Does your inbox get flooded every day? Do you have trouble finding important messages? Try these tips to get on top of your email:
Reduce the amount of email you receive at home.
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Choose NOT to get notifications from Facebook or other social media every time a notice appears in your account. You can check it once a day on your own time.
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Create a separate email account for online shopping. Choose NOT to receive emails from all, instead just from your favorite stores.
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Ask friends not to put you on their list of daily jokes or silly pet videos.
Improve email practices at work.
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Write clear subject lines that identify only one topic or task per email so that you can tackle one thing at a time. Rename the subject lines of emails you receive with unclear subject wording.
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Write brief email messages and get to the point in the first or second sentence.
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Be clear about what you want the recipient to do: share specific information, take an action, etc. so that you do not generate extra emails requesting clarification.
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Rather than interrupt yourself every time a message comes in, check email only at set times of the day of your choosing.
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Encourage your workplace to set a policy limiting after-hours work emails. For example: no one is expected to look at work email after 5:30pm.
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If the issue is delicate or complex, speak on the telephone or in person rather than in email.
Triage your inbox .
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Rather than answering messages in the order they arrived, sort them and prioritize which are most important.
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Create inbox folders for messages from your boss, important clients, tasks or projects.
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Use the rule or filter settings to direct emails automatically into specific inbox folders.
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Save only the latest email in a thread and delete earlier messages in the thread.
Rachel M. Gambone is the owner of ReOrganize with Rachel, LLC. In addition to general home organizing, she specializes in helping you organize your office, papers and digital information. Her signature approach is positive organizing where she builds on your strengths, helps you find your treasures, and teaches you life-long organizing skills. See more organizing tips and a link to her free podcast at www.reorganizewithrachel.com.
