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Reducing E-mail Overload and the Stress That Comes With It
E-mail is probably the most powerful communication tool you use. It can also be the most frustrating if you don’t handle it properly. Every time you open your Inbox, you see more unfinished work, more demands on your time, and more missed deadlines and broken promises. There is a better way to manage this, and it involves organizing everything around you, changing your e-mail habits, and using the best e-mail software and learning how to really use it. Believe it or not, you can actually breeze through e-mail. The key is to develop more efficient ways of handling it. Here are three ways to get it done. Spend Time Getting Organized You should purge and eliminate useless papers on your desk and computer. Create a subject filing system that puts like subjects together and create subcategories that make it easy to find whatever you need. Your Inbox should also have some order to it. If you have a tendency to keep too many messages in your Inbox, set up special folders to move them to. If you put a number in front of the folder name, you can have them appear in a particular order. For instance, if you keep messages coming from your clients, create a main Inbox folder called "1Clients." Then, create subfolders for each client (or put all messages in the Clients folder if you won’t have many). If you have messages you need to follow up on later, either create a "2FollowUp" folder in your Inbox (or desk), flag the message for follow up, or drag the message to your computer calendar icon or folder to set a reminder (Outlook has all these features. Close the message before you attempt to drag it). Putting the number "1" in front of Clients will make that folder appear first in your Inbox folder list. Putting the "2" in front of FollowUp will make it appear second in your folder list, and so on. Change Your E-mail Habits Use your Inbox differently. The Inbox is for temporary storage only. It’s not a to do list, a follow up file, or a calendar. It is meant to hold messages for you only until your next scheduled e-mail session. Establish a goal of always keeping your Inbox to one screen. In other words, you should always be able to see the last message in your Inbox without scrolling. I know this sounds impossible, but believe me, it can be done. Having a lighter Inbox will help you breathe easier and feel more confident that you’ve kept your commitments. Three Guaranteed Ways to Reduce Email Overload and the Stress It CausesEstablish a routine for checking e-mail. You’ll have to establish a routine for checking your e-mail once or twice every day so it won’t pile up. Set aside special times of day to check it, and deal with each message as you open it: delete it, forward it, schedule it, respond to it, file it, or pend it. Only print e-mails when it’s absolutely necessary because it adds to the clutter. Work that’s under piles of clutter does not get done on time. Stop sending junk to people you know. A lot of people absolutely do not enjoy receiving jokes, thoughts for the day, chain letters, and all those other e-mail messages so many of you feel compelled to send. They want you to stop, but they're too embarrassed to say so. But I have no problem asking you to stop, so stop! Use the Right Software. If you’re busy and e-mail management is an issue, Outlook is the solution for you. Its robust features are built to not only help you manage e-mail, but also to manage how you spend your time. The software has many powerful, little-known tips and tricks that will help you become more productive. You can drag information from the Inbox to your Calendar, Tasks list, or Contacts. You can also set up Rules that automatically delete certain e-mails or move messages from certain senders to special folders you’ve created, and so much more.
Learn the software. Outlook is full of features that 80 percent of users don’t know exist. As with any software, it’s not enough to invest in it: you have to learn how to really use it. You’ll then finish work six times quicker and have more time to focus on your core business or the things you love. One example of an Outlook timesaver I cannot resist telling you about involves replying to frequent requests for the same information. Outlook Signatures is a powerful feature that allows you to create a statement about who you are that’s automatically added to every e-mail you send. But I use Signatures for much more than that. I have a Signature called “Directions to My Office,” “Product Order,” “I Don’t Do Plaxo,” and more. Any time I’m answering e-mails and need to send this information, I simply click Insert, Signature, and choose the one I want. The text is embedded into the body of the e-mail, and I’m off to the next one. Fight SPAM. Inexpensive software is on the market that stops SPAM almost 100 percent. Getting as much SPAM out of your Inbox will help you burn through your e-mail quicker than anything else you could do. For Outlook, SpamNet at www.Cloudmark.com is number one in my book. It’s a subscription service that amounts to a SPAM community of thousands of people adding known junk senders to one database. The more subscribers adding to the list, the more effective the software is in blocking future spam. You have important work to do. Creating systems for everything you do, including managing e-mail, will help you get a lot more work done than you think you have time to do. And the easier you make the work, the less stress will result from it. About the Author |