Ever feel dread when you start your day at the office. You know the kind I’m talking about. You are bouncing into the office ready and excited about tackling that project or meeting with that awesome client, and then “it” happens. The feeling washes over you and time stops as you as you sit at your computer and fire up the ol’ email. You close your eyes, cringing and wondering, “What is going to be this time 50 – 100 – 200 emails?” Then you cry out (in your head at least), please make it stop. Next thing you know, half of your day is shot responding to emails and then getting more emails responding to the ones you just sent…kinda like well… a black hole of never-ending madness. Here are a few tips that will help you gain power over the email beast.
Set aside some designated time. It sounds simple enough but block off 30-45 minutes. And start it either on the half hour or hour. Make sure you are focusing on email and nothing else. Don’t get distracted really focus on this one task. If it helps, turn off your cell phone and eliminate other distractions.
Most email servers have the ability for you to create folders. Organize your emails into three folders – “Urgent,” “Important,” and “Get to Later.” Then, take a deep breath and QUICKLY go to each email and place them in one of the folders without opening and reading the email. It is important that you make a split-second decision based on the sender or header as to which folder your email lands. If it doesn’t fall in any of the categories, DELETE it.
It is critical to open an email ONLY if you plan on doing something with it right then and there. Start with the “On Fire,” then work to the “Important.” Stick to the system as best as you can and don’t forget to check your “Get to Later” file at the end of the day.
Depending on your job capacity and the urgency of communication, only check your email three times a day. And if you really want to stretch yourself, don’t do it first thing in the morning. You would be surprised how liberating this little step is. More importantly, you will find that your day is started on a much more productive note when you focus on an important task first thing in the morning instead of drowning in a sea of emails.
After your 30 or 45 minutes is up, here is the really hard part, turn off your email. I mean shut it all the way down if you can. If you can’t, at least turn off your email notification. (The thing that goes “ding” when you get a new email.)
Now go and schedule it in your calendar. I know this sounds a little crazy but put at least two days on your work calendar blocked for checking email. For example, on Tuesday I will check my email at 9:00, 12:00 and 3:30 and Thursday I will check it at 10:00, 12:00 and 4:00. There are all kinds of variations to this you can implement as well. You can set it up for five days a week or even check it only two times a day. Figure out a system that works for you. The key here is creating a consistent system that you can stick to.
This actually works by the way. We had an executive named Michelle in Florida who learned this technique as part of our Life-Balance Time Management Program. She implemented this system and in two weeks she was able to save five hours a week. Think of what you could do with all that time.
If this system is a little too bare bones and you want a higher level of sophistication, there are other systems when it comes to sorting emails. Check out these links for more ideas to tame your inbox:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/set-email-filters-gmail-hotmail-yahoo/
http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-outlook/archive/2012/05/14/filtering-emails-in-outlook.aspx
