It’s important to process your email. If you don’t, it piles up, and so does stress. When you get behind on your email you tend to get behind in life. Follow these suggestions and that won’t happen.
Now that you understand Workflow, you can go through each one of the messages in your inbox and do something with it (keeping the 2 minute rule in mind). Set a timer if you’re really serious and look at and reply/move each message out of your inbox taking no more than 2 minutes on each one.
The most important part of Processing your mail is setting up folders inside of your email/messaging system. I suggest starting out with 3 folders; Inbox, Processed Mail and Waiting. If you see a message you no longer need and don’t believe it will be needed at all in the future, delete it. If you have messages that you believe will be needed in the future or may need to save as a reference, move it into the Processed Mail folder. This way you have a ‘filing cabinet’ of sorts to store all information that may be needed later. And with a simple search inside your email you can locate messages with a few keystrokes. Don’t worry about storing too many messages here, most email systems have plenty of storage space to keep them as long as you need. So, if there’s ANY doubt that you’ll need an email later, move it into the Processed Mail folder. If you have any email messages that you process and reply and need to wait for someone to reply back, but don’t want to forget, move it into the Waiting folder. This allows a quick and easy way to reference the messages so you won’t forget. Once you receive the message you’re waiting for, move it into the Processed Mail folder and your email will stay streamlined and clean.
As you get accustomed to using these 3 folders it may be beneficial to add more. A good tip is to use as few folders as you can get away with and no fewer. Too few and you may start putting messages in folders they don’t belong. If this happens your Workflow system may be in jeopardy of failing you. Of course, too many folders gets complicated and the same will happen. Just take a few moments at the end of the first couple of weeks to evaluate how your system is working and if you need to add or delete any folders. Once your folders are in place and your inbox is empty, email will begin to be a breeze, rather than a burden!! To help keep your inbox to zero, next week we’ll talk about adding some Filters. This way, messages that don’t need to be in your inbox in the first place will be automagically moved to a folder of it’s own. Hope all of this helps and gets you on your way to being more productive. See you next week!! :)
