Organizing Your Email

Thanks to a tornado here in North Carolina Saturday, my home Internet has been down. No worries -- I have a smartphone, which enables me to check email and keep in touch with the world.

Monday, my smartphone broke.

It's amazing how much we rely on electricity and devices, and how much we take them for granted. So for nearly two full days I relied only on Internet during normal business hours to do my work. This is tougher than it sounds. As a self-employed writer and editor, I often have copy coming in after 6 p.m. and I often start my work day at home before 8 a.m.

On Wednesday, I was with an organizing client for a few hours and then spent a few more getting my new phone. When I finally checked my email at 4 p.m., I had 45 messages waiting for me. I wanted to scream. YIKES!

The point of this long story is that we often make ourselves stressed about missing emails, calls and more. Email can be a cruel taskmaster, especially when we start checking it first thing in the morning. Plus, organizing all those messages can be a bear -- just like organizing paper files. So this week I'm offering some productivity and organizational tips for your inbox:


Productivity

1. Avoid it -- If you have something important to do, don't check your email first thing in the morning. Instead, start your task or project. Reading your email will distract you, can cause stress and add to your to-do list. You will feel a whole lot more accomplished at the end of the day if you get some work done first.


2. Ignore it -- Close your email during important meetings, while working on a big project or task and during your 10-minute break. If you're taking a lunch break, take that time to actually take a break. Maybe you can even go outside and breathe in some fresh air for a few minutes. I promise this is good for you.


3. Manage it -- If you can, use multiple monitors. Three is fantastic, but two will do. Having your email in one screen and whatever you're working on in another saves time from clicking back and forth.


4. Plan it -- Schedule blocks of time for answering emails. Once your big morning task is complete, take one hour to sort through emails and respond. If one hour isn't enough, schedule more time, but give yourself a deadline and stick to it. That way you're not caught up in email all day and can get some other work done. Schedule another block in the mid-afternoon and do one more check before you leave the office.


Organizing

1. Delete it -- When you begin sorting through your email, scan the messages. Go ahead and delete all the junk and spam immediately. Don't even open them. This will save you from icky computer viruses and save you time skimming those emails you know do not need to be read. Plus, those 50 emails will quickly be slimmed down, making the daunting task of reading them so much easier.


2. Label it -- Or use folders. Whatever email system you are using should have some way to label or store items. Think of your email inbox as your action file. The items in there require some action on your part. Items you want to save for reference should be filed in folders. As you open each email, give it a label (or delete it).


3. Read it -- Go through each email and read it, labeling them along the way. If you can, respond to each email as you read them, then label it or delete it immediately. If you cannot respond because you need to obtain information or take some action, label the email and move on to the next.

4. Write it -- When you have read all your email, take a few moments to write the new ones you need to send to people. Make a list of people and topics if you need to and cross each one off as you go.

5. Do it -- Finally, go back to the "action" emails. What are the tasks you need to accomplish to respond to those? Add them to your to-do list. Now, when will you accomplish those? Make sure those to-do list items have a time scheduled in your calendar.