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How to solve email overload
Here's a simple way to solve email overload, permanently. I can teach people step-by-step in less than an hour how to do this (and let me know if you need help), but this quick overview describes it nicely.
The solution is to empty your email inbox, at least once a day, using the four steps below.
(Of course, the first time you go through this, it will take some extra time to clear out a bulging inbox, but after that it really just takes a couple of minutes a day.)
STEP 1: Delete any emails that you don't need any more - newsletters, meeting announcements, spam mail, one-word replies, that kind of stuff. Just get rid of all of it. Sorting by sender, and by Subject, may help to reveal whole swaths of messages to dump.
STEP 2: File or archive anything you may need later - important messages, documentation, FYIs you need to save.
Now the inbox contains only action items, or todos.
STEP 3: Use the "two-minute rule" and complete any todos that can be accomplished in two minutes or less, and then delete them. (Or archive them if you prefer, but just get them out of the inbox.)
Now the inbox contains only action items that require several minutes, hours, days, months, who knows, maybe years to accomplish. This is where most people have no idea what to do, since completing all that work right now is impossible, and filing or archiving these messages would make them too hard to retrieve again (let alone prioritize, take notes on, and generally manage). It feels easier to leave them in the inbox. And so they sit there and multiply until the person is plagued with stress and anxiety.
Here's the key - the one step that most people have never been taught...
STEP 4: Move the action items onto a todo list. This is the key to overcoming email overload, so I'll say it again: YOU HAVE TO MOVE ACTION ITEMS ONTO A TODO LIST.
How do you get action items from the inbox to the todo list? Different people use different tools - there are many available - but I recommend my own online to do list. Good Todo allows you to forward those action-item emails to your todo list, which separates today's todos from those coming in the future.
Good Todo is an online to do list that works via the Web browser on any computer - Mac, Windows, or Linux - and is compatible with every email program: Outlook, Gmail, Apple Mail, Yahoo Mail, iPhones, Blackberries, you name it.
Once you have your Good Todo account (sign up here), just forward each big todo in your email inbox to your Good Todo list, depending on what day - today, next week, or any future day in the next year - you want it to show up. Forward to today's list what you can accomplish today; forward others as far as you can into the future. Then delete them from the inbox. Once you do that, you'll have an empty inbox and a manageable todo list to get through today. It's remarkably simple.
Here's how to email todos to Good Todo. Send an email to today@goodtodo.com and it will show up on today's list: the Subject line will be the title of the todo, and the body of the message will be stored as well. Send an email to tomorrow@goodtodo.com and it will not show up on today's list - but will appear tomorrow. (Any undone todos from today will also roll over onto tomorrow.)
Forward an email to 2d@goodtodo.com (or 2days@goodtodo.com) and it will show up in two days. Or forward it to monday@goodtodo.com and it will show up on Monday. You can even email a specific date, like 14dec@goodtodo.com or dec14@goodtodo.com, to create a todo on December 14.
I can almost guarantee that if you try this out, using the method I've described, you will feel less stressed, work more productively, and have more time for things that really matter - family, friends, and creative pursuits. Give it a try - here's the online to do list - and let me know what you think.
P.S. I also described this method in more detail in my book Bit Literacy.
Good write up on GoodTodo. I have an email reminder service, FollowUp.cc, that's designed to ensure you remember to follow up with people and tasks all via email (it still helps you achieve inbox zero)
Our syntax's are similar, but we treat the to-do items as the actual emails. It'll be interesting to see how we both evolve.
Chris
There is lots of ways of managing your inbox, I find most people are not managing them/it well. My method (using gmail for most of my stuff, but also an outlook/exchange work system) is to read everything and leave it there. Like most people I get lots of junk and would be happy to delete these redundant messages if I had space issues, but mostly I read it and do it. If I need to keep/tag it for doing later I flag it. In outlook there is a flag tagging system and in gmail (with some filter rules too) I set these to categories or you can use the '*' tagging system. The result is that I don't delete messages and I don't put them into folders where they will get lost. At any time I can do a search for mail cause I know it's (read and) in my inbox and I don't need to go hunting for it other than typing in some reference for a search and I can find anything quickly. Thanks for the options/tips though.
I don't have an inbox. I use Nelson Email Organizer. I only see today's mail.
With each mail I receive I do one of the following: don't read it, read it, do something about it now, flag as ToDo.
Tomorrow, today's mail will not be in front of my eyes and will not distract me.
NEO enables me to see all my flagged emails in one folder which is my ToDo folder.
NEO also has a ToDo feature but emails marked as ToDo are not shown as such in Outlook Web Access so I don't use it.
http://www.caelo.com/
This is good advice. I also recommend Xobni (for Outlook users). It does a great job at taming Outlook. http://www.xobni.com/
I am also a user of nelson email organizer and I really do not know how I would live without it.
Gives you a whole new way of looking at your daily influx of email, and I highly recommend it as well..
Good E-mail management is about discipline, discipline, discipline .... get rid of the rubbish, deal with the simple and get rid of it, sort into folders and archive the 'important' stuff and schedule, process and finalise those things that take time .... anything to help manage this last portion never goes astray.
I picked up Bit Literacy on my Kindle. Knew immediately it was a dead on for what I needed. When I checked out Good To Do, I was amazed. In the week I have been using it I feel so much relief from my work email. I have tried so many other systems and time management books. This one just clicked for me.