There usually comes a time every afternoon when I open up my email and think, Crap, where did all that come from? In today's working world, we all get so many emails that simply keeping on top of it all can feel like a full-time job (fun fact: past coworkers and I would get downright competitive about who could get down to "inbox zero"), and the last time I felt completely overwhelmed by the amount of unread messages I had was, oh, 30 minutes ago. In light of my own struggles, I figured now was a pretty perfect time to dust off some stellar tips I've picked up along the road and share.
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Approach Number 1: Create a "to-respond" folder
I'm a big believer in filing away messages so they're easy to turn up later, and, as such, this hack was easy to apply. Along with the virtual folders in Outlook or Entourage marked for practical purposes (like "travel" and "future projects") label one as "to respond" and keep it right at the top of the list by giving it a prefix like the handy underscore (_). Toss messages in there that you've opened and need to respond to but either aren't sure of the answer or just want to wait a bit on. Then, make it a point to go through it while you're sipping your afternoon coffee or before wrapping up at the end of the day.
Approach Number 2: Schedule specific time slots to deal with email and (mostly) avoid otherwise
This one came from the blogger pal whose pretty Instagram I shared above. Likely while telling her how overwhelmed email could make me feel, she asked something silly like, "Do you respond to email all day?" I mean, yes, of course—who doesn't? Not her! She'd been applying advice she picked up somewhere to schedule a certain time to wade through your emails and only worry about it then (barring, of course, emails flagged as urgent from bosses or important clients). By devoting all your attention to whatever project you're working on at the moment, including email when the time is right, you should move through things more quickly and feel more satisfied. If you've got an email client who pings you every time a new note comes in, consider turning it off to try this; it's just too darn tempting to quickly open and respond.
This topic stirred up a lot of conversation in the office—is it something that stresses you out? Have any good tactics to share?
