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Plowing Through My Email

I get about 200 email messages each day, counting both personal and business email.

My email inbox is completely empty at 5:00 each day.

Knowing there are lots of people who have email messages sitting in their inboxes for months on end, I thought I'd share my system for how I handle my email.

First, I set up email filters whenever I can so that messages are deleted automatically. In general, you can specify words or phrases in the subject or body of your email that you prefer not to receive.

Second, I set up email filters to automatically filter mail into email folders I have set up. These are generally messages that I need to keep for a predetermined amount of time in case I need to reference them, but that I don't need to see on a daily basis.

Once the email filters are set up, except for refining your them later if you wish, you don't have to set them up again.

Okay, on a daily basis . . .

1) I go through each email message one by one and respond to any that could be answered in a paragraph or two, or with one of my 'canned responses' that I can simply copy and paste into the reply.

2) I begin handling any responses that require me to do something before I can respond, such as looking something up in a report, making a call or doing a bit of research on the Internet.

3) Finally, I'm left with a few messages that require more time, such as a request for me to write an article for a magazine, a business proposal or a letter to a friend that requires a little extra care and thought. I respond to these email messages quickly so the person knows I received them, just letting them know I'll get back to them within a few days or another specified amount of time. I then drag and drop the original email into a Pending Projects folder and schedule time for those responses in my calendar.

All in all, I would say it takes me approximately an hour or two to empty out my email inbox each day--and again, that includes both business and personal email.

I don't like to leave anything in my email inbox at the end of each day, because tomorrow there will be more email, and the next day more email yet again.

Keep getting through all your email on a daily basis so you can always start the new day fresh.

by Maria Gracia - Get Organized Now! http://www.getorganizednow.com FREE Get Organized Now! Idea-Pak and E-zine, filled with tips and ideas to help you organize your home, your office and your life, at the Get Organized Now! Web site.