CornerScribe

Master your E-mail

I’ve been trying to get better about responding to e-mail, and to do it more quickly. I find that I get a couple hundred messages daily, but most of those are either spam, newsletters, reminders, or other messages that I don’t really need to respond to.

And buried amongst those are the e-mails I DO need to respond to.

Here are a few things I’ve begun doing to help me master my inbox and stay on top of e-mail.

Create filters 

E-mail filters will help you to automatically organize your e-mails into those that you need to handle right away and those that can wait until you have some time. First, take a quick look through your inbox, sorting it by sender. Where are those e-mails coming from?

You can make several folders, one for each sender. If you prefer, put all of your non-critical e-mails into one folder. I prefer the former because it makes it easier for me to clean the folders out periodically.

Click one of the messages. You should have an option to create a filter using that message. In Thunderbird, you’ll find it under the Message menu. Once you’ve created the filter, choose the option to run it on the messages you have in your folder.

Depending on your inbox, you may need a few sessions before you get all the filters set up that you’ll need. Once you start seeing the benefit, you won’t miss the time it takes to get set up.

Yes, it felt great to see my inbox reduced so quickly!

Don’t do e-mail every day

This might seem counterintuitive, but it’s not if you think about it. E-mail takes a lot of time, especially if you try to respond to those who’ve emailed or commented on your blogs. Rather than doing that daily, I find that setting aside one or two days a week is better for me. I can get into the e-mail “mindset” and get a lot done in one sitting.

Another benefit is that I don’t allow myself to get bogged down daily with e-mail and not have time for other writing.

Purge! 

Be ruthless. Do you really read that newsletter? Do you need to get all the e-mail updates you’re subscribed to? Take the time to unsubscribe from as many things as you can. You’ll appreciate the lack of clutter in your inbox.