll read it later". Unfortunately, "later" rarely arrives. However, guilt and email jail arrive on a regular basis! Also, if you don't read the jokes and stories that friends forward to you, ask to be taken off their distribution list. Blame it on me. Say, "A professional organizer told me to!"
2. Decide: Every email that comes in requires action. Choices include delete, respond, action, reference, calendar, and so forth. If you can't delete or take care of it within five minutes, then you have to make a decision:
   1. Print out the email
   2. Add the task to an electronic to-do list
   3. Add the task to a paper to-do list
   4. Create a folder in your email called "To Do" and create time in your schedule to work on tasks in this folder
3. Designate: Many email programs have the ability to establish rules. For instance, emails from a certain source go into a specific folder. When I was on the Board of an association, I had all emails from other Board members go into one folder so that I could process them all at once. I also have all electronic ezines or newsletters go into a Newsletter folder. Then I can read them when I am ready but they don't clog my Inbox. Don't establish too many rules because then you will just have a bunch of folders to look in! But if you create several meaningful folders, then you won't be overwhelmed by the number of new emails in your Inbox.

These aren't the only keys, but they should get you started. Which key are you going to use today to get yourself out of email jail?