Manage your mailbox in four steps

In his latest 'Thoughts on...' series, business consultant Steve Billingham explains how to manage a flooded inbox so you do not miss those important messages...

Email is a fantastic tool but, poorly managed, it can take over your life. Indeed, email has created an instant response culture in which messages are often followed up with a phonecall. Talk about double handling!

Here are four stages to managing your inbox effectively:

Stage one: Getting your head back above water

A flooded inbox is overwhelming and often you don’t know where to start. Here’s where:

1. Create an “Action” folder in your email application. This is where you are going to store any emails that you need to take action on.

2. Pick the most important. Go through your inbox and identify the 10 to 15 that are the most urgent action emails and move them to this new folder.

3. Archive the rest by creating a ‘Temp’ folder. Put everything that is still in your inbox into this folder. Everything, no exceptions. You’ll get to these down the line but for now we just need them out of the way.

4. From this point onward, follow this procedure with EVERY email.

Stage two: Tomorrow is a new day

Now we are going to establish a set of rules for the way that all new emails are dealt with. Stick to these ruthlessly:

1. Process from the top down. Each time you open your inbox (twice a day should be enough), process completely starting with the top email and working down. Then either:

a) Delete (feel free to use this liberally)
b) File/archive
c) Quickfire reply (two minutes or less, then file
d) Put on your to do list and put it in your action folder. Your inbox should now be empty.

2. Now you can begin looking at your action folder. Do not do this when you are processing your inbox.

3. Newsletters. Delete any you do not need.

Stage three: Stopping the deluge

Now we will explore how to stop the endless flood of email traffic:

1. Stop sending so many emails! The more you send, the more you get – fact. Call people rather than email them if you can.

2. Send shorter emails. They are more likely to get read and acted upon and tend to provoke a faster response.

3. Check emails less often. Set times each day when you check your emails and stick to those times. Do not be tempted by that annoying alert ping. In fact, disable it!

4. Post FAQs. If you tend to get similar questions or requests regularly, post the answers publicly so that you don’t have to answer them by email.

What about the ‘Temp’ folder?

You’ll remember that we archived most of your inbox to a ‘Temp’ folder in Stage 1. These still need to be dealt with. Here are two steps to help you do so:

1. Process it in chunks. The rules outlined for processing your new emails apply here too. Attack your temp folder when you get time, in 10/15 minute bursts.

2. Feel free to mass delete.

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